The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of American Revolution is a war memorial located in Washington Square. It honors the thousands of soldiers who died during the American Revolutionary War.
During the First World War, the British and French armies jointly decided to bury soldiers themselves in the form normally associated with religion. In Britain, under the Imperial War Graves Commission, Reverend David Railton had seen a grave marked by a rough cross while serving in the British Army as a chaplain on the Western Front, which bore the pencil-written legend "An Unknown British Soldier". He suggested (together with the French in their own country) the creation at a national level of a symbolic funeral and burial of an "Unknown Warrior", proposing that the grave should in Britain include a national monument in the form of what is usually, but not in this particular case, a headstone. The idea received the support of the Dean of Westminster and later from King George V, responding to a wave of public support. At the same time, there was a similar undertaking in France, where the idea was debated and agreed upon in Parliament.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was completed and the area opened to the public 9:15 a.m. April 9, 1932, without any ceremony.
Cost of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier: $48,000
Sculptor: Thomas Hudson Jones
Architect: Lorimer Rich
Contractors: Hagerman & Harris, New York City
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
11/09/2011
News Staff
