Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, New Haven, Connecticut
© Enzo Figueres/Getty Images
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - Remembering Pearl Harbor
Today, the country remembers 'a date which will live in infamy.' President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke these words to Congress in 1941, the day after Japan's attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base in Oahu, Hawaii. The destruction inflicted on the US Pacific Fleet is one of military history's most devastating surprise attacks. More than 3,500 US servicepeople were killed or wounded, and eight battleships were destroyed or damaged in less than two hours. Following Roosevelt's speech came a declaration of war and the entrance of the US into World War II. Congress named December 7 National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in 1994.
The Pearl Harbor National Memorial holds an annual observance, but other places have also commemorated the event. Today's image is of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in New Haven, Connecticut. Locally known as the Q Bridge, it carries the I-95 over the mouth of the Quinnipiac River. In 1995, this innovative bridge replaced an older one and was renamed. With cannons of light that shoot up to the sky and a red, white, and blue lighting scheme on patriotic holidays, the Q Bridge is a poignant reminder of a dark chapter in the nation's history.