Lincoln Memorial Underground Museum Opens -- And It's Great

By Ed Epstein

Washington, D.C.

Friday, June 26, 2026

The new Lincoln Memorial Undercroft Museum is now open to the public--and the most impressive thing about the new venue isn't the exhibits. It's the eerie, awe-inspiring structure itself, featuring massive columns built more than a century ago to support the 38,000-ton monument above to the martyred 16th president.

It's great to have them finally visible to the public.

Artistically lit pillars in the undercroft.

The underground area, known as an undercroft, has been closed to all but a few visitors for more than a century. Then in 2016 philanthropist David Rubenstein gave $18.5 million to kickstart an effort to turn this vast wasted space into a public attraction that would tell the story of how the memorial was built and how it and Lincoln became symbols for social change. Construction on the 15,000-square-foot museum, filling just a part of the 43,000 square-foot undercroft, began in 2023.

The other major private donor for the $60 million project was the National Parks Foundation. Federal money was also spent.

The result, an ultra-modern trip into a storied past 30 feet below the chamber above that houses Daniel Chester French's huge sculpture of a seated Lincoln, is well worth a visit for the casual visitor and for the most-involved student of Lincoln.

A visit starts with a trip through security and a short film about Lincoln and the monument. The current movie is about the Gettysburg Address, but a longer film is set to premiere in 2027.

Young visitors get their picture taken at their own Lincoln Memorial sculpture.

Then it's on to the exhibits telling the epic story of building the memorial, which, with more than 8 million visitors a year, is by far the most popular of Washington's many memorials. Workers sank 122 hollow steel cylinders through Washington's swampy soil down to solid rock. Stone slabs were piled on top to sink the cylinders further. Concrete was poured in to create the solid pillars we see today. All this made the foundation for the memorial above.

The other big part of the exhibit is how the Lincoln Memorial, originally built to hail Lincoln as the man who saved the union, over time became associated with the struggle for civil rights, climaxing in the August 1963 march on Washington that, as everyone knows, featured Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Also on display until June 2027 are copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution ending slavery, both signed by Lincoln. They are on loan from another philanthropist, Kenneth Griffin.

Of course, there is a big shop selling Lincoln-related books and gifts.

A historic poster on a rest room wall.

Space isn't wasted in the museum. Even the walls of the rest rooms feature big posters that promoted the major events that took place on the steps of the memorial.

Note: Timed tickets are required to enter the museum, which is expected to draw crowds for the foreseeable future. They're free at recreation.gov, but there is a $1 service fee. Search on the web site for "Lincoln undercroft." Visitors wait on benches at the northern side of the memorial until their time comes. Then they're led by National Park Service rangers to the security checkpoint to begin their visit, which would be a bargain even if the tickets were pricey.

Photos by Ed Epstein