L'Ecole Polytechnique Monument

{{Short description|Monument located at the United States Military Academy in West point, New York}}

{{Infobox Military Memorial

|name= L'Ecole Polytechnique Monument

|body= United States Military Academy

|image= 200px

|caption= L'Ecole Polytechnique Monument, Central Area, West Point

|commemorates=

|use_dates=

|coordinates= {{coord|41|23|28.12|N|73|57|25.89|W|region:US_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

|nearest_town= Highland Falls, NY

|designer=

|inscription=

|established=

|unveiled= 1919

|total=

|unknowns=

|commemorated= French Cadets who died in defense of France and brotherhood in arms with the cadets of West Point

|by_country= United States of America

|by_war=

|source=

}}

L'Ecole Polytechnique Monument is a statue and monument located at the United States Military Academy in West point, New York. 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.{{cite web|title=Tour of West Point (Slide 9 of 14)|publisher=USMA.edu|url=http://www.usma.edu/tour/CadetMonument.asp|accessdate=January 2, 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104064155/http://www.usma.edu/Tour/CadetMonument.asp|archivedate=January 4, 2010}}

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; button unbuttoned, and the cannonballs too large for bore of the cannon.{{cite book|last=Hulse|first=Glenn|title=Bugle Notes 1994|publisher=Jostens Publishing|location=State College, PA|year=1994|pages=171, 254–255}} 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.