- As far as we know, no dead bodies under here.
(cheering crowd)
- [Lincoln] No.
- Welcome back to What's Inside?
I am Dan. - I'm Lincoln.
- This is Linc, wait, you're Lincoln or that's Lincoln?
- I'm Lincoln.
- They're both Lincolns behind us.
We're at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC,
and we're gonna take you guys on an adventure
to a place that not very many people ever get to go.
The bottom of the Lincoln Memorial.
(upbeat music)
- [Lincoln] Whoa, look at that.
That's cool.
- [Dan] Look at that view out there.
- So right where we are right now,
we're gonna be under the floor.
So, up there is the actual Lincoln statue,
but we're not gonna go up there today.
We are gonna go through this door
to a secret underground basement.
- Okay, let's go.
- It was just raining outside, like a lot.
- We just had a giant rainstorm hit us
as we're walking in here, but I guess that's irrelevant.
And, we're in.
This is the Lincoln Memorial.
We're in.
We just walked down the stairs.
Look at this place.
- under the Lincoln memorial right now.
- We're gonna take you through here.
Show you the basement, and tell you a few things
that are really interesting about this spot.
A question a lot you might have is,
well where is Abraham Lincoln?
Where is his casket?
Where is he buried?
Well, this is a memorial.
It's not necessarily the place that he was buried.
He's actually buried in Illinois, in the land of Lincoln.
As far as we know, no dead bodies under here.
(water pattering)
So, this long hallway that we just walked around to,
this is the west-side of the monument,
the back-side of where Lincoln would be.
Lincoln would be right up in there.
Right now, we are gonna go down and under,
and try to find the spot that's directly
below where Abraham Lincoln sits.
So, there's Lincoln right above me.
The actual Lincoln that's sitting up above us
is 19 feet tall just as he sits.
They say-- - That's kinda crazy.
- That is crazy, but they estimate
that if he stood up, he would be 38 feet tall.
Right here in this area, they're all walking,
taking pictures of Abraham Lincoln.
They have no idea that this giant chamber exists underneath,
and right now we are the only people under here,
and there's probably hundreds of tourists
just sitting just right up there right now.
Another thing about this,
I mean this is back in like 1914 to 1922,
like how many people did it take to build this stuff?
Like it's a marvel in engineering.
This right here, this is like 1920's graffiti.
This art is from a hundred years ago,
and they just left it up here.
I think that's super cool that they preserved it
and left it up.
- This one right here looks like the Monopoly man.
- One question is, what is the echo like?
Echo.
I wonder what it look like with all the lights off?
(loud click)
(electrical humming)
That's a weird noise.
Now we're walking to where the platform of the stairs are.
You can actually see where the first set of steps
comes down and then you have the first platform.
Over on this side, you can even see some of the old steps
that they've replaced, and they've put the new steps
on over the top of them.
(upbeat music)
You'll hear water that's dripping through.
Over the years,
water has been able to seep through a little bit
and there's a lot of calcium inside of this concrete.
Calcium plus water builds something that's very similar
to what you see inside of a cave,
which are called stalactites, and stalactites are the ones
that come from the top of the ceiling and come down.
Super cool.
Next time you're walking on the platform
at the Lincoln Memorial you can tell somebody,
Do you know there's a basement underneath here?
And do you know it's full of concrete,
and because of the calcium there's stalactites?
Now you know.
(footsteps pattering)
A lot of DC is actually a swamp.
The water table is pretty low,
so they do have people that come in,
and they destroy the bacteria,
so it doesn't eat away at the concrete.
Sometimes, you don't realize how much goes in
to preserving them and taking care of them.
I want my kid's kid's kids, like 3 generations from now,
to be able to go out in America, and go to the parks.
- People don't talk that way anymore.
- It's cool to see that the Interior Department right now
is maintaining all these things
and getting it ready for the future.
It's not cheap, but it's important to do.
- [Dan] Look at that, there's some rusty old nails
coming through there, right next to these stalactites.
Oh, whoa!
- [Lincoln] I knew it.
(gasping)
- It's a lot softer than I thought.
- Whoa! - Oh, mine broke.
(laughs) Now you broke yours. - See you scared me.
(stalactite cracking)
- Okay, so-- - Wait, wait, wait, wait.
- Oh, okay. - Whoosh.
- What are you throwing at the camera?
Aw, it broke in half, you broke your baby.
- No I did-- - High-five.
(loud smack)
- Ow.
- There's your calcium buildup.
(stalactites cracking)
Where are some other unique places
that you would like to see inside of, or underneath?
Thank you to Secretary Zinke and his team
at the Interior Department
for allowing us this awesome access.
- And this trip was so much fun.
- Okay, so this is the door that goes out,
and to show you like you guys saw there's a little bit
of water seeping down, just a little bit.
Check out what's really happening outside right now.
Oh, man. - Oh, boy.
- Oh my gosh.
- I don't want to go out there.
- Look how wet it is.
Lightening!
- No, no, no!
(energetic music)
As is awesome top hat, and then there's another guy.
There's so many kinds of mustaches.
- [Dan] So what do you think came first?
Monopoly guy or this guy?
Did Milton Brothers come and see this,
and rip it off and make Monopoly?
- Yes. - We think it's probably true.
(crowd cheering)
We've got some guys up here.
Check out all these guys.
(crowd cheering) Hi guys.
Who are these guys?