PopUps: Twitter is Thirsting After this Shirtless Statue of Abe Lincoln

A photo of a statue of a shirtless Abraham Lincoln is going viral, thanks to Twitter users who are not holding back their thirst for the depiction of the 16th president of the United States.

Screenwriter Zack Stentz ("Thor," "X-Men: First Class") tweeted a photo of the statute, writing:

"Reminder that the Los Angeles federal courthouse has a statue of Abraham Lincoln where he's a shirtless young stud suggestively tugging at his waistband like a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model."

Stentz later followed up his photo with another tweet, revealing that his friend found an old copy of Life magazine, in which an article detailed the commissioning of "the sexy Lincoln statue."

The Washington Post reporter Gillian Brockell dug deeper, finding that the statue is actually called "Young Lincoln" and was created by a local artist named James Lee Hansen, who won a contest in 1939 to make it. It was revealed at the Los Angeles courthouse in 1941 and Lincoln's body is apparently based on Hansen's own body. Brockell also wrote that Hansen "used his prize money to buy a car, crashed it and 'spent 18 days in jail."

As of this writing, Stentz's pic earned over 56,200 likes and 12,500 retweets. Of course, Twitter users were quick to react to the pic. Find the best responses below.

This story is part of our special report: "PopUps". Want to read more? Here's the full list.