Robert F. Kennedy Gravesite

Robert F. Kennedy, younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, was shot in Los Angeles on 5 June 1968, just after his victory in the California Democratic primary, and died the following morning. Following the funeral mass held on 8 June at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, a train carried his remains to Washington to be buried at Arlington next to his brother. The train reached Washington only at 9:10 p.m. and cemetery officials arranged an evening burial: floodlights lit the open grave and service members handed out 1,500 candles to the mourners.

Late in 1968, Ethel Kennedy selected I. M. Pei to design the permanent grave; the family had already chosen him for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. Construction began on 9 November 1970. Robert Kennedy was disinterred on 1 December 1971 and moved to the new grave, dedicated on 6 December.

Pei's design keeps the plain white cross of the first grave and adds a granite plaza, like that of the neighbouring John F. Kennedy grave. The grave lies on the slope above this small semicircular plaza, from which visitors look at it: the cross, of white wood, stands at its head, and a stone set flush with the ground marks its foot.

At the back of the plaza, on the straight side, a low wall of grey granite bears two inscriptions from Kennedy's speeches: one comes from the speech he gave in South Africa on 6 June 1966, the other from a line by the playwright George Bernard Shaw that he quoted in his 1968 presidential campaign. A small rectangular pool runs along the foot of the wall.

Arlington is a cemetery in active use, and a place of honour, mourning and reflection: visitors speak quietly and do not sit on monuments or gravestones.

Arlington National Cemetery is open every day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors who arrive on foot, by metro or by ride share, or who park in the Welcome Center garage, go through security screening there; the main entrance, at 1 Memorial Avenue, is a five-minute walk from the Arlington Cemetery metro station.

The grave is in Section 45, very close to that of John F. Kennedy, where the cemetery's sightseeing tram stops. The cemetery covers 639 acres (about 258 hectares): the distances and slopes call for moderate physical effort.