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Thomas Jefferson Memorial
The history...
The Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial built between 1939 and 1943 under the sponsorship of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt thought that it was a suitable memorial to the Founding Fathers of the United States and to Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the founder of the Democratic-Republican Party.
The neoclassical building is situated in West Potomac Park on the shore of the Potomac River. Construction began in 1939 and was completed in 1943. The bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947.
The Jefferson Memorial and the White House form one of the main anchor points in the area of the National Mall in D.C. The Washington Monument was intended to be located at the intersection of the White House and the site for the Jefferson Memorial, but soft swampy ground required that it be situated to the east.
In 2007, it was ranked fourth on the "List of America's Favorite Architecture" by the American Institute of Architects.
