An excellent article from The Washington Post on the people building the World War II Memorial. It begins:
Construction workers have had the National World War II Memorial to themselves for more than 21/2 years, laboring behind construction fences to transform a mostly grassy expanse of the Mall into what promises to become one of Washington’s most-visited sites.
Next week, possibly as early as Monday, they’ll share their work with the public. The construction fences are coming down around the site between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, and visitors will be free to explore 7.4 acres that make up one of the largest memorials in a city that’s full of them.
Almost all of the workers will move on to other jobs, but many say they’ll be taking some vivid memories with them when they go. Some say they remember seeing an airplane flying toward the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Many anxiously watched floodwaters rise within inches of a ruinous setback during Hurricane Isabel. They’ve labored through two unusually harsh winters. They’ve mourned the death of their lead construction supervisor. A couple of them fell in love with each other and plan to marry. Almost all of them have watched tourists poke their heads through gaps in the construction fence and ask, What are you building in there?
See also The Makings of the Memorial.
Thanks to Jill for the pointer.