The Torch of Friendship, Monument at Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami, United States

The Torch of Friendship stands on Biscayne Boulevard at the northwest corner of Bayfront Park in downtown Miami. A stone-clad pillar carries the Great Seal of the United States and a bronze plaque reading "THE TORCH OF FRIENDSHIP" and "1960". A curved wall beside it bears the words TORCH OF FRIENDSHIP above 20 round plates with the coats of arms of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

In August 1960 the Miami City Commission, on a suggestion by city manager Melvin L. Reese, voted to build the Torch in Bayfront Park as a monument to the city's "perpetual friendship" with Latin America; Mayor Robert King High said it would show Miami as more than a geographical gateway. It was dedicated in October 1960. After John F. Kennedy's assassination it was re-dedicated to his memory on January 20, 1964, the third anniversary of his inauguration.

The monument displays twenty circular stone plates featuring coats of arms from different Latin American and Caribbean nations. These emblems represent the city's ongoing bonds with the region and its many communities from these areas.

The monument stands at the northwest corner of Bayfront Park, where Biscayne Boulevard meets the park's edge. The pillar and its curved wall sit on an open plaza, so you can walk up to the plaques and read the country seals at any hour. The Ponce de León statue is on the plaza's north side and the Simón Bolívar statue on its south side.

Among the twenty round plates on the curved wall, a gap sits between Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic: the alphabetical slot for Cuba was left empty. On October 11, 1974, three Latino men backed a rented U-Haul into the torch and spray-painted slogans for Cuban liberation; the city oversaw the $4,000 repairs, finished by July 1975.