The Washington Monument is a 555-foot (169 m) tall obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, a Founding Father of the United States and the nation's first president. Standing east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial, the monument is made of bluestone gneiss for the foundation and of granite for the construction. The outside facing consists of three different kinds of white marble, as the building process was repeatedly interrupted. The monument stands 554 feet 7+11⁄32 inches (169.046 m) tall, according to U.S. National Geodetic Survey measurements in 2013 and 2014. It is the third tallest monumental column in the world, trailing only the Juche Tower in Pyongyang, and the San Jacinto Monument in Houston, Texas. It was the world's tallest structure between 1884 and 1889, after which it was overtaken by the Eiffel Tower, in Paris. Construction of the presidential memorial began in 1848. The construction was suspended from 1854 to 1877 due to funding challenges, a struggle for control over the Washington National Monument Society, and the American Civil War. The stone structure was completed in 1884, and the internal ironwork, the knoll, and installation of memorial stones was completed in 1888. The original design was by Robert Mills from South Carolina, but construction omitted his proposed colonnade for lack of funds, and construction proceeded instead with a bare obelisk. The completed monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885, and opened to the public on October 9, 1888. In 2001, a temporary security screening facility was added to the entrance. Following the 2011 Virginia earthquake, the monument was closed for repairs until 2014, and it was closed again from 2016 to 2019. The Washington Monument is a hollow Egyptian-style stone obelisk with a 500-foot-tall (152.4 m) column surmounted by a 55-foot-tall (16.8 m) pyramidion. The walls taper as they rise and are supported by six arches; the top of the pyramidion is a large, marble capstone with a small aluminum pyramid at its apex, with inscriptions on all four sides. The interior is occupied by iron stairs that spiral up the walls, with an elevator in the center. The pyramidion has eight observation windows and eight red aircraft warning lights, two per side. At the northeast corner of the foundation is a marble cornerstone, including a zinc case filled with memorabilia. Fifty U.S. flags fly on a large circle of poles centered on the monument, representing each U.S. state.
History
The monument was built to honor George Washington, the first president of the United States. At Washington's death in 1799, he was the unchallenged public icon of U.S. military and civic patriotism. He was also identified with the Federalist Party, which lost control of the national government in 1800 to the Jeffersonian Republicans, who were reluctant to celebrate the hero of the opposition party.
Proposals After the American Revolutionary War, there were many proposals to build a monument to Washington, beginning with an authorization in 1783 by the old Confederation Congress to erect an equestrian statue of the general in a future U.S. national capital city. The initial proposal called for an equestrian statue. On December 24, 1799, ten days after Washington's death, a U.S. congressional committee recommended a different type of monument. U.S. representative John Marshall proposed that a tomb be erected within the Capitol, but a lack of funds, disagreement over what type of memorial to build, and the Washington family's reluctance to move his body from Mount Vernon prevented progress on any project. The Democratic-Republican Party (Jeffersonian Republicans) took control of Congress in 1801 and rescinded prior approvals for the memorial. Further political squabbling, along with the American Civil War, blocked the completion of the Washington Monument for much of the 19th century.
Design
Progress toward a memorial finally began in 1833, when a group of citizens formed the Washington National Monument Society. On September 23, 1835, the board of managers of the society described their expectations:It is proposed that the contemplated monument shall be like him in whose honor it is to be constructed, unparalleled in the world, and commensurate with the gratitude, liberality, and patriotism of the people by whom it is to be erected ... [It] should blend stupendousness with elegance, and be of such magnitude and beauty as to be an object of pride to the American people, and of admiration to all who see it. Its material is intended to be wholly American, and to be of marble and granite brought from each state, that each state may participate in the glory of contributing material as well as in funds to its construction. In 1836, after they had raised $28,000 in donations (equivalent to $1,000,000 in 2024), they announced a competition for the design of the memorial. Robert Mills was formally selected in 1845. Mills had previously designed a monument to George Washington in nearby Baltimore in 1815, and he had just been chosen Architect of Public Buildings for Washington. His design called for a circular colonnaded building 250 feet (76 m) in diameter and 100 feet (30 m) high, supporting a four-sided obelisk 500 feet (150 m) high, for a total height of 600 feet (180 m). A massive cylindrical pillar 70 feet (21 m) in diameter would support the obelisk at the center of the building. The obelisk was to be 70 feet (21 m) square at the base and 40 feet (12 m) square at the top with a slightly peaked roof. Both the obelisk and pillar were hollow within which a railway spiraled up. The obelisk had no doorway—instead its interior was entered from the interior of the pillar upon which it was mounted. The pillar had an "arched way" at its base. The top of the portico of the building would feature Washington standing in a chariot holding the reins of six horses. Inside the colonnade would be statues of 30 prominent Revolutionary War heroes and statues of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Criticism of Mills's design came up already in 1847, when architect Henry Robinson Searle from Rochester presented an alternative concept, backed by three objections against Mills's project:
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