Second Division Memorial

Standing on the Ellipse near the White House, this memorial honors the U.S. Army's Second Infantry Division and its dead across the World Wars and later conflicts. Its striking form is a gilded flaming sword thrust downward through a gap in a dark granite wall, symbolizing the division blocking the enemy's path to Paris in 1918. The central section was dedicated in 1936, with flanking wings added later for the Second World War and Korea. The bold abstract imagery and gleaming sword make it a visually arresting military memorial.