A New, Permanent Structure
Calls to replace the "temporary" monument with a more permanent structure came almost immediately. Attempts at securing federal funding to construct a new arch proved unsuccessful. As a committee of veterans and volunteers began to make fund-raising plans, there was some concern from others in the community that they were attempting to replace a "dead monument," and that a park, civic center, school, or hospital would prove to be more functional and useful to the city's citizens. Despite these protests, the necessary funds were collected to complete the new arch, made of stone, and it was rededicated on May 30, 1962.
On Memorial Day, 1969, an eternal flame was donated by the American Legion to the arch site. Standing fourteen feet high the eternal flame which sits under the arch was cast in bronze by Womack Foundry, Inc. (of Newport News) in the 1960s, and was hand crafted by the Foundry's founder and president, Ernest D. Womack.
Read more about this topic: Newport News Victory Arch
Famous quotes containing the words permanent and/or structure:
“The English were very backward to explore and settle the continent which they had stumbled upon. The French preceded them both in their attempts to colonize the continent of North America ... and in their first permanent settlement ... And the right of possession, naturally enough, was the one which England mainly respected and recognized in the case of Spain, of Portugal, and also of France, from the time of Henry VII.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Man is more disposed to domination than freedom; and a structure of dominion not only gladdens the eye of the master who rears and protects it, but even its servants are uplifted by the thought that they are members of a whole, which rises high above the life and strength of single generations.”
—Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835)