The Washington Monument took over 50 years to build. To honor the respect the public had for the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army and the first President of the United States – the most essential Founding Father of them all – the Washington Monument Society was formed in 1833 to fund and build a monument to George Washington. They already had a prominent place set aside for the monument – when Pierre L’Enfant laid out the streets of Washington DC, he left a prominent spot available at the intersection of the sightlines of the White House and the U.S. Capitol for exactly such a monument.
The Washington Monument Society solicited designs. In 1845, they chose an Egyptian-style obelisk surrounded by thirty 100’ columns. Work began on the monument in 1848 even though the Society did not yet have all the funds available for its construction. Symbolically, they chose July 4th to lay the cornerstone. Luminaries in attendance were then-President James Polk, former First Lady Dolly Madison, Eliza Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton’s widow), George Washington Parke Custis (George Washington’s grandson), as well as future presidents James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, and Andrew Johnson.
But work on the Monument ground to a half for nearly two decades. A group affiliated with the Know-Nothing Party took control of the Washington Monument Society in 1853 and alienated donors. A year later, the Society was forced to declare bankruptcy. The Monument stood only partially finished at 156’ in height. The Civil War then intervened, and the nation’s attention was focused elsewhere.
Finally, in 1876, Congress passed a resolution assuming responsibility for funding the Monument. It would no longer need to rely on private donations. However, the US Army Corps of Engineers quickly determined that the foundation of the monument was inadequate to support the weight of the final structure. Strengthening the foundation took four years.
By the time they were ready to continue building, though, the original marble quarry was no longer available. As you can imagine, a natural stone like marble would be hard to match from another source. At first, they tried a quarry in Massachusetts, but they laid only a few courses of stone (seen today about one-third of the way up the monument) before they decided that Massachusetts’ brown-streaked marble did not give them the match they wanted. The builders then found a quarry in Baltimore which they used for the remainder of construction. The three different stone colors are still visible today.
In 1884, 36 years after construction began and 51 years after the Washington Monument Society was formed, the capstone was finally set carefully into place. The Washington Monument, at 555’ was now the tallest building in the world, surpassing Cologne Cathedral.
I failed to take pictures of the different colors of the Washington Monument, so I found this one on Viator’s website. It’s easy to see where construction restarted in 1880 because the whitish marble becomes more tan. From the National Park Service’s account of the Monument’s construction, only a few courses were laid with stone from the Massachusetts quarry, but I can’t discern a distinct color difference on the top two-thirds of the Monument. The 30 100-foot high columns imagined in the original design were never built. Instead, we have 50 flagpoles that are 27′ tall.
I’m in Washington DC for a few days. One of the things that I’ve never done here is to go to the top of the Washington Monument and check out the views of DC from there. They should be lovely.
Tickets are released online at 10:00am each day. I logged in at 10:01, only to discover that I need to create an account. By the time I’d accomplished that, there were no tickets left.
Will try again tomorrow.
August 17, 2024
Curses, foiled again.
And again. And again.
I’ve tried every day this week to get tickets to the top of the Washington Monument. Tickets for the following day are released at precisely 10:00am. There are 210 tickets available. Before the clock hits 10:01, the tickets are all gone.
Heading back to Maryland tomorrow. Guess I’ll have to try again another time.
The Washington Monument is unmissable as the central object in the National Mall. Of course, it’s visible 24/7 to view its exterior. If you want to try your hand at obtaining tickets for the elevator ride to the top, you can obtain them (hopefully) from the National Park Service’s website at www.nps.gov/wamo/planyourvisit/fees.htm. Tickets come online at exactly 10:00am for dates 30 days hence. Their fee is only $1.00. If you didn’t plan ahead or couldn’t obtain tickets at 10:00am, there are also a few tickets available online at 3:00pm on the day before your intended visit. Walk-up same-day tickets are available for free at the Washington Monument Lodge at 15th Street between Madison and Jefferson Drives. But queue early! They’ll run out of tickets quickly.
If you’re really determined to get to the top of the Washington Monument and all the official ticket options fail, you can pay about $25 to retailers such as Viator or Get Your Guide for guaranteed entry.