When Maya Ying Lin researched a class project while studying funereal architecture at Yale, she had no idea that her simple pastel drawing would become one of America's most revered and respected national monuments, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, known to many as simply, "The Wall."

"I think it was actually a miracle the piece ever got built," Lin wrote in an essay featured in the Washington Post in November 2000, referring to the initial controversy that surrounded the design.

The wall was initially debunked as "a black gash of shame and sorrow" when critics misinterpreted its simple elegance by comparing it to a trench. But the unparalleled and raw emotional power of the Wall, and the unique way in which it honors our fallen Vietnam veterans, has not only won over Americans-it has united them. Veterans, Americans, and people of all nations continue to make personal pilgrimages to the site by the hundreds of thousands, and tears well up for some at the slightest thought or memory of a visit to the Wall.

Dedicated on Veterans Day in 1982, the wall is constructed of Indian black granite polished to a mirror-like finish, and engraved with the names of over 58,200 men and women who perished in Vietnam. (The number of names changes every year as new names are added.) The wall cost $8.5 million dollars to build, is approximately 500 feet long, and ranges in height from eight inches to ten feet. Those who care deeply about the wall and the message it conveys have found innovative ways to bring the essence of the experience of interacting with the wall to touch those of us who have not traveled to Washington D.C. or stood in front of the original.

The Living Wall

Steve Klein, a psychologist who lives in Encino, California and who fought as a soldier in the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War in Israel, stopped to visit Washington D.C. on his way back from Israel and decided to go to the Vietnam Memorial. "I was completely taken aback by the power of the feelings that welled up in me," Klein said. "To see the names on the wall is to realize that these were the victims and these were our kids."

"The way the wall is designed-it swallows you up," Klein says. "That's the best way I can say it. It's essentially a black mirror, and you're looking through the names but you are looking at yourself. As you walk down into the center it towers over you and is just huge. There is really nothing else like it."

Klein felt compelled to attempt to photograph the entire wall. "The original vision I had was a lot smaller than what the project became," Klein said. "My original intention was just to photograph it and have a photo replica of the wall. What I didn't realize at the time was that people had already tried to do that and decided that it couldn't be done. National Geographic put up $50,000 dollars before they gave it up. Its almost impossible because you are trying to shoot a photograph of a black mirror and the names are sandblasted into the wall, so what you are shooting is a reflection of the sky, the walkway, people walking by, and especially anyone wearing white. To shoot it straight on you are taking a picture of yourself in every shot."

"I went back and forth to the wall for six years," Klein explained. "I was driven and wouldn't give up, and because I wasn't a professional photographer, I didn't know I couldn't do it."

Klein had to throw away thousands of photographs over the six-year period, until he invented unique ways of photographing after understanding the nuances of the Wall and its environment. "The Wall taught me how to shoot it," he said. "I could only shoot between 10am and 2pm, when the sun was at a certain angle, and also when no one else was in the way. I had to wear black so I wouldn't reflect back into the picture. I overexposed my films purposefully, and it was all done with one hand-held camera."

Printing the photos two-sided on glossy paper forty feet long became another challenge, as many printers insisted that the job was impossible. But Klein persisted. "You get to a point where you can't let go," he said. "It's more than monetary. I had no idea what it would cost me and if it would pay itself back. But I had to see it through to the end."

"Somehow in connecting with the wall, it becomes yours," Klein says. "I called it 'my Wall' for a long time." Klein finally found a printer who was willing to attempt to print the forty-foot sheets. "After I gave it to the printer, I called to see how it was going. I was shocked because he was talking about it as his. He was addicted and there was no way he could let go either." Klein reports that the dedicated printer was fired shortly after completing the wall project, because he devoted too much time to it and neglected other tasks.

The completed project was well worth the sacrifices. Printed on heavy cardstock, the front of "The Living Wall" shows a photograph of Lydia Mojica, the daughter of Cuban immigrants, wiping away tears. "She seemed to me deeply touched by her experience at the Wall," Klein wrote: I asked, "What is your connection to the Memorial? Do you have someone here?"

"No," she replied, and then said, "Because I am an American."

"Of all the sentiments expressed to me at the Memorial, this seemed to speak most for everyone: Because I am an American," Klein wrote. Klein feels that Lydia's photo epitomizes the idea that all people can feel connected by grief, even when there is no loved one's name on the wall. "You go away from there changed," he says.

