John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame, Presidential memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, US

The John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame is a grave and memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where a fire burns within a round bronze structure surrounded by granite stones. The site sits on a gently sloping grassy hillside with open views across the cemetery grounds.

Jacqueline Kennedy lit the fire on November 25, 1963, during the state funeral following the assassination in Dallas a few days earlier. The system was upgraded in 2013 with new gas lines without extinguishing the flame.

Jacqueline Kennedy asked for the flame on November 24, 1963, after returning from the Capitol, inspired by the eternal flame at the Arc de Triomphe she and Kennedy saw in Paris in 1961. In 1964 the U.S. Postal Service put the flame on a commemorative stamp bearing the line "And the glow from that fire can truly light the world" from Kennedy's inaugural address.

The grounds are open from April through September between 8 AM and 7 PM, and from October through March they close at 5 PM. Access is via wide pathways that accommodate wheelchairs and strollers.

The flame was the first in the United States to honor a named individual rather than the Unknown Soldier; the earlier one burned at Gettysburg, lit by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938. The current burner sits atop a five-foot granite stone at the head of the grave and relights itself after rain, snow or wind.