Most people probably don't know that more than 4 million visitors pass through the Arlington national cemetery each year. Some come to pay their final respects at graveside services, of which nearly 100 are conducted each week, Monday thru Friday. As your first stop on a visit to the cemetery, I recommend the visitors center, located by the entrance. It's useful for a bit of history and orientation, there visitors will find maps, guidebooks, exhibits, information services, a bookstores and restrooms. The cemetery does not provide wheelchairs or strollers, so if this is necessary you will need to bring your own. Here are the elements that make up the Arlington national cemetery: the memorial amphitheater, the tomb of the unknowns, monuments and memorials (from the eternal flame of the Kennedy grave and the mast of the USS Maine...), and so on.

Here are some useful facts about the Arlington National cemetery: it is made up of 200 acres of ground around the Arlington mansion, these were designated as an official military cemetery in 1864. More than 300,000 people are buried at the cemetery. Veterans from all the nation's wars -from the American revolution to more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. The pre-civil war dead were reinterred after 1900. There is also a section for freed slaves, callee Contrabands during the Civil War. Their headstones are designated with the word “civilian” or “citizen.” Today the Arlington National Cemetery and Soliders Home National Cemetery are administered by the Department of the Army, whereas the Custis-Lee Mansion and the grounds in its imemdiate vicinity are administered by the National park Service.

Most people don't know that the land where the Arlington National Cemetery is located is the original lands of what was once the Custis-Lee Mansion. It's quite impressive to see. This Greek-Revival style mansion is of course located in Arlington, Virginia, overlooking the Potomac River, directly across from the National Mall in D.C. During the Civil War it was selected as the site of the Arlington National Cemetery, forever robbing Robert E Lee of his home, however, since then the US has designated the mansion as a National Memorial to Lee – showing respect for him from both the North and the South. In a Supreme Court hearing in 1882, the court agreed that the estate had been illegally confiscated and ordered it and the 1,100 acress of property returned, however, later it was sold to the US government in 1883 for $150,000 US Dollars. Eventually in 1955 it was designated as a memorial to Lee and in 1966 placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today the mansion is managed by the National Park Service and the land around it is managed by the Department of the Army.