The Lincoln Memorial was designed and sited such that twice each year on the spring and fall equinox the rising sun will strike the Lincoln Statue directly. If you are there excactly at sunrise on the equinox there are some amazing colors. Since the statue is deep within the memorial the fantastic light doesn’t last more than a few seconds. – Mark Baird

Since December of 2013 PJ Lifestyle has been collecting sunrise and sunset photos from contributors, readers, and Instagram. Now we’re going to begin an effort to organize the ongoing collection. New goals:

1. Collect a sunrise from every state in the union.

2. Collect a sunset from as many countries around the world as possible.

3. After getting all 50 states’ sunrises then switch to collecting their sunsets and begin the global sunrises collection.

Updated April 2014: 4. The extraordinary submissions of Mark Baird have inspired a new collection of photographs devoted specifically to our nation’s capital. We’re going to try and organize fantastic sunrise and sunset photos from all the different monuments and scenic views.