• Famous Lincoln reflecting pool undergoes 18-month overhaul

    By Rich Shulman

    As the Washington Post reported:

    Last week workers started sinking the pilings — 2,133, to be exact — that will support the new pool. The old pool, which dates to the 1920s, was not built on pilings.

    Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

    Tourists walk past work underway to reconstruct the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington, May 11. Although originally built in 1922 on swampy ground, crews have taken out the massive 618-by-51 meter pool to drive sturdy wood pilings to provide a better foundation and to install a modern water circulation system when they replace it, at a cost of $30.7 million. Work is scheduled to continue on the famous pool -- well known for such real events as Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech and such fictional ones as Forrest and Jenny reuniting in the movie Forrest Gump -- until 2012.

    Tim Sloan / AFP - Getty Images

    Jumbotrons and staging are in place along the reflecting pool a day before Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial on August 27, 2010 on the National Mall in Washington.

    The reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial is being completely overhauled and won't be fully repaired until Spring 2012. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

     

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  • Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

    President Barack Obama visits the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Saturday, April 9.

    Obama makes surprise visit to Lincoln Memorial

    By Katie Cannon, Senior Multimedia Editor

    No matter which party you back, it'd be pretty darn cool to be visiting the Lincoln Memorial and to have the president show up. I can't imagine anything that would make a trip to Washington more exciting. I remember touring the White House when I was about seven years old and catching a glimpse of Ronald Reagan, and how cool that felt. I'm sure this young lady will remember her moment with the president for the rest of her life.

  • Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images

    People gather at a rally dubbed "Restoring Honor," to show support of the U.S. military, organized by conservative radio and television commentator Glenn Beck, one of the de facto leaders of the Tea Party movement at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28. The rally has attracted controversy because it is being held on the 47th anniversary of civil rights legend Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, where King spoke.

    Church and state

    How do you feel about the messages on these T-shirts? How do you interpret Thomas Jefferson's idea of a "wall of separation" between church and state? While there are references to God on our money, on our government buildings, in our oaths, etc., at what point do such references infringe upon the free exercise of religion as put forth in the First Amendment? Do you think the ideas our forefathers put forth kept only variations of Christian faiths in mind? If so, should all references to God be removed, or would you like to see the United States formally declared a Christian nation? Has the evolution of religious belief changed our social fabric? For better or worse?