February 13, 2005

How the Washington Monument Grew

A popular blurb on the World Wide Web touts the religious significance of the Washington Monument.

It points out that the nine-inch solid-aluminum pyramidal cap of the world’s largest obelisk is inscribed “Laus Deo” -- meaning “Praise Be To God” -- where only God can see it.

On the 12th landing of the internal stairway is a memorial stone contributed by the City of Baltimore offering this prayer:

“May heaven to this union continue its beneficence. May brotherly affection with union be perpetual. May the free constitution which is the work of our ancestors be sacredly maintained and its administration be stamped with wisdom land virtue.”

On the 20th landing is a eulogy to George Washington presented by Chinese Christians from the city of Ningpo, China.

On the 24th landing is a memorial presented by Methodist Sabbath School children from New York and Philadelphia. It depicts an open Bible referencing Luke 18.16: “Suffer the little children to come unto me.”

A copy of the Holy Bible – presented by the Bible Society – is one of several dozen items placed in the monument’s cornerstone.

All very interesting, but other facts are more so.

Aluminum tip of the monument -- 555 feet above the present ground level -- is the working end of a lightning rod. One side quotes the Biblical passage. The other three sides list the names of dignitaries and engineers who authorized and supervised construction of the edifice.

Not true is the claim that the street plan for Washington, D.C., by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, is laid out to emphasize a Holy Cross. His plan is so complicated with intersecting avenues and circular redoubts – to facilitate cannon emplacement – any design can be fancied.

How It Was Built

The Washington Monument was built at intervals between 1848 and 1885, according to the National Park Service. It has custody of the memorial dedicated to the Revolutionary War general and our first, constitutional president.

Construction of a monument to honor George Washington was first considered by the Continental Congress in 1783. At the time of his death in 1799, and during the next three decades, Congress neglected to take definite action on many proposals for a memorial.

The Washington National Monument Society was organized by influential citizens in 1833 to recognize the “Father of our country.”

Progress of the Society was slow. It was not until 1847 that $87,000 had been collected by popular subscription. Designs were solicited from leading architects. That by Robert Mills was selected.

Mills design was for a 600-foot tower rising from a circular colonnade 250 feet in diameter. However, the building committee directed him to forget the colonnade and substitute a tapered, hollow obelisk 555 feet tall.

Location of a Washington Memorial had been indicated on Enfant’s plan, but the spot along the Potomac River was low and swampy. A large foundation had to be constructed to support 90,854 tons of Maryland Marble and Maine granite.

The entire 30-acre building site years later was filled with earth to cover the foundation and create greensward.

Cornerstone

President James K. Polk laid the cornerstone on the Fourth of July, 1848, in an elaborate ceremony conducted by Freemasons. He was a Mason and wielded the ceremonial trowel used by George Washington – a Grand Master Freemason -- when laying the cornerstone of the Capitol in 1793.

Construction continued until 1854, when donations ran out. The next year, Congress voted to appropriate $200,000 to continue the work.

The Monument Society encouraged all states and territories to donate memorial stones that could be fitted into the interior walls. Stones of all kind began arriving.

Many stones carried inscriptions irrelevant to a memorial for Washington. That from the Templars of Honor and Temperance stated: “We will not buy, sell, or use as a beverage, any spirituous or malt liquors, Wine, Cider, or any other Alcoholic Liquor,”

It was just one other memorial stone that stopped Congressional appropriations and construction.

Pope Pius IX contributed a block of marble. In March 1854, members of the anti-Catholic anti-immigrant American Party – better known as the “Know-Nothings” -- stole the Pope’s stone and supposedly threw it into the Potomac.

In order to make sure the monument fit their definition of “American,” the Know-Nothings rigged a fraudulent election so they could take over the Monument Society.

Congress rescinded its appropriation. However, the trumped-up Society added 13 courses to the monument – all of which were of such poor quality they were later removed.

