English: Tomb of Admiral George Dewey in the Bethlehem Chapel in the crypt level of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

Dewey was a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who served in numerous battles of the American Civil War. After the war, he rose to the rank of Captain and commanded USS Dolphin. He later took command of the USS Olympia. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, the 31-year-old Dewey sailed his small fleet of ships to the mouth of Manila Bay. At dawn on May 1, he uttered the famous words: "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." Within 6 hours, he had sunk or captured the entire Spanish Pacific fleet. Dewey was made Admiral of the Navy in 1899 -- the only American naval officer to ever hold that rank. He ran for president in 1900, but his campaign floundered (Dewey had a habit of misspeaking and tactlessness). He remained in service (serving essentially as Chief of Naval Operations). During World War I, he pushed for a much larger Navy although he continued to advocate conservative, outdated naval tactics. Suffering from severe hardening of the arteries and high blood pressure, he died after a short illness on January 16, 1917.

Dewey was originally interred in Arlington National Cemetery. But in March 1925 his wife and son received permission to have his body exhumed and reinterred in the Washington National Cathedral. His body was placed in the burial vault below the chapel. A simple concave lid inscribed with his name, dates of birth and death, title, and the four stars accorded him as Admiral of the Navy was placed on a window sill directly over the spot where Dewey's body lay. This cenotaph (or "empty tomb") just happened to be directly opposite the tomb of Woodroow Wilson.

Although Wilson's cenotaph was dismantled in 1956 and moved to the nave (along with Wilson's body), Dewey's cenotaph remains where it is.