The Memorial Entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, as viewed from Memorial Bridge.
The grand house at the top of the hill is Arlington House. It was built by George Washington's adopted grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, who made it the first monument to Washington, filling it with heirlooms and memorabilia from the first President. When Custis died in 1857, the estate was left to his daughter, Mary, who had married a young and talented Army officer, Robert E. Lee, in 1831.
It was here, at the outbreak of the US Civil War in 1861, that Lee resigned his commission from the US Army to serve in the army of the Confederate States of America. Later that year, the US Army seized Arlington, not because of Lee's ties to the Confederacy, but because it was in an unimaginably important position...the standard cannons of the time could see and hit every federal government building in Washington, DC, from that hill.
Later during the Civil War, the US Quartermaster General ordered the grounds to become a cemetery for US troops. It was his intention that this make it impossible for the Lees to return after the war. It became an official national cemetery in June 1864.
Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place of 400,000 veterans, three US Presidents, and is the location of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
