Marine Corps War Memorial

Arlington, Virginia, United States

Landmarks and monuments

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

The US Marine Corps War Memorial, beside Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, is a bronze statue of six Marines raising a flag on Iwo Jima, based on a 1945 photograph and dedicated on 10 November 1954.

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Marine Corps War Memorial

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Approximate location · 38.889° N, 77.070° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

The Marine Corps War Memorial turns one wartime photograph into bronze figures 32 feet high, beside Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The National Park Service says the statue shows the afternoon flag-raising on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, on 23 February 1945, photographed by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press. The memorial itself is dedicated to Marines who have given their lives for the United States since 1775, not only to that battle.

Sculptor Felix de Weldon, then on duty with the US Navy, built a scale model and then a life-size model from the image. According to the NPS, Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes and John Bradley posed for the faces. The Marine Corps has since concluded that Bradley and Gagnon were not in the photograph and that Harold Schultz and Harold Keller were, so the NPS now names the six flag-raisers as Harlon Block, Harold Keller, Ira Hayes, Harold Schultz, Franklin Sousley and Michael Strank.

The plaster statue was trucked to Brooklyn, where casting in bronze took nearly three years. It returned in about a dozen pieces, the largest weighing more than 20 tons. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the memorial on 10 November 1954, the Marine Corps’ 179th anniversary. The NPS gives the whole memorial as about 78 feet tall, with a 60-foot bronze flagpole, a granite base from Sweden and a gold ring of principal Marine Corps engagements. Its cost of $850,000 was donated, with no public funds. Engravings for Afghanistan and Iraq were added in 2017, and a $5.37 million donation funded a rehabilitation.

The NPS says the grounds are open from 6 am to midnight and the flag flies around the clock. It is a memorial, and the NPS does not permit ball games or kite flying.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Paved paths lead to the plaza, with interpretive signs (some with audio and braille). The NPS lists free parking limited to one hour, a comfort station with restrooms between the memorial and the Netherlands Carillon (7:30 am to 8 pm until 31 October, then 7:30 am to 6 pm to 14 April). In summer the Marine Corps holds Sunset Parades at the memorial on select Tuesdays (check the NPS page for the season’s dates). Ball games and kite flying are not permitted.

ACCESS

Next to Arlington National Cemetery and the Netherlands Carillon, Arlington, Virginia. The NPS gives grounds hours of 6 am to midnight year-round and says there is no street address; it is a 0.6-mile walk from Rosslyn Metro station.

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