"It just looks beaten down. This grass used to be so green," says a disappointed Porter, 56, a respiratory therapist who now lives in North Carolina.
The Lincoln Memorial towers behind us as visitors traipse its broad steps, mostly unaware of the history that has transpired here. Halfway down is the spot where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in the summer of 1963. Only yards from there, 10 summers later, a frustrated Richard Nixon paid a surprise predawn visit to antiwar protesters camped out on the steps. And at the foot of the staircase is where African American contralto Marian Anderson sang at the invitation of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt on Easter Sunday in 1939, after the Daughters of the American Revolution barred her performance at Constitution Hall.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, January 11, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 26 words Type of Material: Correction
National Mall map: A map of the National Mall in Thursday's Section A, highlighting areas that need repair or cleanup, labeled 12th Street as 10th Street.
Dead ahead two miles, the U.S. Capitol dome gleams at the end of an unbroken vista lined with American elms where the iconic monuments unfold -- Lincoln, Roosevelt, Jefferson, Washington, Korea, Vietnam, World War II. This cherished view, inspired by the wide streets of Paris, is protected by an act of Congress. But lately Congress has been blind to the Mall's poverty. The park service budget has dwindled to $31 million, even as more attractions bring relentless wear and tear. A $100-million appropriation for repairs failed to pass last year.
"We welcome everybody, but it is reasonable to expect that 25 million visitors -- 50 million feet -- are going to take some sort of a toll. The challenge is how do we welcome those visitors and still keep it looking as nice as it can," Line says.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial alone draws 4 million people yearly, a moving chronicle of casualties etched in polished black granite. Ron Brooks, 63, of Atlanta, a Vietnam veteran making his first visit here, has just found the names of two of his buddies.
"It's beautiful," Brooks says, reaching for words to describe his emotions, his eyes still wet.
The wall sits in Constitution Gardens with a lovely little lake. It's a peaceful setting, except, like most of the Mall's waterways, the lake has no filtration system and smells so fetid in the hot months that families stay away. Last summer, dozens of dead fish floated up near a memorial to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.
We continue down the Mall's pebbled path toward the World War II Memorial, which opened four years ago and draws as many as 60,000 visitors a day in peak season, enough to fill Dodger Stadium. But no money was allotted for upkeep, not even to empty the trash.
