American Notes WASHINGTON

Architect Pierre L'Enfant proposed a monument to the U.S. Navy when he designed the nation's capital in 1791, but not until last week, on the Navy's 212th anniversary, was a memorial to the service finally dedicated. The 100- ft.-diameter circular plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue "enshrines, in stone and metal, the gratitude of a nation," Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger told a crowd of 6,000 Navy veterans and other spectators.

The $12 million monument was funded by more than 80,000 donations. Ringed by stone benches and cascading fountains, the plaza depicts a map of the world and its oceans in two-tone, inlaid granite. At one edge stands a bronze statue of a pea-coated sailor, a stark tribute that captures the loneliness of the vast, restless sea.