Blue Star Memorial Highway

Washington, DC

This ornate French Second Empire building beside the White House rose between 1871 and 1888 to house the State, War, and Navy departments under one roof. For decades it was the command center of American diplomacy and defense, its granite halls witnessing generations of national decisions.

Takoma Park, MD

This memorial offers an 'eternal tribute to those who fought our country's battles,' honoring the men and women who served in the nation's armed forces. Without naming a single war, it gathers the sacrifice of generations of service members into one place of remembrance. Community war memorials like this one became gathering points for honoring veterans of many conflicts.

Baltimore, MD

This memorial wall carries a line drawn from General John J. Pershing's tribute to America's war dead — "Time will not dim the glory of their deeds" — words that became a standard epitaph on veterans' memorials across the country in the twentieth century. Standing near Baltimore's Camden Yards, a district rooted in the old Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Camden Station, the wall gathers a busy modern crossroads into a moment of remembrance for those who served and sacrificed. Because the inscription names no single battle or war, it speaks broadly for all who gave their lives in the nation's conflicts.

Baltimore, MD

This fragment of the Berlin Wall once stood near the Lichterfelde district before being broken free on November 11, 1989, days after East Germany opened its borders. Brought to Baltimore and dedicated to all who crossed — and those who died trying — it is a tangible piece of the barrier that divided a city and the Cold War world.