Memorial Day, 2018: A new, temporary monument made up of 645,000 red poppy flowers is up at the National Mall this weekend. The flowers are set in a wall 133 feet long and 8.5 feet tall, and meant to symbolize the 645,000 American lives that have been lost in conflict since World War I.
Visitors to the site can dedicate a poppy in the wall via kiosks placed around it. Those who can’t visit the wall can dedicate one of the flowers online.
The poppy came to symbolize the blood shed in World War I through a poem called “In Flanders Fields” written by Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae.
Original story: wjla.com
