Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Springtime Look at the National Mall


Did you know that the National Mall is arranged in the shape of a cross? From this view of DC from the Netherlands Carillon on the other side of the Potomac River, you can see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol Building appearing in a row. It's actually an illusion, since those three landmarks form the vertical bar of the National Mall "cross" -- Lincoln Memorial is the base, the Washington Monument is the middle, and U.S. Capitol Building is the top. The White House and Jefferson Memorial make up the far points of the horizontal bar.

A city designed and led by Free Masons, their symbols and icons appear throughout Washington, DC. If author Dan Brown is to be believed, Masonic iconography is the key to understanding the design of the National Mall. I'm no expect on the topic, but I do find the repetition of shapes and symbols in the city's architecture, monuments and layout fascinating and worth studying further.

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