The Fate of the Unknowns

The tomb -- whose sarcophagus-shaped monument is a solid block of marble -- dates to 1921. That year, on Nov. 11, the body of an unknown U.S. soldier from World War I was laid to rest atop two inches of French soil inside the tomb's massive underground vault.

Five years later, Congress authorized a monument to sit atop the vault, and in 1928, the current design, by architect Lorimer Rich and sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones, was selected. Rich, a World War I veteran, is buried in the cemetery within sight of the tomb.

The stone was cut from a quarry in Marble, Colo., set in place in 1931 and opened to the public the following year.

Located on a hillside overlooking the Potomac River and guarded 24 hours a day, the tomb monument bears simple carvings of wreaths on the sides, figures representing Victory, Valor and Peace at one end, and on the other the legend: "Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God."

Subsequently, unknown servicemen from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars were interred near the base of the monument, although in 1998 the Vietnam unknown was exhumed and identified. That crypt remains vacant.

According to the cemetery, there has never been a dedication ceremony for the tomb. And although it is called the Tomb of the Unknowns as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, it has never been given an official name.

It is thronged daily by tourists who come to pay homage and watch the ritual changing of the guard.

The cemetery report says that minor damage to the monument dates to the 1930s, and the first account of cracks dates to 1963, although they probably existed well before that.

There are two parallel horizontal cracks, both of which have grown in width and length over the years, despite patching in 1975 and 1989, the cemetery says. One crack is 28.4 feet long; the other is 16.2 feet long. Neither is superficial, the cemetery report says, "but extend partially through the block and will eventually extend completely through the block."

"I'm concerned that [they] will have an effect on the integrity of the tomb itself, as well as its decorative finishes," cemetery superintendent John C. Metzler Jr. has said.

Rex E. Loesby, a mining engineer and former operator of the quarry where the original stone was obtained, said he believed water has seeped into the cracks.

"Every time it freezes, that water expands," potentially widening the crack, he said. "It's just a matter of time before they're going to see some displacement of the upper part of the stone."