Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier

Coordinates: 39°56′49″N 75°09′10″W / 39.947073°N 75.152689°W / 39.947073; -75.152689

For other uses, see Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Philadelphia in 2004
Philadelphia Continental Chapter of the SAR at a ceremony commemorating the birth of George Washington at the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier

The Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier, sometimes referred to as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution, is a war memorial located in Washington Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It honors the thousands of soldiers who died during the American Revolutionary War, many of whom were buried in mass graves in that park.

The memorial was first conceived in 1954 by the Washington Square Planning Committee, and was completed in 1957.[1] The monument was designed by architect G. Edwin Brumbaugh and includes an eternal flame and a bronze cast of Jean Antoine Houdon's statue of George Washington as the monument's centerpiece. The Tomb includes remains which were disinterred, after archeological examination, from within the park from when it was a cemetery. The remains are that of a soldier, but it is uncertain if he was Colonial or British.[1] An unknown number of bodies remain buried beneath the square and the surrounding area; some are still occasionally found during construction and maintenance projects.

Engraved in the side of the tomb are these words:[1]

The plaque on the tomb reads:[1]

The tomb appears briefly in the opening credits of the 1983 comedy Trading Places.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier" on USHistory.org

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 20, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.