To visit Arlington National Cemetery is to know these United States more deeply. It is a place of remembrance and a microcosm of American history.
Beneath the shade of firs, maples, oaks and many other trees, the necropolis gently sprawls across 624 acres. The site is in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. Journalist Nicholas Proffit characterized the numerous memorials and gravestones as “gardens of stone” in his novel of the same name. Proffit served as a member of the Army’s Old Guard who carry out ceremonial duties at the cemetery.