Memorial Day is just around the corner and as you may know it’s a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. A few facts you may not know about the Marine Corps War Memorial:

• The 32-foot-high sculpture of the Marine Corps Memorial was inspired by a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph clicked by Joe Rosenthal.

• The bronze monument was designed by Felix W. De Weldon and dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, on the occasion of the 179th anniversary of the Marine Corps.

• The bronze statue of the memorial is said to be the largest in the world.

• While the statue was being designed, the three surviving soldiers of the war from the photographs posed for the sculptor.

• Casting the bronze took three years and the statue was transported to Washington D.C in a dozen pieces and then bolted and welded together.

• The memorial is 78 feet tall, and the rifles are 12 and 16 feet long.

• The figures in the Marine Corp Memorial statue hold a 60-foot bronze flagpole from which a cloth flag flies all through the day.