Ohio congresswoman envisions expansion at World War II memorial

By Sabrina Eaton

Plain Dealer Bureau

Washington

Almost 10 years after the World War II Memorial opened to the public, Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur still regards its granite pillars and victory arches as a work in progress.

Kaptur wrote legislation that created the 7.4-acre marble memorial after a World War II veteran in her district cornered her at a 1987 fish fry and demanded to know why there wasn’t a World War II memorial in Washington for him to visit with his grandchildren.

It took Kaptur and Roger Durbin, the Berkey, Ohio, veteran who approached her with the idea, 17 years to get the monument built. Durbin died before it was finished, but his granddaughter was there for its 2004 dedication.

Since then, the memorial has become one of the Washington, D.C., area’s most popular tourist destinations, with more than 4 million yearly visitors. Last year, it was the National Park system’s 15th-most-visited facility, ranking ahead of the Statue of Liberty and Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks.

But Kaptur still believes there are multiple ways the attraction can be improved and wants the National Park Service and other entities that oversee the memorial to consider her ideas.

“We want to make the memorial live up to its potential, not just for today’s generation, but for tomorrow’s,” Kaptur said recently as she prepared to greet a group of Northeast Ohio veterans who were visiting the memorial.

“The real America shows up here,” she continued. “It uplifts my spirits every time I go. Despite all the dysfunction in our society today, that really renews your faith in the country.”

Kaptur said the fact that so many visitors throw money into the Memorial’s fountain shows the Park Service needs to create a way for people to give funds for its upkeep. Tossing money into the fountain causes damage, so the Park Service discourages it.

Kaptur also wants to incorporate an “eternal flame” or laser beam in the memorial, a feature that was in its original design by architect Friedrich St. Florian but was eliminated in later drafts.

She wants the beam’s light to fall on the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool at the same time as the Washington Monument’s shadow falls on it, pulling the three monuments together.

Kaptur said the memorial’s site between the Washington Monument, which marks the nation’s founding in the 18th century, and the Lincoln Memorial, which marks its preservation in the 19th century, symbolizes the 20th century’s role of the victory of liberty over tyranny.