Is there a room under the Lincoln Memorial?

Underneath the Lincoln Memorial is a large cavernous area with dirt floors and concrete walls. Hanging from the ceiling beneath where Lincoln sits are hundreds of stalactite formations. The stalactites are long, slender, and pale in color, and they are growing in this artificial cave as the result of water slowly dripping through the monument which started when it was built. The underground room was built as a stabilzer for the monument to be built above. It is no longer safe to go down there but there remains photographs of the room as it was for viewing.

Other interesting features in the underbelly of the monument are cartoon drawings that were sketched on several support columns by the workers who built the monument. One of the drawings depicts characters from the old Mutt and Jeff cartoon, which started running in 1907 and was the first daily newspaper comic strip.Tours of the cavernous area ceased after 1989 when asbestos was discovered in the undercroft but during the 1970s and ’80s, local children were treated to tours on elementary school field trips.