About one million Americans who served in the military have died in combat. Many of these are buried in them in one of the 155 military cemeteries The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) National Cemetery Administration. These are spread across 42 states.
To determine America’s largest military cemetery, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed military cemetery information from the National Cemetery Administration of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Cemeteries were ordered based on the total number of gravesites as of May 2022. Those estimates came from the NCA’s Nationwide Gravesite Locator tool and the online grave database Find A Grave. All other data came chiefly from the NCA.
With more than 400,000 graves, Arlington National Cemetery is by far the largest military cemetery in the U.S. Arlington is visited by 3 million people a year. It was established in 1864 because the surrounding resting places were filled to capacity from the war fatalities. The cemetery was created on the grounds of the former plantation home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Arlington is the biggest military cemetery in the U.S. but not the oldest. That distinction belongs to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, located in St. Louis, which opened in 1863. Not on the list, but considerably older, the oldest military cemetery in the U.S. is the West Point Post Cemetery, established in 1817.
By acreage, the largest is the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California, at 1,237 acres.
Click here to read America’s 15 Largest Miltary Cemeteries
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