Arlington National Cemetery
U.S. Military's Arlington National Cemetery Seal
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| Details | |
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| Established | May 13, 1864 |
| Location |  Arlington County, Virginia |
| Country |
 United States of America
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| Coordinates | 38°52′48″N 77°04′12″W / 38.880°N 77.070°WCoordinates: 38°52′48″N 77°04′12″W / 38.880°N 77.070°W |
| Type | Public |
| Owned by | U.S. Department of the Army |
| Size | 624 acres (253 ha) |
| Number of graves | ~400,000 |
| Website | www |
Arlington National Cemetery is a United States military cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., in whose 624 acres (253 ha) the dead of the nation's conflicts have been buried, beginning with the American Civil War, as well as reinterred dead from earlier wars. The United States Department of the Army, a component of the United States Department of Defense, controls the cemetery.
The national cemetery was established during the Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, which had been the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna (Custis) Lee (a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington). The cemetery, along with Arlington House, Memorial Drive, the Hemicycle, and the Arlington Memorial Bridge, form the Arlington National Cemetery Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 2014. Like nearly all federal installations in Arlington County, it has a Washington, D.C. mailing address.
George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington, acquired the land that now is Arlington National Cemetery in 1802, and began construction of Arlington House. The estate passed to Custis' daughter, Mary Anna, who had married United States Army officer Robert E. Lee. Custis' will gave a "life inheritance" to Mary Lee, allowing her to live at and run Arlington Estate for the rest of her life but not enabling her to sell any portion of it. Upon her death, the Arlington estate passed to her eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee.
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Wikipedia