Now that we’ve covered you on the Lincoln Memorial, you should probably know about it’s neighbor across the Mall. Here are 13 facts about the Washington Monument to make you sound smarter at parties. Enjoy.
1. When the monument was finished, it was the tallest structure in the world, beating the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. It was topped by the Eiffel Tower in 1889. The Eiffel Tower held the title until the Chrystler Building was built in 1930. And before the Cologne Cathedral, it was Notre Dame. Now it’s some awful thing in Dubai.
2. The Monument is still the tallest stone structure and tallest obelisk in the world. And it’s the tallest structure in Washington D.C. But there’s no law stating that it has to be. Myth = busted.
3. In 1832 (which would have been Washington’s 100th birthday), the Washington National Monument Society began collecting donations for a monument and then, in 1836, held a competition for a design. It was won by Robert Mills. He studied under James Hoban, who designed the White House. Mills also designed the Department of Treasury building and the U.S. Patent Office building.
4. Mills’ original design had a colonnade, a statue of Washington on a chariot and 30 more statues of Revolutionary War heroes. But that would have cost a boatload. When construction started in 1848, everyone figured that they would start on the obelisk and just get to the colonnade later. That never happened. And Mills died in 1855.
5. Actually, right after Washington died in 1799, if the country was loaded and John Marshall had his way, there would have just been a tomb built inside the Capitol. Luckily, there was no funding and no creepy tomb exists… except in Mount Vernon.
6. The Monument was initially supposed to form a perfect line between the White House and the Capitol. But the monument ended up weighing 40,000 tons (for reals) and the ground in that area was too terrible to support it. Right now, the Jefferson Pier is in the Washington Monument’s intended location.
7. A lot of people donated blocks of marble to the Monument, including Pope Piux IX around 1854. But the anti-Catholic, pro-nativist Know-Nothings stole the Pope’s block and threw it into the Potomac.
8. The Know-Nothings took over construction in 1858, but kept screwing it up. Construction completely stalled and the monument sat like this for 20 years…
9. When work resumed at the end of the 1870′s, Mills was long dead and the builders decided to go with a basic Egyptian design. The top of the monument is aluminum. In 1884, when it was placed on top of the monument, aluminum was as expensive as silver. And this was the largest single piece of aluminum ever cast, at the time.
10. Before the top was installed, it was put on display and the builders encouraged people to step over it. That way, people could say they stepped over the top of the Washington Monument. The people who can say that are more adorable than alive.
11. The original elevator to the top of the monument was steam operated and took 20 minutes to get to the top. Only men could ride, because it was deemed unsafe for women and children. The men who rode were served wine and cheese. The women and children had to climb all those stares. Now, the stares aren’t accessible… because they were deemed unsafe. And the elevator takes 70 seconds. With no cheese or booze.
12. In 1982, the monument was held hostage by a nuclear arms protester. He said he had explosives. The Park Police shot him dead. And he’d lied about the explosives thing. That’s a fail.
13. In 2005, some go-getter ran up all the stairs to the top in 6.7 minutes. That’s impressive, but way longer than the elevator would take.
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