VIEWFINDER: Traveling Vietnam Wall Comes to Bellevue for the Fourth of July Weekend

The Lake Washington VFW Post 2995 and Sunset Hills Memorial Park have brought the Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall to Bellevue for the fourth of July Weekend.

Volunteers organized by the Lake Washington VFW will read the names from the wall aloud, and can help visitors find a specific serviceman's name inscribed on the wall.

The wall is open 24 hours a day, and the main ceremony at the traveling Wall will be Sunday at 1 p.m. and the closing ceremony will be at 5 p.m. Monday. Sunset Hills Memorial Park is located at 1215 145th Place SE, Bellevue.

The wall was brought to Sunset Hills Memorial Park on Tuesday via motorcycle escort with about 80 riders, and volunteers put the wall up earlier this week.

The wall, a traveling, three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was created by Sunset Hills' parent company Dignity Memorial. The faux-granite replica stands 240 feet long and eight feet high and is inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 Americans who died or are missing in Vietnam, according to its website, and the traveling wall has been displayed in more than 200 cities across the country, allowing millions of visitors to experience the healing power of the memorial.

The real Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built in the National Mall at Washington, D.C. in 1982, designed by artist Maya Lin, who at the time was a student at Yale University. According to the National Mall trust, despite initial controversy over the at-the-time untraditional design of the wall, it has become one of the most emotional locations on the National Mall.