Last night we stopped by the dedication of Ed Hamilton’s Abraham Lincoln Memorial at Louisville’s Waterfront Park.

Long story short: amazing night, amazing memorial, America should be proud.

We snapped (okay, our strapping young assistant did) some photos and took some video (which we’ll edit and upload later) and figure we should pass a few of them along.

As you can see, sculptor Ed Hamilton really outdid himself:

Even the four bas reliefs that tell the story of Abraham Lincoln were breath-taking:

View the rest after the jump…

The crowd was large early on:

As the evening went on, it was clear that unveiling the memorial at sunset was a great idea:

Attorney General Jack Conway was there with his lovely wife Elizabeth:

Hamilton said he knew the memorial was a good thing upon seeing hundreds of children playing on and around our nation’s greatest president:

The Belle of Louisville dropped anchor near the memorial for a prime dinner cruise:

And, of course, alleged Mayor Jerry Abramson with David Tandy and other hobnobbers. William Mapother, the evening’s narrator, can be seen in the top center of the photograph:

Oh, and Rick was there snapping photos. This one is of our alleged Mayor Jerry Abramson and his wife staring at Honest Abe:

The C-J’s Chris Kenning was also there. The paper got lots of great photos.

It’s a shame more elected officials and community leaders weren’t present. Guess 60 degrees was way too cold for them?