HISTORY

hailed from Austria. The memorial, whose

construction began in 1962, was designed

as a bridge floating across the ship’s wreck,

184 feet long (56 meters) with the capacity

of 200 visitors. In the central section there

is an opening in the floor through which the

wreck’s deck can be observed and the me-

mory of the fallen sailors can be honored

by dropping the flower wrath in the harbor

waters. Part of the memorial is a place for

reflections with the marble plaque listing

all fallen sailors. One of the three main Arizona’s impressive 19,585 lbs (8,884 kilos)

anchors is exhibited at the entrance to the

visitors‘ center on Ford Island. Also, one of

the ship’s bells is exhibited in the visitors‘

center.

On October 15, 1966 the USS Arizona memorial was officially entered in the registry

of the United States historic sites and on

May 5, 1989 the Arizona wreck was declared the national cultural site. Currently the

memorial and the visitors‘ center, which is

the part of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, is visited by more than 2 million people annually.

A serious problem pertaining to the wreck

since its sinking is the persistent leakage of

the residual bunker oil from the fuel tanks,

known as the „Tears of Arizona“, at a rate of

approximately 2.5 liters per day. The Navy

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INFO Eduard

April 2022