Jefferson Memorial, District of Columbia

Founding Father and third US president Thomas Jefferson died on July 4th, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of Declaration of Independence, which he wrote. Coincidences like that, and architecture like his memorial in Washington DC, help to make Jefferson larger than life and link American history to the heroic classical mythology so revered by Jefferson and western culture. Jefferson had nothing to do with the massive memorial in DC, of course. It opened in 1943, on his 200th birthday.  He is not interred here, nor is Washington interred at the Washington Monument, as was originally intended. Both are buried at their homes, Monticello, and Mount Vernon.