Jefferson MemorialStop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.Our next stop is an out-and-back walk around the Tidal Basin, but the view is worth it. The Jefferson Memorial honors Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third president. Architect John Russell Pope based its round, domed form on the Pantheon in Rome, a style Jefferson admired and used himself at Monticello and the University of Virginia.The memorial was controversial before it was built. Construction in 1938 meant cutting down cherry trees, and protesters, many of them women, chained themselves to trees at the site. President Franklin D. Roosevelt went ahead, and he dedicated the memorial on April 13, 1943, the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth.Look closely at the 19-foot statue by Rudulph Evans. Because of wartime metal shortages, the figure at the dedication was a plaster cast painted to look like bronze; the bronze statue you see replaced it in 1947. The walls around it carry passages from the Declaration of Independence and Jefferson's other writings.The memorial is open around the clock and is especially striking at night and during cherry blossom season.Stops on this tourWashington MonumentNational Museum of African American History and CuNational Museum of American HistorySmithsonian National Museum of Natural HistoryNational Gallery of ArtUnited States CapitolUnited States Botanic GardenNational Museum of the American IndianNational Air and Space MuseumHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenThe Smithsonian Institution Building - The CastleFreer Gallery of ArtJefferson MemorialWorld War II MemorialMartin Luther King Jr. MemorialKorean War MemorialLincoln MemorialVietnam Veterans MemorialWhite House EllipseWhite HouseLafayette Square