America 250: Washington Monument New Year's Eve Lighting & Projection

America, the new world.

Our nation began not as an idea invented in the minds of men, but as a land discovered.

When Christopher Columbus looked west across the endless ocean, he sailed for glory, for gain, and for God.

Three ships traveled into the unknown, daring to go where no man had gone before. What they discovered changed the

before. What they discovered changed the course of history.

They carved homes out of the wilderness.

By the sweat of their brow, they built a new world rooted in the European civilization they left, but infused with the spark of liberty.

In time, that spark grew.

Galloping through the midnight darkness, Paul Rivere warned the colonists that the hour had come to choose.

Freedom or tyranny?

>> Liberty or death.

>> With the shot heard round the world, a ragged band of patriots challenged the mightiest empire on earth.

Starving, outnumbered, and outgunned, the Americans had little reason for hope.

But General Washington kept the flame alive, leading his soldiers through the frozen misery of Valley Forge against all odds. With the aid of our allies

all odds. With the aid of our allies like France's Marque de La, Spain's Bernardo de Galves, and Poland's

Tedos Koshusco, America won one of the greatest military victories the world had ever seen.

By the hand of providence and the strength of determined men and women, the United States of America was born.

and with her words that echo throughout eternity.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator

with certain unalienable rights.

Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The founding fathers had built a nation upon the principles of our Declaration of Independence and the foundation of our remarkable Constitution.

A government conceived in liberty that derived its just powers from the consent of the governed.

A burning torch of freedom that would rise across a continent.

And one day shine its light upon the entire world.

With perseverance, faith, blood, and courage, the 13 colonies have become the 13

United States of America.

But destiny beckoned our young nation to even greater heights.

Like Columbus before them, settlers looked west to the lush forests of the deep south,

the rich soil of the Ohio Valley.

the frozen lakes of the untamed north and beyond.

Past the mighty Mississippi to the great plains that stretched like an untouched sea,

eager to be crossed, safely separated from Europe's wars.

President Thomas Jefferson purchased the vast Louisiana territory from France.

Overnight, the United States doubled in size, adding millions of acres stretching from New Orleans to the snowcapped peaks of

Montana.

To explore this new territory, Merryweather Lewis and William Clark were sent to chart a path through the remote frontier.

They set out on a perilous journey for over 2 years and nearly 8,000 miles.

The expedition endured brutal winters, starvation, impenetrable terrain, and dangers few dared to face.

Yet as they pressed on, they discovered the wonder that is America.

Thunderstorms racing over the plains.

The Rockies reaching to the heavens.

Plants and animals unseen in the old world.

And at long last, the glory of the Pacific Ocean.

Inspired by their courage, pioneers rode west and covered wagons to claim their stake in America.

Families and adventurers, farmers, cowboys, miners, missionaries.

Each one driven by the timeless yearning to build a future by the grace of God and with their own two hands.

Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountainies

above the fruited plain.

America, blessed by God, completed her journey across the wilderness,

extending her domain and forging the character of a people destined

to shape the world.

In the beginning, before the engines roared, before the city's rose, America was a storm.

All restless crackling with energy.

Benjamin Franklin learns the power of the head of invention was born in Philadelphia.

In a small workshop in New Jersey, a young inventor named Thomas Edison toiled with wires, glass, thread, and

metal until at long last his work radiated forth.

Let there be light. American genius lit the spark that illuminated the world, casting out the darkness, revealing the order and beauty of God's creation for

all mankind to see. With light came the dawn of the industrial revolution.

Americans began inventing miracles that transformed humanity.

For millennia, mankind had moved by horse and foot until Ford perfected the automobile. Mankind crafted with our

automobile. Mankind crafted with our hands until Americans revolutionized the steam turbine, the electric motor, and

the internal combustion engine. Mankind

built with wood and bricks until American workers lifted high towering giants of concrete and steel. Industry

gave birth to great American cities, monuments to American ingenuity, cathedrals of American ambition. From

this mighty industrial engine came the arsenal of freedom. The ships, planes, and tanks that allowed heroic American

soldiers to rescue the world from tyranny in two world wars and to defeat the communist menace through the long cold war.

With grit and strength and sweat, our forebears built the freest, proudest, most prosperous nation the world had ever seen.

And today, high above our city streets, the skylines still bear the mark of their handiwork.

A testament etched in steel and stone.

Forever recalling our glory as Americans.

We are a people who never stop building, never stop climbing, never stop dreaming,

never stop striving for greatness.

Our nation was forged not by faith, but by the unbreakable will of the citizens who call this land home.

With our genius and industry, we built the wonders of the modern world.

And our greatest works are yet to come.

On a windswept beach in North Carolina, two American brothers prepared to transcend the laws of physics.

With a sputtering engine and a handmade craft of canvas and wood, the Wright brothers lifted mankind into

the sky.

In the clouds above, the world grew smaller and America grew greater than ever before.

But for the United States, the sky has never been the limit.

Heat. Heat.

Within 66 years, a single human lifespan American astronauts broke free from the Earth, stretched their hands through the endless void,

and planted the stars and stripes on the face of the moon.

America brought mankind into the space age as we took our place among the stars.

A new revolution began here at home.

Computers born in a Pennsylvania lab opened a new frontier. Americans linked

the world with the internet, putting the light of knowledge within reach of all. We pioneered new technologies and new industries,

sparking the greatest explosion of prosperity the world had ever seen.

Now we stand on the threshold of yet another frontier.

artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing.

America is once again forging the future and shaping the centuries to come.

The pioneer spirit of the American people brought us across oceans, established a nation in liberty,

drew us across a continent, and raised us into the clouds.

It still beckons us to begin new journeys of discovery, daring us to once again dream the impossible

and imagine the wonders waiting among the stars.

And perhaps someday our descendants will plant the American flag on distant worlds.

carrying the light of liberty to the farthest corners of creation, reminding all generations that for the United States of America,

there is no frontier too far, no dream too bold, no horizon beyond our reach.

Thank you for joining us tonight as we celebrate 250 years of the American spirit. We invite you to return each

spirit. We invite you to return each night through January 5th and bring your family, your friend, and all who love this nation.

Let us rejoice together in the greatness of this land we call the United States of America.