110_7-2012.pdf

Arlington National Cemetery has been operational since May 1864, with recent funerals averaging 27 per workday, some from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, others from burials of aging World War II veterans and others.

Renovations of the Display Room and the development of some 40 acres of land are among the recent activities to have taken place at Arlington National Cemetery.

If Arlington House seems out of place among more than 250,000 military graves, standing on a Virginia hillside and rising above the Potomac River as it overlooks the nation's capital, it may be because the estate was not intended to be a national cemetery.

In fact, Arlington House was built by George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of United States President George Washington, and was originally intended be called Mount Washington, a memorial to Custis始 adopted father. Eventually, however, it was given the name of the Custis family ancestral estate in the Virginia tidewater area.

The estate was designed by George Hadfield, who had helped construct the U.S. Capitol. It would take Custis 16 years to complete the Greek revival design. The first building to be created was the north wing, which was completed in 1802 and served as Custis' home. Part of it was also used to store George Washington memorabilia, including portraits, personal papers, and clothes.

Even after the south wing was finished in 1804, Arlington House was no more than a set of detached buildings. With the completion of the central section in 1818, the house stretched 140 feet from the north to the south wing. Facilities in the central section included a dining room and sitting room, a large hall and a parlor.

One of the most recognizable of the section's features is the eight columns of the exterior portico, each 5 feet in diameter at the base.