The entire height has been made slightly greater than ten times the breadth of the base, producing an obelisk that for grace and delicacy of outline is not excelled by any of the larger Egyptian monoliths, while in dignity and grandeur it surpasses any that can be mentioned. The Monument tapers one-fourth of an inch to the foot, being 15 feet thick at the base and 18 inches thick at the top of the shaft. When the capstone was set in place a salute was fired by artillery stationed near the base, while the national flag was unfurled to the breeze in the rigging far above. The cost of the Monument was $1,300,000. To the criticism that the obelisks of old were monoliths, the reply was made that this Monument to Washington will not be less significant or stately because of being made up of many separate stones, for our country has been proud to give examples of both political and material structures which owe their strength to union; and this Monument embodies the idea of our national motto, E Pluribus Unum.
THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT
With a view of having the States of the Union properly represented in the Monument the society extended an invitation for each State to furnish for insertion in the interior walls a block of marble or other durable stone—a production of its soil—of the following dimensions: 4 feet long, 2 feet high, and with a bed of from 12 to 18 inches, the name of the State to be cut thereon in large letters, and if desirable to the donor, the State’s coat of arms also. Later, this invitation to contribute memorial blocks of stone was extended to embrace such a gift from a foreign government. In response to these invitations many rich and durable blocks of stone were received which now adorn the interior walls of the shaft (in 1929 the memorial stones numbered 187) from all parts of the world, including one from the Parthenon at Athens, the ruins of ancient Carthage, and the tomb of Napoleon at St. Helena. These memorial stones begin at a height of 30 feet and end at 290 feet.
Great preparations were made for dedication of the Monument. This took place on February 21, 1885, with Hon. John Sherman, chairman of the commission, presiding. Several descendants and relatives of the Washington family were present. The orator of the day was again the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, who as Speaker of the House of Representatives had delivered the oration at the laying of the corner stone July 4, 1848. His oration on this occasion was read, as illness prevented him from being present. Among those in Washington to-day who witnessed the dedication is Hon. William Tyler Page, then serving as a page in the House; later becoming Clerk of the House of Representatives and executive secretary of the George Washington Bicentennial Commission. Thus when we are reminded of the three friends of George Washington who were present at the corner-stone laying of the Washington Monument we must indeed admit that we even of this day are not far removed from him and his times, and that our Republic is still young, though greater achievements have been wrought in the past 100 years than in the previous 1,000 years of the world’s history.
The efforts of the Washington National Monument Society had at last been realized, and the American people beheld the consummation of their desire—a great monument erected at the seat of the Federal Government to the name and memory of George Washington.
The interior is lighted by electricity, affording an opportunity to see the memorial stones. Ascent is made by means of an elevator and an iron stairway, supported by 8 vertical iron columns—4 columns terminating at a height of 500 feet and 4 within the roof at 517 feet—which sustain the elevator machinery above. The iron stairway consists of short flights, strung along the north and south sides of the wall, connecting with iron platforms 4 feet 8 inches wide (to a height of 150 feet) and 7 feet 10³⁄₄ inches wide, 20 feet apart on a side, and extending along the east and west walls. There are 50 flights and 900 steps. From these steps and platforms the inscriptions may be read.
In 1926 a new elevator was installed. It is of the electrically driven, gearless, single wrap, traction type, with a speed of 500 feet per minute and a lifting capacity of 6,000 pounds, exclusive of the weight of the car and cables. It is equipped with a micro-leveling device, which insures exact leveling of the car at landings and also makes possible the operation of the elevator at slow speed in case of failure of the main motor, thus eliminating the danger of stalling the car between landings. It accommodates 30 persons and makes 12 trips per hour. There are 8 windows at a height of 504 feet above ground—2 windows in each of the 4 faces of the pyramidion—4 feet above the 500-foot landing. These windows measure 18 inches by 3 feet on three sides, and on the east side 2 feet by 3 feet. Looking to the east from the windows one sees the stately Capitol; to the north, across the President’s Park, the beautiful mansion of the Chief Magistrate; to the northeast, the Soldiers’ Home; to the northwest, the great residential section, the Naval Observatory, and the Washington Cathedral; to the west the beautiful Potomac River, as it winds its way for miles past the city, and Arlington National Cemetery, the Nation’s most sacred resting place for those who served in defense of their country; and as we follow the Potomac southward there is Alexandria, 6 miles beyond, and in the faint distance Mount Vernon, where is the tomb of the immortal Washington. And on that lofty height, the greatest single piece of masonry in the world, we think also of other high structures—the Empire State Building, with 86 stories, 1,248 feet; Chrysler Building, 68 stories, 1,046 feet; Bank of Manhattan, 65 stories, 838 feet; Woolworth Tower 60 stories, 792 feet; Metropolitan Life Insurance Building, 700 feet; The New York Life Insurance Building, 610 feet, at the site of the former famous Madison Square Garden; Singer Tower, 612 feet; spires of Cologne Cathedral, 524 feet; spire of Old St. Paul’s, London, 508 feet; Pyramids of Cheops, 480 feet; Book Tower, Detroit, 472 feet; Victoria Tower, Westminster, 325 feet; Statue of Liberty, 317 feet; Bennington Battle Monument, 306 feet; the Capitol, 287 feet; Bunker Hill Monument at Boston, 221 feet. In 1890 Daniel H. Burnham completed the Masonic Temple, in Chicago, “the tallest building in the world,” 21 stories high, among the first of all-steel construction. In New York City the caisson for high-building foundation work was first adopted in the Manhattan Life Insurance Building, near Exchange Place on Broadway, in 1894. Built on a foundation of bedrock 55 feet below the surface, the structure of 18 stories was built 350 feet in height from the sidewalk.
The masonry constructed by the Government is the best known to the engineering art, and the weight is so distributed that, subject to a wind pressure of 100 pounds per square foot on any face, corresponding to a wind velocity of 145 miles per hour, the Monument would have a large factor of safety against overturning. The entire weight is 81,120 tons. The weight of the foundations is 36,912 tons, and there is a maximum pressure on the underlying soil of 9 tons per square foot.
In the morning the Monument catches the first rays of the sun. In stormy weather the top stands like a mountain peak, immovable, as seen amidst clouds. So, indeed, does the great and noble Washington overtower all of his contemporaries of the Revolutionary War and the formative period of this Republic. The Washington Monument has been fittingly described as typifying the character of George Washington—lofty in its grandeur, plain in its simplicity, and white in its purity. The following is a quotation from the oration of Speaker Winthrop delivered at the laying of the corner stone on July 4, 1848: