The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is on the Tidal basin near the national mall, on the cherry tree walk. Open 24/7, but there are staff people there from 8 AM to midnight.

The memorial constists of four outdoor rooms, one for each term of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's office, With sculptures depicting him - there is a 10-foot statue of him in a wheeled chair (not a wheelchair, a wheeled chair), and a bas-relief of him in a car during his first inaugural.

In the first room is a sculpture by Tom Hardy of the presidential seal like at his first inaugural. The following quotes are inscribed in the first room:

"No country however rich can afford the waste of it’s human resources. The demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our order - I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a New Deal for the American People"

"Among American citizens there should be no forgotten men and no forgotten races, The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."

The second room is more dreary, and is supposed to portray feelings of despair that many people of that time felt. There's a scuplture with five columns commemorating FDR's new deal legislation.

In the second room are the following quotes.

"Man and nature must work hand in hand- the throwing out of balance of the resources of nature, throws out of balance also the lives of men"

"In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must chose the path of social justice, the path of faith, the path of hope and the path of love between our fellow man"

"I never forget that I live in a house owned by all American people and that I have been given their trust"

"I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad and ill-nourished. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little"

"I propose to create a Civilian Conservation Corps to be used in simple work…more importantly however, than the material gains, will be the moral and spiritual value of such work"

Between the second and third rooms there's a grassy area marking the time period of World War II. That passage has the inscriptions:

"We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of our citizens what ever their back rounds. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred is a wedge designed to attack our civilization"

"We must be the great arsenal of democracy".

The third room has a sculpture of Roosevelt in a wheeled chair by his dog Fala. it was supposed to be a wheelchair but instead they just gave him a regular chair with wheels at the base of the legs. The third room has the following quotes:

"We have faith that future generations will know that here, in the middle of the twentieth century, there came a time when men of good will found a way to unite and destroy the forces of ignorance and intolerance and slavery and war"

"They who seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers call this new order. This is not new and it is not order"

"I have seen war, I have seen war on land and on sea. I have seen the blood running from the wounded. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed, I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives- I hate war"

The final room has a waterfall into a bunch of pools, and this room is supposed to signify Roosevelt's death and the peace that came after World War II. There is a sculpture of his funeral procession, and another sculpture of Eleanor Roosevelt. This sculpture of [Eleanor Roosevelt[ by Neil Estern makes the FDR memorial the first to honor a first lady. Finally, the fourth room has the inscriptions:

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong active faith"

"The structure of world peace can not be the mark of one man, one party or one nation. It must be a peace that rests on the co-operative effort of the whole world"

"Freedom of speech, freedom of worship. Freedom from want, freedom from fear"

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, located on the Potomac tidal basin in Washington, DC, was designed by Richard Halprin, and incorporates work by artists Leonard Baskin, Neil Estern, Robert Graham, Thomas Hardy, and George Segal. The Congressional Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission was established in 1955, but the memorial itself did not open to the public until May 1997. The memorial is composed primarily of granite, with bronze statues, waterfalls, and greenery incorporated throughout the design.

When I visited the memorial, my first impression was that of great space. The entire memorial is open air. Composed of four rooms, each representing a term of Roosevelt's presidency, the delineation between rooms is rather subtle: the walls of the memorial are not contiguous, but rather are free-standing. The structure of the memorial does not support a roof, and seems to exist only to provide a surface on which to inscribe memorable quotations from FDR, as well as to allow the creation of a multitude of alcoves, each containing sculptures or other items of interest. The overall effect of the use of space is one of peace; the memorial seems the perfect place for quiet contemplation and meditation.

The design of the memorial changes slightly from room to room, creating both obvious and subtle symbols of the various stages in Roosevelt's presidency; yet this symbolism, for all its immediacy, is not tactless or overwhelming. Also, the fact that the same raw materials are used to shape the symbols in each room creates an underlying unity that permeates the entire memorial.

Prior to entering the first room, one must pass the Eagle Alcove, which contains nothing but the presidential seal and the words "This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny." The simplicity of the alcove serves to offset the importance of the words inscribed on the wall - there are no distractions, and the effect on the visitor is to inspire a sense of anticipation. The first room, like the Eagle Alcove, is the picture of simplicity, containing few elements: a small number of granite benches, several trees, and a waterfall. The eye is immediately drawn to the waterfall, and then to the wall beside it, which contains a bronze bas-relief of Roosevelt's first inauguration and his famous words, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Though somewhat bare, the room still denotes power, and the waterfall serves as a symbol of new beginnings.

As one walks into the second room, a drastic change is apparent. This room contains many more elements; while it does not quite seem cluttered, it does appear rather busy. A bronze sculpture of a Depression-era breadline set next to a freestanding wall in the middle of the room demands attention. Despair is evident in the bowed heads of the figures. However, the initial sense of anticipation is not lost, as a small alcove to the right of the breadline contains a sculpture of a seated man listening to a radio, a symbol of Roosevelt's famous fireside chats. There is an aura of hope around this figure, but one cannot help but notice that he is barefoot, and dressed in shabby clothing. The mingling of despair and hope becomes weighted more in hope's favor as one continues into the largest part of the room, which contains five granite pillars, symbolizing Roosevelt's New Deal legislation, with bronze reliefs covering each. The wall behind the pillars is covered with five murals, each depicting some new advancement made during the second term of Roosevelt's presidency. Once again, there is a waterfall, this one more complex than the first, with several tiers. The general impression of this room is ordered activity.

The third room also contains great activity, but there is an air of chaos and strife. The orderly pillars have been replaced by large, rough granite blocks that seem to have been haphazardly dumped in a jumbled pile near a quote on the wall, "I have seen war...I hate war." The omnipresent waterfall exhibits quite a change - there are fountains spraying in every direction, and the fall itself follows no particular order. Just past the waterfall, a large (10') bronze sculpture of Roosevelt and his dog Fala commands attention. Roosevelt is seated with a blanket wrapped around him, disguising his infirmity. The walls of the third room are not the polished granite of the previous rooms, but seem rough-hewn, with many bumps and sharp edges. As this room represents the presidential term during which World War II occurred, the symbolism of chaos, and the destruction of Roosevelt's orderly New Deal programs is obvious.

Before entering the fourth and final room, there is a deep alcove set in the right wall, accessible by ramps and stairs. This alcove, like the Eagle Alcove, is powerful in its simplicity. There are no quotes from Roosevelt adorning the walls, only a bronze relief of Roosevelt's funeral procession. Once again, water is present, but it is not like the animated, dynamic waterfalls of the previous rooms. Instead, as the president is dead and the country in mourning, the water is a still, silent pool, rectangular in shape. The alcove conveys an overwhelming sense of loss; there is no action at all, either ordered or chaotic.

The fourth and largest room hardly seems to be a room at all. Most of the room is open to the Potomac tidal basin, and purposefully provides a spectacular view of the Washington Monument in the distance. There are two main points of interest in this room. The first, and most obvious, is a huge waterfall encompassing most of the space. This waterfall incorporates both the orderly nature of the waterfalls in the first and second room, as well as the fountains and geysers of the third room. Moving away from the waterfall and up a short series of steps, one is faced by a wall upon which the words "Freedom of Speech / Freedom of Worship / Freedom from Want / Freedom from Fear" are inscribed in large letters. Just as the quote in the Eagle Alcove involving America's rendezvous with destiny provides a sense of beginning and anticipation, these words provide a sort of closure; to Roosevelt's life, if not his ideals.

The FDR memorial is not nearly as stiff and formal as are other memorials to other presidents. Rather, it involves the visitor on a personal level, from the beginning of Roosevelt's presidency to the end of his life and beyond.