The Washington Monument

September 15, 2022 by Jarret and Lachlan

 

Another thing that I’ve never had a chance to do is to go up in the Washington Monument. I’ve long been fascinated by this structure, which is another one that’s massive on a DC scale. It was even the tallest building in the world when it was completed, though not for long. At 555 feet, 5-⅛ inches tall, it does however still holds the record as the tallest freestanding masonry structure in the world.

 The last two times we went to DC, the elevator was in the process of being repaired/upgraded, so I assumed that it would be unlikely that we’d have an opportunity to go up in the elevator this time. I was happily wrong! On the previous two trips, we’d only admired it from the outside, which is rewarding in and of itself. It has a simple, elegant beauty. We’d learned why the color of the marble changed at about ⅓ of its height, since progress was halted for a period of over 2 decades, and also that the monument was damaged in an earthquake in 2011. But we’d never been inside.

Visible color change in the upper stone, as it was
quarried at a later date.

The chamber you enter after a brief intro by a NPS park ranger is pretty old, but the only original items were the cast-iron columns. A statue of George Washington was the highlight of the chamber, and is the most accurate statue of him in existence, as it’s from actual casts of his face and limbs. After a chance to view the chamber and statue and have questions answered, we got into the elevator.

        

The elevator ride was surprisingly short for a 500’ ride! The observation deck at the 500’ level is all indoor, with two small windows on each of the four sides and history pieces interspersed throughout. 

Lachlan wrote about the views:

“I didn't expect the views to be so good! I loved how the lack of skyscrapers made the view of the monuments the best in the entire city. You can see pretty much everything, with the Capitol building to the east, the Jefferson Memorial to the south, the Lincoln Memorial to the West, and of course, the White House to the north.”

East view, the United States Capitol and National Mall

South view, Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial

West view, WWII Memorial in foreground, then a long reflecting pool, and Lincoln Memorial

North view, The White House

I agree 100% with Lachlan’s comments. I somehow didn’t expect the White House view to be so good, in particular, since it had seemed hard to see from most angles on our past trips. It was an incredible new way to take in the National Mall we love, as well as the city beyond.

At the top there was information and a cutaway model of how the top of the monument was constructed. 

Display of the engineering, as well as how repairs are done

Cutaway of the amazing design of the stonework

There was a little treat on the ride down the elevator. We hadn’t realized that the doors had windows on them, because they’d appeared as simple frosted panels. But a video in the elevator told us to watch for the windows to become clear at a couple of points on the ride down. At these points, some special “commemorative stones” were revealed, which was a really cool bonus to finish the experience. This was another tour that was well worth our time.