Abraham Lincoln's Tomb (2003)

Some people believe that Abraham Lincoln is buried at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Not so! Here is part of a home video I shot while visiting my kids in Illinois. Lincoln's Tomb is in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, and is the final resting place of 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, and three of their four sons. The monument is owned and administered by the State of Illinois as Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site. On April 15, 1865, the day President Lincoln died, a group of Springfield citizens formed the National Lincoln Monument Association and spearheaded a drive for funds to construct a memorial or tomb. At the request of Robert Todd Lincoln, the President's only surviving son, the body was moved to its final resting place, a cement vault 10 feet below the surface of the burial room. In 1930-1931 the State reconstructed the interior of the memorial. Rededicated in the latter year by President Hoover, it has undergone little change since that time. The tomb is in the center of a 12 1/2 acre plot. Constructed of Massachusetts granite, it has a rectangular base surmounted by a 117-foot-high obelisk and a semicircular entrance way. A bronze reproduction of sculptor Gutzon Borglum's head of Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol rests on a pedestal in front of the entrance way. The burial room features black and white marble walls and a ceiling of gold leaf. At its center stands the cenotaph, a 7-ton block of reddish marble inscribed with Lincoln's name and the years he lived. It marks the approximate location of the burial vault. Nine flags are arranged in a semicircle around the cenotaph. Seven of them—the State flags of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois—commemorate the homes of Lincoln and his ancestors. The eighth and ninth are the Stars and Stripes and the Presidential flag. The inscription "Now he belongs to the ages," reputedly spoken by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton at the time of Lincoln's death, is inscribed in the wall above the U.S. Flag. Taped: June 18, 2003