The Lincoln Memorial was shut down on Friday morning after the discovery that someone had vandalized the historical monument overnight, according to the Washington Post.
A vandal splashed light green paint on the statue of Lincoln and on the marble floor around it, U.S. Park Police said.
No symbols or words were painted or written on the memorial, according to police. There wasn't any damage reported at any other monuments on the Mall.
The police are reviewing surveillance footage from the monument, located on the west end of the Mall, but haven't yet released any information as to who may have been responsible for the damage or the motivation behind the vandalism.
The incident is "heartbreaking," Carol Bradley Johnson, a spokeswoman for the National Mall and Memorial Parks division of the National Park Service (NPS), told the Washington Post about the incident.
Authorities believe the crime was committed at around 1:30 a.m., when the vandal splattered paint onto the left leg of the statue, as well as the base and chair. The statue stands 19-feet tall.
As soon as the vandalism was discovered, U.S. Park Police used yellow police tape to close the memorial to tourists until it's cleaned up. A crew was using a pressure washer, according to the NPS, who held a press conference where they said there didn't appear to be any permanent damage. The memorial was reopened at 10:13 a.m. after the cleanup was complete.
The Lincoln Memorial, dedicated to the president credited with freeing the slaves and holding the union together through the Civil War, was designed by Henry Bacon and was modeled after an ancient Greek temple. Around the statue, excerpts from the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's second inaugural address are inscribed into the walls. Thirty-six fluted columns surround the statue to represent the 36 states that made up the union at the time of Lincoln's assassination.
More recently, the memorial is also famous as the location where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream Speech."
News coverage of the vandalism.
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