Washington Monument
Washington
The Washington Monument is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, a Founding Father of the United States, victorious commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783 in the American Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Standing east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial, the monument is made of bluestone gneiss for the foundation and of granite for the construction. The outside facing consists, due to the interrupted building process, of three different kinds of white marble: in the lower third, marble from Baltimore County, Maryland, followed by a narrow zone of marble from Sheffield, Massachusetts, and, in the upper part, the so-called Cockeysville Marble. Both "Maryland Marbles" came from the "lost" Irish Quarry Town of "New Texas". The monument stands 554 feet 71132 inches (169.046 m) tall, according to U.S. National Geodetic Survey measurements in 2013 and 2014. It is the third tallest monumental column in the world, trailing only the Juche Tower in Pyongyang, North Korea, and the San Jacinto Monument in Houston, Texas. It was the world's tallest structure between 1884 and 1889, after which it was overtaken by the Eiffel Tower, in Paris. Previously, the tallest structures were Lincoln Cathedral and Cologne Cathedral.
Construction of the presidential memorial began in 1848. The construction was suspended from 1854 to 1877 due to funding challenges, a struggle for control over the Washington National Monument Society, and the American Civil War. The stone structure was completed in 1884, and the internal ironwork, the knoll, and installation of memorial stones was completed in 1888. A difference in shading of the marble, visible about 150 feet (46 m) or 27 up, shows where construction was halted and later resumed with marble from a different source. The original design was by Robert Mills from South Carolina, but construction omitted his proposed colonnade for lack of funds, and construction proceeded instead with a bare obelisk. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848; the first stone was laid atop the unfinished stump on August 7, 1880; the capstone was set on December 6, 1884; the completed monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885; it opened on October 9, 1888.
Photo: Greyfiveys (CC BY-SA 4.0); Fenderich, Charles, etcher; Mills, Robert, 1781-1855, architect (Public domain); Art10 at English Wikipedia (Public domain)
Construction of the presidential memorial began in 1848. The construction was suspended from 1854 to 1877 due to funding challenges, a struggle for control over the Washington National Monument Society, and the American Civil War. The stone structure was completed in 1884, and the internal ironwork, the knoll, and installation of memorial stones was completed in 1888. A difference in shading of the marble, visible about 150 feet (46 m) or 27 up, shows where construction was halted and later resumed with marble from a different source. The original design was by Robert Mills from South Carolina, but construction omitted his proposed colonnade for lack of funds, and construction proceeded instead with a bare obelisk. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848; the first stone was laid atop the unfinished stump on August 7, 1880; the capstone was set on December 6, 1884; the completed monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885; it opened on October 9, 1888.
Photo: Greyfiveys (CC BY-SA 4.0); Fenderich, Charles, etcher; Mills, Robert, 1781-1855, architect (Public domain); Art10 at English Wikipedia (Public domain)