clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

See The Lincoln Memorial's Earliest, Most Bonkers Designs

New, 1 comment

It took a total of seven years and $2 million to construct the Lincoln Memorial as designed by architect Henry Bacon. If any of architect John Russell Pope's designs for the memorial were chosen, though, it could have taken much, much longer and gone a completely different route. Pope's designs could have caused the Lincoln Memorial to have been a giant Egyptian pyramid, what looks like a Mayan temple, a ziggurat, or a "temple memorial" with a 250-foot-high elevation (150 feet higher than Capitol Hill). If Pope had gotten what he wanted, the Lincoln Memorial could have also been located in Meridian Hill or the grounds of Soldiers' Home.


· The Lincoln Memorial could have been a pyramid. See all the forgotten proposals [Vox]
· The Lincoln Memorial Could Have Been an Egyptian Pyramid [Curbed National]

Lincoln Memorial

National Mall, Washington, DC 20024