While opening the printed piece and turning through the folds, the panels shown in the photo reproduction of the Memorial grow larger and larger, and each of the 58,202 names is clearly readable. Klein also included a time-line that shows a chronology of events of the war.

"I had time to design it over the six years that I wouldn't have had if I had been able to do it quicker," Klein said. "The Wall itself is a chronology of the war, since the names are organized by the young soldiers who died on the same day, so I included the timeline underneath." Klein also added photos of the mementos people left at the wall-notes, flowers, flags, and teddy bears.

Klein says that after "The Living Wall" was printed, he received some letters from vets that were not friendly. "My wife and I decided to call them to talk with them and explain why we did this," Klein says. "The vets became life long friends."

"We feel very close to the vets and what they are going through still to get what is due to them as far as treatment and rights," he says. "Ninety-nine percent of the feedback has been hugs and kisses and tears, along with beautiful letters and the opportunity to make friends for life. The vets found out that my heart was in the right place. It also sat well with the vets that I had gone and fought for something, that I do believe freedom is worth fighting for."

The Future of the Living Wall

Klein's supplies of the Living Wall are dwindling as he comes to the end of the current print run. Klein says that another veteran friend decided to take over the project and complete a second printing, but that he recently died of complications of illness incurred while in Vietnam. Klein states that his friend's family is considering taking over the project. Currently there is no web site for the Living Wall. Copies are still available through the Smithsonian and the AmericaStore.com.

Many Ways to Honor the Wall and the Vets

A reproduction of the wall, known as "The Virtual Wall," exists in cyberspace at TheVirtualWall.org. Visitors can create a personal virtual wall, retrieve a name rubbing, post a remembrance, and be alerted whenever someone else posts a remembrance to a chosen name. Clicking on the site's navigational arrows with your mouse allows viewers to read names on the entire wall and search for specific names. The Virtual Wall was created in partnership with the Vietnam Veterans Fund and Winstar Communications.

The Traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial, also known as the "Wall that Heals," is a half scale replica of the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which duplicates the name of every fallen veteran exact to the letter. The replica is made of etched aluminum coated with black paint. An older version of the Traveling Wall was retired and sold to a town in Pennsylvania, where it is now a permanent fixture. However, a newer Traveling Wall still circulates throughout the country, and booking dates are still available in 2002 and 2003. Klein's "Living Wall" is given as a gift to organizations that sponsor a showing of the Traveling Wall.

Teddy Bears, Golf Clubs and Messages to Those Who Died

Visitors to the wall feel compelled to leave personal mementos and offerings, as the wall immediately became nothing less than the end destination for a national pilgrimage. The National Park Service began to save these mementos until they had an astonishingly large and secret collection of odds and ends.

Jennifer Locke of the Smithsonian Institute organized those odds and ends into an exhibition called "Personal Legacy: The Healing of a Nation." When the show opened on October 28, 1992

So many showed that there was a two-and-a-half-hour wait and the museum went through 30,000 brochures, a year's worth, in less than three months.

Visitors were struck silent by the simple power of the personal keepsakes, notes and letters left at the wall. The items included a golf club with a note reading; "Here is your driver back. Use it well now that you have the time."

Healing on Both Sides

"There are still an enormous amount of vets that haven't been to the Wall because they are afraid they won't be able to deal with it emotionally," Klein says. "What they don't realize is that there's a huge support system on Veterans Day and Memorial Day. There are also times when you can go there and commune with the Wall and no one else would be there, especially at 3am. I've been with vets who come every year but stay on the other side of the street because they just can't go down to the Wall."

"The Wall became part of the healing of the country of people on both sides-the vets that went and the civilians that had stayed here and eventually came to oppose the war," Klein says. "Now is the perfect time for people to see the kids that went as heroes, and for the soldiers to accept themselves as heroes. A great deal of doubt had been placed in their minds, and now its time for them take the belated honor of their country."

Klein wrote, "It is my fervent hope that this small replica of Maya Lin's gift to the American people will be cherished and shared in this generation and in those to follow."

To Order the Living Wall

The Living Wall is available for $24.95 plus shipping. Because it is two sided, to fully display the printed piece two copies are needed and are available for $49.95 plus shipping. To order, visit www.AmericaStore.com, or call 800/927-8277. For information on the traveling wall, "The Wall that Heals," contact the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund at 202/393-0090.