<P> The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln . It is located on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument . The architect was Henry Bacon; the designer of the primary statue--Abraham Lincoln, 1920--was Daniel Chester French; the Lincoln statue was carved by the Piccirilli Brothers; and the painter of the interior murals was Jules Guerin . Dedicated in 1922, it is one of several monuments built to honor an American president . It has always been a major tourist attraction and since the 1930s has been a symbolic center focused on race relations . </P> <P> The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well - known speeches by Lincoln, "The Gettysburg Address" and his Second Inaugural Address . The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on August 28, 1963, during the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom . </P> <P> Like other monuments on the National Mall--including the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and National World War II Memorial--the memorial is administered by the National Park Service under its National Mall and Memorial Parks group . It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 15, 1966 . It is open to the public 24 hours a day . In 2007, it was ranked seventh on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects . Since 2010, approximately 6 million people visit the memorial annually . </P> <P> The first public memorial to Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., was a statue by Lot Flannery erected in front of the District of Columbia City Hall in 1868, three years after Lincoln's assassination . Demands for a fitting national memorial had been voiced since the time of Lincoln's death . In 1867, Congress passed the first of many bills incorporating a commission to erect a monument for the sixteenth president . An American sculptor, Clark Mills, was chosen to design the monument . His plans reflected the nationalistic spirit of the time, and called for a 70 - foot (21 m) structure adorned with six equestrian and 31 pedestrian statues of colossal proportions, crowned by a 12 - foot (3.7 m) statue of Abraham Lincoln . Subscriptions for the project were insufficient . </P>

What memorial is located at the western end of the national mall and overlooks the reflecting pool