Park
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Two sunken black granite walls etched with the names of nearly fifty-eight thousand war dead.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial follows Maya Lin, a 21-year-old Yale architecture student whose anonymous entry won a blind 1981 design competition among nearly fifteen hundred submissions. You'll hear how judges reacted on learning who she was, why some veterans and politicians attacked her design once it became public, and what compromise got added nearby under pressure. Listen for how Lin herself described the reflective black granite she refused to change.
This audio guide was created using AI.