The
John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame is a presidential memorial at the gravesite of
U.S. PresidentThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, in
Arlington National CemeteryArlington National Cemetery, in Arlington County, Virginia is a military cemetery in the United States, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a descendant of Martha Washington. The...
. The gravesite is aligned with the
Lincoln MemorialThe Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and was dedicated on May 30, 1922. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French,...
across the
Memorial BridgeArlington Memorial Bridge connects Columbia Island with the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. across the Potomac River. The eastern end of the bridge marks the western edge of the National Mall...
.
After Kennedy's assassination, the widowed
First LadyFirst Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the President of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president...
,
Jacqueline KennedyJacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. She was later married to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis from 1968 until his death in...
, requested an
eternal flameAn eternal flame is a flame or torch that burns constantly. The flame that burned constantly at Delphi was an archaic feature, "alien to the ordinary Greek temple"....
for his gravesite. She was inspired by the eternal flame at the
Tomb of the Unknown SoldierThroughout history, many soldiers have died in wars without their remains being identified. In modern times, nations have developed the practice of having a symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that represents the war grave of those unidentified soldiers...
at the
Arc de TriompheThe Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris, France that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, also known as the "Place de l'Étoile". It is at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. The triumphal arch honors those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. On the...
in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, which she and her husband had seen during a visit to
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
in 1961, and/or took inspiration from the "candle in the wind" of Arthurian legend, and the Broadway Play "Camelot."
According to William Manchester's
Death of a President (1967), Mrs.
The
John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame is a presidential memorial at the gravesite of
U.S. PresidentThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, in
Arlington National CemeteryArlington National Cemetery, in Arlington County, Virginia is a military cemetery in the United States, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a descendant of Martha Washington. The...
. The gravesite is aligned with the
Lincoln MemorialThe Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and was dedicated on May 30, 1922. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French,...
across the
Memorial BridgeArlington Memorial Bridge connects Columbia Island with the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. across the Potomac River. The eastern end of the bridge marks the western edge of the National Mall...
.
Planning and development
After Kennedy's assassination, the widowed
First LadyFirst Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the President of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president...
,
Jacqueline KennedyJacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. She was later married to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis from 1968 until his death in...
, requested an
eternal flameAn eternal flame is a flame or torch that burns constantly. The flame that burned constantly at Delphi was an archaic feature, "alien to the ordinary Greek temple"....
for his gravesite. She was inspired by the eternal flame at the
Tomb of the Unknown SoldierThroughout history, many soldiers have died in wars without their remains being identified. In modern times, nations have developed the practice of having a symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that represents the war grave of those unidentified soldiers...
at the
Arc de TriompheThe Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris, France that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, also known as the "Place de l'Étoile". It is at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. The triumphal arch honors those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. On the...
in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, which she and her husband had seen during a visit to
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
in 1961, and/or took inspiration from the "candle in the wind" of Arthurian legend, and the Broadway Play "Camelot."
According to William Manchester's
Death of a President (1967), Mrs. Kennedy made her request for an eternal flame on the afternoon of November 24, 1963, after she returned to the
White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
from the lying-in-state ceremony at the
CapitolThe United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the Federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall. Though not in the geographic center of the District of...
. The military planners who were organizing the funeral granted her request immediately and rushed to implement it. Overnight, the
U.S. Army Corps of EngineersThe United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 34,600 civilian and 650 military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
ran a gas line to the planned gravesite, fed by
propanePropane is a three-carbon alkane, normally a gas, but compressible to a transportable liquid. It is derived from other petroleum products during oil or natural gas processing...
tanks from a distance.
Lighting
On November 25, 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy lit the flame at the end of the burial service during the state funeral. She did this by bringing a lighted taper, which was handed to her by a soldier, against the nub of the torch mechanism, which was surrounded by evergreen branches. The eternal flame sprang to life immediately, safely with a steady flame. This was seen live on nationwide television and broadcast to other nations by satellite. The late president's brothers,
RobertRobert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician. He was a younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and acted as one of his advisers during his presidency. From 1961 to 1964, he was the U.S...
and
TedEdward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in November 1962, he was elected nine times and served for 46 years in the U.S. Senate. At the time of his death, he was the second most senior member of the Senate, and...
, then took turns symbolically lighting the flame in the same manner as their sister-in-law.
About a month after it was lit, the flame was extinguished for the first and only time, . A Catholic school group visiting the site poured, rather than sprinkled,
holy waterIn Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Old Catholicism, Oriental Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and some other churches, holy water is water which has been sanctified by a priest or bishop for the purpose of baptism or for the blessing of persons, places, or things.Holy water is water that has been...
directly onto the flame, and it went out. A quick-thinking guard used his lighter to reignite the fire.
The present device rests on top of a five-foot circular
graniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as porphyry. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, depending on their...
stone at the head of the grave. It produces a continuous spark which re-ignites the flame whenever it is momentarily extinguished by any means (such as rain, snow, or wind). The device blows a continuous flow of air at the flame, keeping it a uniform color.
The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment ("The Old Guard") stood vigil over President Kennedy's gravesite from 1963 through 1965, at which time work commenced on a new permanent gravesite at the exact same location. This was due to heavy visitation by the public and the need for paved pathways that would not turn muddy in rain or snow. In 1967, the permanent gravesite was completed, with the eternal flame surrounded by Cape Cod field stones and selections from President Kennedy's Inaugural Address etched on marble panels that face the nation's capital. The new eternal flame device was fed by an underground natural gas line designed and created by the
Gas Technology InstituteThe Gas Technology Institute is an American non-profit research and development organization which advances new technologies for the natural gas industry.-History:...
.
Cultural impact
The idea of an eternal flame for President Kennedy resonated well with the general public, and in 1964 the
U.S. Postal ServiceThe United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. Within the United States, it is commonly...
used an image of the eternal flame on the official postage stamp that was issued to commemorate the assassinated president. The stamp also used the words "And the glow from that fire can truly light the world" that were an excerpt from
Kennedy's inaugural addressU.S. President John F. Kennedy delivered his first and only inaugural address at 12:51 Friday, , immediately after taking the presidential oath of office administered by Chief Justice Earl Warren.-Background:...
.
The selection of an eternal flame to commemorate President Kennedy was the first time in the U.S. that an individual known person was given such an honor (as opposed to an Unknown Soldier). Previously, the only eternal flame within the U.S. was the torch burning constantly at the
battlefield in GettysburgThe Gettysburg Battlefield was the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the borough of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the county seat of Adams County, which had approximately 2,400 residents at the time. It is now the site of two Federally owned and administered...
,
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
, in honor of the dead from the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
. That flame had been lit by President
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
on the 75th anniversary of the battle in 1938.
The gravesites for President Kennedy's brothers, Robert and Ted, are nearby. Robert F. Kennedy, a former
SenatorThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
and
Attorney GeneralThe United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The Attorney General is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
, who was himself
assassinated during a run for PresidentThe assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a United States Senator and brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, took place shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968 in Los Angeles, California. Robert F. Kennedy was killed during celebrations of his successful campaign in the Californian primary...
, is buried about 100 feet away from the Eternal Flame, and their brother Ted, a longtime Senator, was buried about 100 feet farther away from that, in a modest site between two maple trees.
External links