Tomb of the Unknown Soilder

Approx. Time: 1 hours
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The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier lies within Washington Square, one of the five public parks drawn up by William Penn in his 1682 blueprint for Philadelphia. Shortly after the square was laid out, however, it was being used for a wholly other purpose -- as a potter's field. Burials in Washington Square, then known as Southeast Square, started in 1706 and continued for nearly nine decades. Initially located on Philadelphia's westernmost settled area, the square proved an out-of-the-way repository for the impecunious as well as a permanent residence for deceased "strangers" -- those unknown visitors to Philadelphia whose stay proved to be longer than expected. Though the archaeologists and historians were fairly certain that this disinterred body was that of a Revolutionary War soldier, one vexing question still remains: Was the body that of a British soldier or a lad who had just started calling himself by a new name -- American?

Various messages engraved on the wall of the memorial include: "Freedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness"; "The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts of common dangers, suffering and success [Washington Farewell Address, Sept. 17, 1796]"; and "In unmarked graves within this square lie thousands of unknown soldiers of Washington's Army who died of wounds and sickness during the Revolutionary War."

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier itself bears the words: "Beneath this stone rests a soldier of Washington's army who died to give you liberty."