L'Ecole Polytechnique Monument

L'Ecole Polytechnique Monument is a statue and monument located at the United States Military Academy. It is a replica of a statue at École Polytechnique that commemorates the cadets of that French school who died in defense of France in 1814. In 1919, in the wake of Franco-American cooperation in the First World War, an association of alumni of the École Polytechnique presented a full-size casting of the statue to West Point as a symbol of brotherhood between the two nations and schools.^[1]

First year cadets (plebes) are required to know the four "mistakes on the French Monument": the curved saber but straight scabbard; the flag blowing one direction, the coat tails the other; and the cannonballs too large for bore of the cannon.^[2] The monument was once located on the edge of the Plain, but has now been moved inside the cadet Central Area and is off limits to non-academy personnel.

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