A U.S. Park Police officer stands guard next to the statue of Abraham Lincoln after it had been vandalized. J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, was closed on Friday morning after it was discovered that someone had vandalized the iconic statue in the middle of the night. Park police say that sometime after 1:00 a.m. this morning, visitors to the memorial noticed that green paint had been splashed on the base of the giant statue of our 16th president and with more paint spilled on the floor. There was no other evidence of damage and no apparent message left behind by the vandal.
The entire memorial was closed off to the public and the media while cleanup crews worked to undo the damage.