From PRX

Studio 360

This is Kurt Anderson. I'm here on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. I'm looking at the Lincoln Memorial now from straight on, and what I'm looking at is the back of the $5 bill. In fact, most of us probably have a portrait of the Lincoln Memorial in our pockets right now. And if you don't have a five, look at a penny. It's there too.

We may not think about the Lincoln Memorial very often,

but it's with us, each of us, in so many ways, all the time.

In this temple, as in the hearts of the people

for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln

is enshrined forever.

As he sits there on his chair looking down, you're drawn in to the spirit of a very great man.

The glowing light and the marble. And even though it's marble, the guy seems to have a life force within him.

I was here in 1945, and I got up there and touched his hands.

Yeah.

Just like if he was alive, you know.

And then, of course, the words chiseled on the wall, like a tombstone slash prayer.

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought four minds up here

to take the oath of the presidential office.

Not knowing what the future would hold, I would head on over to the Lincoln Memorial and just

sit on the steps at the top and just be quiet.

It moves my mind to an attempt to embrace the enormity.

I think it's the most sacred, secular spot in Washington, D.C.

It just seems almost beyond imagination how a persona could be so big and the whole place seems so big.

It's so much bigger than what I can see.

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