Jefferson Memorial - the majestic national monument to one of the founding fathers of the country, the third president of the United States.

The fate of the son of a planter from Virginia was contradictory. His first childhood memories was a trip to the hands of a slave to the new father's house. After receiving an inheritance, he became the owner of hundreds of slaves, after the death of his wife's girlfriend became a slave, Sally Hemings kvarteronka. But it was President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation banning the importation of slaves into the United States. The energetic nature generously proved Jefferson bought Louisiana from France, sent the American fleet into the Mediterranean Sea against suggestive Europe terror pirates, founded a military school of West Point. However, his main occupation was the famous Declaration of Independence.

When the war for the independence of the British colonies overseas, Jefferson was a delegate to the Continental Congress, a representative body of the rebels. He made friends with the strong leader of the Congress, the future of the second US President John Adams. In 1776, Congress requested the ad hoc committee to draft a document declaring the independence of the colonies from Britain. The committee included the Adams-Jefferson, on whose shoulders and went to this work. Just seventeen days young lawyer (Jefferson was 33 years old) wrote the lyrics enormous political and spiritual power.

Perhaps the most important document became its preamble, in which Jefferson found the comprehensive formulation of human rights. Here is the passage: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness." That day adoption of the Declaration on July 4, the United States is celebrated as Independence Day.

Jefferson Memorial Building began in 1939 and will end during World War II, in 1943. Architect John Russell Pope designed the neoclassical building: the portico with Ionic columns, rotunda dome. Inside the rotunda stands nearly six-meter statue of Thomas Jefferson. At first, it was a plaster: during the war, all the bronze went to the military. The metal statue was cast only after the war.

On the inner walls of the rotunda placed carved in stone the most famous sayings of Jefferson, including excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. Critics have pointed out that some of these phrases out of context, can be misleading: some of them did not write Jefferson, it distorted the meaning of other abbreviations.

The memorial is located on the south side of the Tidal Basin, a little away from the center of Washington. Not all the tourists get here, and for good reason: It is quiet, calm and very beautiful. Memorial is surrounded by cherry - its plants in 1912. Tokyo has presented Washington. Sakura bloom here every spring for two weeks, making a magnificent backdrop monument.