Here I stand at the entrance to the William McKinley Tomb. I had been planning to go there for the last 30 years and finally as I was helping a friend move I got the chance. It was cool to see and it is an amazing structure. It was completed in 1907 and McKinley and his recently deceased wife was moved into it that year. McKinley is a often forgotten President. Yet, he was perhaps one of the more important Presidents in American history. Followed by a near madman who changed the course of human history.
Sadly Theodore Roosevelt took credit for much of what McKinley started or did. It is fitting to see that this monument to McKinley was something that Roosevelt could not steal. It is fitting for the first modern President to be honored so. Remember McKinley was the first President to ride in a car, ride in a subway, use the press on a massive scale, have a press briefing room, pose and use motion pictures and other new technologies for the effect and growth of the office. He became the first imperial President, started plans for the Panama Canal, acquired vast holdings around the world, made the United States a world power. To put it bluntly, he made it easy for Theodore Roosevelt to look good.
It was an honor to see the tomb of this great man.
The view from the entrance to the tomb
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