My Visit to the Vietnam Memorial Wall & Monument in Washington, DC Essay

My Visit to the Vietnam Memorial Wall & Monument in Washington, DC - Essay Example Many lives were wasted; many hearts broke because of this war, even if it meant â€Å"protecting the liberty† of a country. Because of this significance, the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. was erected in 1982. This memorial is dedicated to all the people who lost their lives fighting for liberty in the Vietnam War. The names of the US armed forces that were also Missing in Action (unaccounted for) were also engraved in the wall. These walls are testament to the greatness of these people who would fight for their country’s cause however vain. The walls are majestic. They were designed by Maya Lin, an architect from Yale. There are two walls and it is long, at least 200 feet. She used special stone walls from India called gabbro. These stones were imported specifically because of their excellent reflective property. One can actually look at the walls and stare at his own reflection. This is one of the major features of the wall, which is actual ly clever because the idea behind it is that when a visitor looks at the wall and sees his reflection, he could also look at the names of the veterans which symbolically means that the past and present are together in the wall. There are 58, 267 names engraved in the wall.