Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence at thirty three, in a rented room in Philadelphia, and later served as the third president, doubling the country's size with the Louisiana Purchase. He wrote that all men are created equal while enslaving more than six hundred people over his lifetime, a contradiction the memorials now name openly.

He died on July 4, 1826, fifty years to the day after the Declaration, and within hours of John Adams. His memorial on the Tidal Basin opened in 1943, in the middle of the war, when bronze was rationed, so the figure inside was painted plaster until the 19 foot bronze arrived in 1947. The best view is from across the water at dusk, and in late March the cherry trees frame it.