The Lincoln Memorial’s hidden 15,000-square-foot chamber opens to the public Thursday after a century-long closure.
The chamber — located beneath the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall — had sat vacant since the 1920s akin to a “two-story shopping mall” with 122 giant concrete pillars, according to Fox News.
The memorial’s undercroft features interactive exhibits, construction tools left in 1920 and preserved vandalism from the original construction, the outlet reported.
Among the artifacts in the undercroft exhibit are original copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment bearing President Abraham Lincoln’s signature, according to Fox News. The new construction project was funded with $26 million of federal funds and $48 million from the National Park Foundation.
Construction on the project began in 2023, according to Julie Moore, vice president of communication with the Trust for the National Mall.
“Beyond its physical foundations, the undercroft tells the story of how the Lincoln Memorial evolved into America’s ‘civic stage,’” Moore told Fox News.
The opening of the undercroft follows President Donald Trump’s sweeping renovations to the memorial’s iconic Reflecting Pool and the ensuing peeling paint and pro-algae protests.
(DCNF)