“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

Abraham Lincoln and George Washington cast long shadows over American history. Here, all by himself, Washington casts a shadow on the pavement in Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park.

Casting a long shadow.

Washington at Peace, one of two image of the America’s first president on the north face of the fabulous Washington Arch, created the shadow with the morning sunlight.

Washington at Peace was carved by Stirling Calder (1870–1945), father of mobile inventor Alexander Calder (1898–1976), in 1918.

See the Washington Arch and Washington at Peace and much more on the Greenwich Village Walking Tour.

What cast the long shadow.

“Jealousy, and local policy mix too much in all our public councils for the good government of the Union. In a word, the confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance.”
—George Washington, from an October 7, 1785 letter to James Warren (1726–1808, Paymaster General of the Continental Army)