Veterans memorial lights up only once a year at 1111 hours on 11/11

| November 12, 2021

I came across this yesterday and thought it was pretty cool. This veterans memorial in Anthem, Arizona is designed in such a way that at a particular time, once a year, magic happens. At exactly 1111 hours the sun lines up with the memorial to display the Great Seal of the United States. This happens just once a year, 11 November, in commemoration of the Armistice that ended World War I. As you’ll recall, that agreement went into effect “on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.”

More pictures and the article on it here.

Category: We Remember

10 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Claw

Way Cool!! I wonder what happens every four years when we have a Leap Day?

gitarcarver

According to that well known and trusted source of Wikipedia:

The memorial’s five white pillars represent the nation’s military branches and are arranged in Department of Defense order of precedence: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. Each pillar has an elliptical opening that slants downward toward The Great Seal of the United States. On Veterans Day – November 11 – the design allows the sun’s rays to spotlight the Great Seal at 11:11 am Mountain Standard Time. The design goal was 11:11:11 am, but the variations each year cause the precise alignment over the next 100 years to be between 11:10:58 and 11:11:22.[1]

Due to the leap years discrepancy between the official and astronomical calendar the effect can be observed at least one day before or after Veterans Day as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_Veterans_Memorial

Claw

Oh, Okay. Thanks for the answer. When I commented earlier, I still hadn’t had enough coffee in me to think about going to Pedia of the Wiki for an answer.

Now the real question that needs to be answered is: Will they have to create a sixth pillar when the first US Space Force veteran shows up?/smile

nobunny

This is the coolest monument evah! Well thought out and precise – forget that nebulous hippie head “art”.

KoB

Spot on, nobunny. Somebody “woke” up and attended STEM Class instead of Spin Class…or UnderwaterbasketweavingLGBTQLSMFTrollanother1 Class.

And then they put that knowledge to work. BLM on the way to cancel it because, you know, math is RAAAAYYYCIIISSS and for….reasons.

Amateur Historian

Well, this gives me a travel idea for next year. Hope I’m still around then. 🙂

AW1Ed

Very cool. Thanks, Mason.

Hatchet

THAT is an exceedingly COOL and well thought out, memorial. Hope to visit it and pay my respects, someday soon. Thank you, Mason.

OWB

Wow. Just wow.

Prior Service

Sweet. But I bet if I went to see it, it would be cloudy…. Seriously, I drove all the way to Mount Rushmore once, as I crossed the country, and as I got there fog blew in so thick you couldn’t see the mountain from the viewing point.