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The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C. that is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, an American Founding Father and the third president of the United States.

The neoclassical building was designed by John Russell Pope. It was built by Philadelphia contractor John McShain and was completed in 1943. When completed, the memorial occupied one of the last significant sites left in the city.

Composed of circular marble steps, a portico, a circular colonnade of Ionic order columns, and a shallow dome, the building is open to the elements. Pope made references to the Roman Pantheon and Jefferson’s own design for the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. It is situated in West Potomac Park, on the shore of the Tidal Basin of the Potomac River.

The interior of the memorial has a 19 foot (5.8 m) tall, 10,000 pound (5 ton) bronze statue of Jefferson by sculptor Rudulph Evans which was added four years after the dedication, and the interior walls are engraved with passages from Jefferson’s writings. Most prominent are the words which are inscribed in a frieze below the dome: “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” This sentence is taken from a September 23, 1800, letter by Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush.

“Author of the decalaration of the American Independence,
of the Statute of Virginia for Religous freedom,
and Father of the University of Virgina…
by these, as tetimonials that I have lived,
I wish most to be remembered.”
-Thomas Jefferson, from a letter proposing his own epitaph, undated

article was from wikipedia