The Know-Nothings abandoned the project, and construction stopped. For almost 25 years, the monument stood incomplete at a height of 150 feet. The site was used as a cattle pen for the Union Army during the Civil War.

Work Resumes

President Ulysses S. Grant approved an act in August, 1876, which provided that the Federal Government should complete building the monument. The War Department Corps of Engineers was placed in charge.

Work resumed in 1880. The new Maryland marble, with which remainder of the monument is faced, was secured from the same quarry as the original stones. However, the earlier stratum of stone had been mined out. The new marble was of slightly different hue. The demarcation is plainly visible.

A capstone was set in place December 6, 1884, and the engraved, aluminum tip screwed down two weeks later during a driving rainstorm that precluded cameras.

Aluminum – a rare metal those days – was chosen for the lightning arrestor because of its “whiteness.” It cost $256 and was considered exorbitant because a bronze tip would have cost only $50.

Final cost of the entire project was $l.8 million. The monument was renovated in 1999 at a cost of $9.4 million.

Today

Observation windows at the top can be reached by elevator -- or by the original iron stairway consisting of 50 landings and 897 steps. Many visitors prefer the latter route as a personal dedication -- and to read the 188 inscribed stones.

The monument is the largest, freestanding stone structure in the world. It sways 1/8th of an inch in a 30-mile-per-hour wind. It has been struck by lightning several times – without material damage, but left small pockmarks on the solid aluminum pyramidal.

For ten hours in December of 1982, the Washington Monument was “held hostage” by a nuclear arms protester who claimed to have explosives in a van he drove up to the entrance.

Eight tourists trapped inside were set free. The incident ended when U.S. Park Police opened fire on the protestor killing him. The monument was not damaged, and it was discovered that the protestor did not have explosives as he claimed.

Now the monument is circled with bollards to prevent approach by vehicles.

The National Park Service operates and maintains the monument open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. – 8 a.m. to midnight in summer. It closes in respect only on Christmas Day.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at linwms@lindseywilliams.org

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Cutlines

1 – Lead art – 4 col. U choose -- wash monument

Photo courtesy Smithsonian Institution

OR – DEPENDING UPON PIX QUALITY

1 – lead art – 4 col. U choose wash monument

Courtesy State College, Pa.

TWO-TONE BEAUTY – Washington Monument is largest obelisk in the world. Note darker shade of upper two- thirds -- marking delay in construction.

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2 – 3 col. – laying cornerstone

Courtesy National Park Service

POMP AND CEREMONY – President James Polk laid the Washington Monument cornerstone on the Fourth of July, 1848. He wielded the ceremonial trowel used by Washington at laying the cornerstone of the Capitol in 1793.

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3 -- 3 col. – half-finished monument

Illustration from Gleason’s Pictorial 1854

POLITICAL CONFUSION – Work on the monument stopped abruptly over a controversy about a block of marble contributed by Pope Pius IX in 1854. Note sloping foundation and height of doorway before the swampy site was filled in --also, oxen hauling stones on sleds.

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4 – 3 col. –tower and cattle herd -- OPTIONAL

Illustration courtesy National Park Service

BEEF DEPOT -- The unfinished monument languished for 25 years, a victim of lethargy and the Civil War. The filled land was used to herd cattle for the Union Army.

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5 -- -- 2 col – tower

Photo courtesy National Park Service

NEARLY COMPLETE – Work on the shaft resumed in 1880, but the new marble did not quite match the original. The capstone was set in place Dec 6, 1884, signaling completion of construction.

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6 – 3 col. – setting tip

Illustration courtesy of National Park Service

FANCY LIGHTNING ROD -- Aluminum pyramidal was bolted to a ground wire to four iron pipes in a well to divert lighting. The monument has been struck harmlessly several times.

Williams – Wash. monument

Sunday – feb. 13, 2005

LINDSEY AT LARGE LOGO AND 48PT. HEAD