Washington Monument Concept - History

Washington Monument

Concept - History - Plans - Creation - Build - New Plans - Final Appearance - Dedication - Finish - Access - Public Access - Design - Intentions - Resolving Engineering Difficulties - Materials - Dimensions - Height - Depth - Components and Appearance - Restoration - Nature - Cost - Resolution

The Washington Monument was conceived prior to the death of George Washington to commemorate his works and his position as the first president of the new nation. The plans and progress of the monument developed in controversy and took many years to complete, as a result of political and social upheaval, some of which culminated into the civil war. It is one of the oldest monuments in the nation as is representative of the struggle for development as much as it is representative of the skill and political works of the president it is named for.

The undertaking began in the eighteenth century (when Washington was still alive), ran into partisan warfare after his death, and floundered for decades in unending disputes over designs and intentions.... But the national enterprise forced an issue that could not be swept away by simple appeals to patriotism. If Washington was the founding father, what kind of nation did he found?...The trouble originated, after Washington's death, in a profound ideological dispute over the nature of the republic. As new disputes followed, the campaign to unify around Washington's memory continued to betray significant fissures in the American self-image. Not even the Civil War could end the discord; it took another twenty years to bring the memorial to completion.

Senie and Webster 6)

The plans had evolved, as much as the nation as had the memory of Washington and his mission and developments.

The blank shaft was in no way built by consensus. It was instead the achievement of an engineer working in virtual secrecy, outside the political process and against the protests of the artistic community. In fact, Washington's monument could be finished only by obliterating his traces in the process, not only from the structure itself but also from the discussion surrounding it. The more we examine the "resolution" his monument represents, the more unsettling it looks and the more unsettled the critical reactions to it appear. The engineered unity of this soaring obelisk gave the nation an image of its own destiny, an image at once powerfully appealing and yet in many ways troubling to this day

Senie and Webster 6)

The end product is troubling and monumental as it is representative of a function in discourse that develops over time to meet the needs of only a few, even though it was meant to represent all.

The building of the monument was complicated and costly, for its time and its placement was even toughly debated, at the time as inconsistent with the plans for a walking park near the capital.

Federal Writers' Project 91)

Federal Writers' Project 95)

At the point where a line drawn due west from the center of the Capitol intersected a line drawn due south from the center of the President's House, he fixed the site for a monument to George Washington; and along the east-west axis thus created he designed a "Grand Avenue, 400 feet in breadth, and about a mile in length, bordered with gardens" -- the present Mall. On his plan he states that "this avenue leads to the Monument, and connects the Congress Garden (at the west entrance to the Capitol) with the President's Park," the latter being laid out along the north-south axis from the President's House to the Potomac River. L'Enfant intended that this impressive avenue should afford suitable frontage for "spacious houses and gardens such as may accommodate foreign ministers, etc."

Federal Writers' Project 92)

Engineering concerns finally won the day and even today there are still structural concerns about the location of the monument so close to sea level only 40 feet up from banks of the Potomac River. There are still times when portions of the park are under water and occasionally the monument area itself is inundated with flooding. The footing was difficult to locate, for a building project of its weight and size.

Federal Writers' Project 18) There were times in the interim of the twenty years it took to complete where many believed it was a dead project.

Federal Writers' Project 53) Though cornerstone for the monument had been laid many years before (1884) and the structure was begun as a shaft the new designer engineer created an Egyptian style obelisk that lacked any external ornamentation,

Federal Writers' Project 322) at his desire and the building commenced utilizing many men and materials to complete the structure.

Senie and Webster 24)

It is not only ironic but also somehow troubling that a monument designed covertly, against enormous opposition, should so neatly reconcile so many competing ideals ancient tradition and modern technology, republican values and national progress, communal harmony and individual enterprise.

Senie and Webster 26)

The building was completed finally completed and, "On February 21, 1885, Robert Winthrop, who had delivered the formal address at the laying of the cornerstone 37 years before, dedicated the Washington Monument. On October 9, 1888, it was opened to the public. More than a century had passed since its inception."

(Federal Writers' Project 322)

The dimensions of the monument are as follows:

Height of Monument above floor, 555 feet 5 ? inches.

Side of base of shaft, 55 feet 1 1/2 inches.

Side of top of shaft, 34 feet 5 1/2 inches.

Thickness of walls at base of shaft, 15 feet.

Thickness of walls at top of shaft, 18 inches.

Depth of foundation, 36 feet 10 inches.

Area foundation (126 feet 6 inches square), 16,002 square feet.

Weight of foundations, 36,912 tons.

Weight of Monument, 81,120 tons.

Maximum pressure on soil, 9 tons per square foot.