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The Washington Monument, by law, is the tallest structure in the District of Columbia. Tickets to the top, reached via an elevator in what was once the construction shaft, can be ordered on-line from the national park service, or can be gotten at the monument for a timed entry on a first-come, first-served basis until all tickets are gone. The 480-foot level holds exhibits on George Washington; the 490-foot level holds the observation windows. Windows have been installed in the elevator to allow visitors to see the memorial stones without walking stairs. The elevator ascends rapidly, but descends slowly, stopping in front of a handful of the stones.
The Continental Congress passed a Resolution in 1783 for an equestrian statue of George Washington to be erected at the center of the Mall. When L’Enfant planned the federal city, he designated a place for this statue at the intersection of a cross. George Washington died in 1799, but the statue had not been built.
Congress came up with a second plan - to entomb Washington’s remains in a crypt beneath the U.S. Capitol. The crypt was built, but Washington’s heirs insisted that the former President’s remains stay at Mount Vernon. The crypt remains empty to this day.
Plans for a monument didn’t resurface until 1833, a year after the centennial of Washington’s birth. The Washington National Monument Society was formed, with a goal of constructing “the largest monument in the world.” The Society held a design competition. Architect Robert Mills won the contest, with a plan of a classical, circular colonnaded building, 100-feet high, with a 600-foot obelisk shooting out of the middle. Imagine the Jefferson Memorial with a 600-foot shaft emerging from the dome.
The Society began fund raising for the first part of the plan - the obelisk. The cornerstone for the obelisk was laid on July 4, 1848, and construction on the shaft began. To help with construction, organizations were invited to donate stones for the interior walls around the stairwell. This almost became the project’s end. Pope Pius IX donated a block of marble from the Temple of Concord in Rome. Anti-Catholic sentiment was high in America at the time and the block was stolen, most likely by members of an Anti-Catholic political party, the Know-Nothings. Within the Monument Society itself raged a struggle between the original founders and the Know-Nothings. The public became incensed at the theft and the power struggle. Donations for the monument became less and less until disappearing altogether in 1854. The monument was 152 feet high and construction stopped.
The shaft remained on the mall, only half constructed, for 26 years when President Ulysses Grant finally signed a bill for the federal government to take over the project from the Monument Society. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished the monument on December 6, 1884, crowning it with a 9-inch aluminum pyramid. The colonnaded structure surrounding the shaft was forgotten.
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The final height of the monument, with its marble exterior and granite interior, is slightly over 555 feet. Scattered throughout the building, in the stairwell of 896 steps, are the 198 memorial stones, including a replacement of the stolen stone from Pope Pius. In 1937, sort of resembling the original design of the colonnaded building, American flags, one for each state, were placed in a circle around the base of the monument. As states have been added to the Union, so have flags been added to the circle.
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