Vietnam Veterans Memorial on The Mall, Washington D.C.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall - darkometer rating : 2 - The famous memorial wall on the National Mall in downtown Washington D.C. , USA – regarded as one of the world's most significant and most moving war memorials. It's part of a whole cluster of memorials on the Mall but certainly the premier one, not only from a dark tourism perspective. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: This memorial wall commemorating the Vietnam War was designed the young Chinese-American Maya Lin, who won the design competition in 1981 when she was an undergraduate art student and only 21 years of age. Her design was not instantly universally popular; in fact at first it caused some controversy. For some it was simply too "modern" – or just not traditional enough, lacking the usual hero worship. It was in order to appease such critics that a couple of years later the more traditional bronze sculpture of the "Three Servicemen" was added, as well as a flagpole – and 10 years later still, the supplement of the women's sculpture was added to the ensemble too. Furthermore there's a plaque for veterans who died as a consequence of the war after the war, but who were not "covered" by the Department of Defense. Still, the general public clearly seems to favour the main wall memorial – given the crowds there, whereas the other addenda are more frequently overlooked. Around 3 million visitors come to see the Memorial Wall annually. This alone makes it one of the most significant dark tourism sites in the USA . The dark here, however, is rather abstract, more cause for reflection, not in any way grim and sinister in any graphic sense.