Capped with a wooden roof, the partially finished obelisk sat unchanged for nearly 20 years. In , Congress, agreed that "at this the beginning of the second century of national existence, [we] do assume and direct the completion of the Washington Monument. When construction resumed, new stones for the Monument came from new quarries. In , white marble from a different Maryland quarry combined with granite from several quarries in New England to create stones that completed the Monument.
Once finished in , the stones appeared to be the same color. Environmental elements aged the marbles differently, so now we see a distinct difference in stone colors on the Monument.
The original design chosen for the Washington Monument was fancier and more clearly neoclassical: the base of the obelisk was to be ringed with 30 columns, its entrance topped by a statue. After the monument sat unfinished, stalled at an embarrassing feet above ground between and because of lack of funds, the Congress stepped in and began seeking new proposals, fearing that the monument would seem out-of-date new proposals included this Gothic tower.
In the end, though, they kept the obelisk and threw out the rest of the original design, leaving the monument as it is today. After an approximately hour standoff with law enforcement officials, Mayer attempted to drive away, but was shot and killed by police.
When authorities later searched his van, no explosives were found. On August 23, , the monument was rocked by a rare, 5.
Although people were inside the monument when the quake hit, no one was seriously hurt. While the repairs are being made, the landmark has been enveloped in a ton scaffolding system wrapped in a blue, semi-transparent mesh. Developed by noted architect Michael Graves, the mesh design first was used when the structure underwent restoration work in the late s.
The man known as the father of his country has racked up scores of tributes: cities, highways, lakes, mountains, schools and an entire state have been named in his honor.
Builders commenced work on the blue gneiss foundation, an foot square step pyramid. With the substructure completed, the builders then proceeded to the above-ground marble structure, 55 feet, 1. By , the monument had reached a height of feet above ground, but a turn of events stalled construction. In , a new group aligned with the controversial Know-Nothing Party gained control of the Washington National Monument Society in the Society's periodic board election. Having always struggled to gather funding, the Society's change in administration alienated donors and drove the Society to bankruptcy by Without funds, work on the monument slowed to a halt.
Architect Robert Mills died in For more than two decades, the monument stood only partly finished, doing more to embarrass the nation than to honor its most important Founding Father. Congressional attempts to support the Washington National Monument Society failed as attentions turned toward the sectional crisis, then civil war.
Only as the nation was rebuilding did attention once again turn toward honoring the man who had once united the states in a common purpose. By a joint resolution passed on July 5, , Congress assumed the duty of funding and building the Washington Monument. The U. Army Corps of Engineers, led by Lt. Thomas Lincoln Casey, was responsible for directing and completing the work. Casey's first task was to strengthen the foundation of the monument, which he determined was inadequate for the structure as it was designed.
For four years, the builders carefully beefed up the support at the base of the foundation to support the massive weight of the superstructure to come.
To continue building upward, the masons needed stone.
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