Washington Breaks Ground on a Martin Luther King Memorial

There will be a new addition to the many memorials and monuments in Washington D.C.:

The memorial will occupy a four-acre plot on the banks of the Tidal Basin, near the Potomac River. The Jefferson Memorial is across the Tidal Basin, while the Lincoln Memorial lies to the northwest, near the river.

The design is based in part on King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech. Before repeating the "Let freedom ring" refrain, King told the crowd, "We will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope."

Visitors will pass through an entryway cut through a massive stone symbolizing the mountain of despair and once inside, will come upon the missing section marking the stone of hope, bearing a carved profile of King. It will be ringed with walls chiseled with King's words that may eventually be the base for a waterfall.

When I was in Washington last year I stood on the spot where King delivered his famous speech and took this photo:

To the left of where I was standing is the Vietnam Memorial Wall, to the right the Korean War Memorial, and at the other end of the reflecting pool is the WWII Memorial and beyond that the Washington Monument. We saw them all while we were there, and I'm sure the King Memorial will also be a must-see when completed.