If you missed part 2 click here.
Day 2 continued:
Inspired by Jeanne I decided to go find the Ford Theatre where Abraham Lincoln was shot, and, by default, the house across the street where he succumbed, the following day, to the bullet that had penetrated both hemispheres of his brain.
In the museum in the building next door you can see the weapons Lincoln’s bodyguard offered him due to the knowledge of a plot to kidnap him but which he was denied by Allen Pinkerton, the (actually really small) gun and bullet that did the dead, and the rather macabre pillow Lincoln was rested on after he was taken across the road to the Peterson House.
From there you enter the theatre proper where a National Parks Ranger gives a presentation filled with information and some pretty good jokes actually… While I’m not sure if they say the same thing to everyone or not, they also said that while the section that lets you look into the Presidential box (which the Ranger insisted they DO NOT call a Booth
) is usually closed, today it was open – so I got to stand exactly where John Wilkes Booth stood when he shot Abraham Lincoln, which is rather freaky actually
.
Across the road you also get to see the bed on which Lincoln died (and understand why the Ranger said they had to lay him down diagonally – he was 6 foot 4!). I also learned that the government was actually run from the Peterson house while the manhunt for Booth and his accomplices was underway, received confirmation of the fact Jeanne had told me about Lincoln having had more books written about him than any other person in the form of a very cool tower of books, and was left with a pretty good question about how different the United States could have looked today.
I’m sure I’ve written enough to bore everyone to death already so here’s just a collection of the interesting and nice-looking buildings that I took photos of while I walked around the city (I should have tracked my route and distance – all I know is I’ve recorded 21681 steps and I don’t think I’ll be going down to the gym in the morning…) The only comment I’m going to make about this set of photos is that I did have to think at least three times before feeling comfortable enough to take a photo of the J. Edgar Hoover Building, and even then I made sure to walk away very quickly after I did
.
To read part 4 click here.
