Korean War Memorial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

ABOUT THE MEMORIAL

American servicemen and women braved violent combat in Korea. The Nation suffered great losses in the War and spiritual anguish in the aftermath. Friends parted, lives were uprooted, futures were transformed; many died or were injured. We now join together to understand, to honor, to heal and to look ahead.

In Korea, each serving brought their own experience; their uniqueness, their dreams into peril. Families confronted loss of loved ones and of future. With each soldier the nation risked a part of itself. Many thousands, each with their own signature on life, united for freedom.

This Memorial intends to symbolize and express the life spirit of those who served, directly and indirectly, in the Korean War. It is a reflection, in part, of just one who served. It is meant to signal remembrance of the breadth and pulse of their identity. And, it is a marker for the array of human qualities nurtured by the freedom we protect.

This memorial is positioned and shaped to capture sunlight. As the sun travels the horizon, columns of light articulate, sequentially, aspects of the human spirit, experience and feeling. Through solid and void, light and shadow, the sun traces a spectrum of individual and shared experience.

It is hoped this Memorial will become a welcome place; that it can evoke memory, emotion and vision through the eyes of each visitor. It is meant to be very personal.

R. Allan Christianson
Memorial Architect

	Korean Flag at the memorial

IN MEMORY OF ALL KOREAN WAR VETERANS

	Allegheny River and the City of Pittsburgh in the background

THIS MEMORIAL IS DEDICATED TO HONOR THE SPIRIT AND SACRIFICE OF THE BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN WHO SERVED IN THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES DURING THE WAR IN KOREA, 1950-1953 FREEDOM IS NOT FREE

	"LEST WE FORGET" THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD AS WE THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD, AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN, AND IN THE MORNING, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

IN REMEMBRANCE OF PRISONERS OF WAR AND THOSE 8,177 STILL MISSING IN ACTION

	IN HONOR OF ALL WOMEN WHO SERVED IN THE KOREAN WAR TO PRESERVE AMERICA'S FREEDOM

Korean War Chronology with PNC Park in the background

	Map of Korea showing locations and the 38th Parallel

General Matthew B. Ridgway "I cannot conceive that God has given any man a richer, fuller more satisfying life than mine, for it was spent in service with, and for, that finest product of our civilization - the American soldier."

	Engraved names on the memorial wall

Side view of the memorial looking up the Allegheny River

	On the floor of the memorial columns of sunlight articulate aspects of individual and shared experience
2,401 Pennsylvanians sacrificed their lives in the Korean War. California was the only state with more losses.

Photo credits: Robert Donnan, Mark Sanders, and David Schlafman

NEWS

Monument's safety concerns Korean War veterans

By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

A Korean War veterans group worries that underground tunneling of a rail line will damage the war memorial along the Allegheny River on the North Shore.

Tunnels for the $435 million North Shore Connector will be dug this week under the Equitable Resources building and near the Korean War Veterans' Memorial, which cost more than $1 million to build before its 1999 dedication. The close proximity of the work is a concern to those who built the memorial.

"I don't know where this thing's coming through," said Leonard Murgi, 76, of Mt. Lebanon. Murgi heads the construction committee for the Matthew B. Ridgway Chapter of the Korean War Veterans of Western Pennsylvania. "It seems they've forgotten about us."

Port Authority spokesman David Whipkey says the memorial will not be damaged.

"We do not anticipate affecting the war memorial between Equitable and the river," he said. "The boring machine is not going to go under the war memorial."

The memorial's granite walls, monuments and walkways start about 30 feet from the end of the Equitable Resources building, which workers plan to drive the tunnel-boring machine beneath this week. The building was built so that the boring machine can pass beneath it without hitting anything.

The machine is cutting a tunnel about 50 feet beneath the surface in that area, and will pass about 30 feet below the basement of the Equitable building.

Murgi says some pieces of the memorial are braced with pilings that were driven 70 feet into the ground.

He contacted the authority several years ago and was sent a letter in March 2004 that said the machine would not damage the parts of the memorial on the surface. It failed to address the pilings or how close its path would travel.

Murgi is concerned the machine will come too close and cause damage to the pilings or possibly exert enough force outward to damage the memorial above.

"The main concern is this thing is approaching," he said. "Maybe this thing is well below us. We have nothing to hang our hat on except this letter from 2004."

Whipkey said he did not know why the veterans' group was not contacted prior to digging.

The Korean War started June 25, 1950, when the North Korean army invaded the Republic of South Korea. President Harry Truman ordered the United States to defend South Korea three days later. The war ended July 27, 1953, with an armistice.

Jim Ritchie can be reached at jritchie@tribweb.com or 412-320-7933.

Locating the Memorial

The Korean War Memorial is located on North Shore Drive
in the city of Pittsburgh, PA, between Heinz Field and PNC Park,
on the north shore of the Allegheny River.

Click here for written directions from MapQuest
Use 100 North Shore Drive, Pittsburgh, PA
for your destination address

LINKS

Pittsburgh, PA information

Vietnam War Memorials in Pittsburgh, PA

Korean War Veterans National Museum and Library

Korean War Project