In 1861, Robert E. Lee left his mansion in Arlington County, Virginia, to join the Confederate Army in the Civil War. Union troops soon occupied his estate. Three years later, by government order, the land became a military cemetery. Sprawling over 600 acres along the banks of the Potomac River, Arlington National Cemetery has served ever since as the final resting place for American soldiers, statesmen and heroes.

The mansion, built in 1802, originally was the home of George Washington’s adopted son, whose daughter married Lee. Now known as Arlington House, it is the cemetery’s central landmark. On the grounds, the famous Tomb of the Unknowns stands in memoriam to American soldiers who died in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The tomb at one time contained the remains of one soldier “known but to God” from each of those wars; in 1998, the remains of the Vietnam casualty were removed and identified through the use of DNA technology.

A sea of stark white headstones marks the graves of the more than 260,000 people laid to rest in the cemetery’s Fields of the Dead. The buried include casualties from every conflict in which the United States has fought. An eternal flame burns at the grave of President John F. Kennedy, the most visited site in the cemetery.

PostScript: After a lengthy court battle, Lee’s eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, succeeded in declaring that the government had improperly confiscated the land. In 1883, he transferred title to the United States for $150,000.