WASHINGTON - The National Park Service has unveiled a proposal to rotate the seated marble figure of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial as part of a preservation project. APRIL FOOLS'!
Lincoln Memorial April Fools’ Day (National Mall NPS)
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The National Park Service got in on the April Fools' Day fun Friday with a tweet showing the colossal statue of the nation's 16th president turned completely around!
"Preservationists are concerned that the statue, constantly subject to the elements in the open-air memorial and exposed to direct sunlight each morning, is aging unevenly and the front may eventually fade, not unlike DaVinci's The Last Supper or Coolidge's Dogs Playing Poker," they joked in their faux press release.
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Rotating the statue, they quipped, would not only help prevent deterioration on the front side -- but would give the public an opportunity to admire some lesser-known features on the back side -- like Lincoln's wavy hair and the U.S. flag draped over the back of the chair.
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The NPS also joked that an alternate proposal would have placed the statue on a turntable so it could be rotated throughout the day.
Will we ever see the statue in its original form again? Don't worry! After about 100 years – or whenever the back ages to the same level as the front – the statue will be flipped back around!
Happy April Fools' Day!