Photos:'Ride of the Patriots' Honors Veterans

More than 4,500 motorcycles gathered Sunday for the Annual Ride of the Patriots, a procession to the 25th annual Rolling Thunder Ride in Washington that honors veterans each Memorial Day.

During the ride, in its 14th year, motorcyclists started on Lee Highway and headed down Nutley Street before merging onto I-66 and riding to the Pentagon to join Rolling Thunder, which attracted more than 400,000 motorcyclists for a ride through D.C.

The first Rolling Thunder ride was held on Memorial Day weekend 1998, when Vietnam veterans organized a demonstration to raise awareness about Prisioners of War/Missing in Action Soldiers. They unified on roaring motorcycles, "a sound not unlike the 1965 bombing campaign against North Vietnam dubbed Operation Rolling Thunder," organizers wrote on the event's website. It's a name that would be trademarked in 1990.

Since that first year, the ride has attracted thousands of riders and spectators. Residents of Vienna line Nutley Street and the overpasses along I-66 to show their support for veterans and the troops.

"It's hard to believe its been 25 years since we started this demonstration; we are all much older than when we started but we hung in there and changed the POW/MIA issue from a lost cause to bringing home remains and providing closure to many families," organizers wrote.

Vienna photographer John Luck captured the writers on their trip down Nutley Street. Click through his pictures in the media gallery above.