On October 9, 1888, the Washington Monument first opened to the public in Washington D.C., a full 40 years after construction began. While it was an undertaking of unprecedented scale at the time (it still stands as the tallest stone structure in the world), the longevity of the project was mostly due to the highly politicized environment that grew around the monument, as well as the less than deft guidance of the committee that had tasked itself with its construction. The legacy of this convoluted and error-prone four decades of plodding progress is quite literally written all over the monument itself.
Washington’s memorials began even before his death, which must have been both flattering and disconcerting to America’s elder statesman. Included in the plans of Washington D.C., which Washington himself signed off on, was a site for an equestrian statue of a younger Washington as general of the continental army. Immediately following his death, these plans grew to include a mausoleum and other, more grand constructions to properly honor the first President. While Washington has persisted throughout much of history as non-partisan figure, or at least a man so deserving of universal praise that he has transcended party affiliation, this was not so in the early 1800’s. Washington had refused to participate in partisan politics throughout his administration and even used much of his farewell address to excoriate their practice, but the Jeffersonian Republicans who gained power in the 1800 election saw Washington as very much a Federalist, and wouldn’t abide by a large sum of federal dollars being spent building a grandiose monument to their fallen political opponent. Despite a number of proposals that made real progress in Congress, nothing was passed and no monument was built.
After thirty years passed with no forward progress on a monument, disregarding the countless monuments and memorials erected elsewhere around the country, and that the city itself was named for the man, a collection of concerned citizens formed the Washington National Monument Society. They began a concerted national effort to solicit private donations towards a grand monument to be constructed in the federal city. Their initial plan, perhaps conceived as a way to ensure they didn’t have any trouble counting their donations, limited the contribution by any one individual to a single dollar. After abandoning this restriction, and getting creative by asking census takers and U.S. Marshals to solicit donations (while allowing them to keep a cut of the proceeds for themselves) things started going very well, and by 1847 the group had amassed enough funds to begin construction. Now they just needed to figure out what they wanted to build.
Back in 1836, the group conducted a contest to find a suitable design for their monument. They settled on a design submitted by Robert Mills, a young architect who’s greatest distinction at that point was designing another monument for Washington in Baltimore. The sketch he submitted was for a building basically the same as the Baltimore monument, only much larger and more ornate. It would have a large colonnaded Babylonian temple at its base, a hundred feet tall and replete with 30 statues of revolutionary and early-republic figures. A triumphant 600 foot column would project out of its roof which would contain an ill-described “railway” to convey visitors to an observation post at the top. By 1848, when the Society gained Congressional approval to construct the monument, they had removed the temple and a hundred feet of height from the monument in the interest of limiting costs. Congress granted them 37 acres on the national mall to construct their monument.
The cornerstone was laid in a celebratory ceremony attended by President Polk and much of Congress on July 4, 1848, which featured a healthy dose of Freemason ritual in reverence to Washington’s membership in the organization. Construction commenced immediately thereafter and continued for roughly six years until the Society ran out of funds in early 1854. This was not for a lack of fundraising as efforts had continued with mixed results - President Zachary Taylor died after attending a Washington Monument fundraiser where he consumed what history has declared to be too much cherries and milk. Bad omens aside, the Society was forced to go back to work raising money to complete the obelisk that now stood about 150 feet tall and came to an abrupt and obviously unfinished conclusion.
The next couple of years would prove complicating for the efforts of the Society. They embarked on a new version of their fundraising campaign, still allowing cash donations, but also soliciting stones from states and foreign governments that would be used to construct the monument and would bear the inscriptions of the donors. Hundreds of parties sent in contributions, but controversy erupted when a slab of marble from the Temple of Concord in Rome arrived courtesy of the Pope. The protestant “Know Nothing” party profusely objected to inclusion of a catholic symbol in the monument, and shortly after its arrival the Pope’s stone went missing in a bizarre midnight heist. It has never been found. This event would pale in comparison to the troubles the Know-Nothings would soon cause the Society.
Perhaps deciding that they needed more control over this important national monument, the Know-Nothings arranged a coup of the Washington National Monument Society. Their members joined the Society in droves, then voted themselves into a majority position on board of officers, and summarily announced that they were now in control of the project. This could not have come at a worse time, as the Society had just successfully rallied Congress to allocate $200,000 towards completing the structure. Congress had voted to award the grant to the Society the morning after the Know-Nothing coup, and upon learning that the party was now in control of the project, quickly voted again to retract their funds. In the three years before they relinquished control of the project back to the true Washington Monument National Society, the Know-Nothings built the monument just 26 feet higher and left the treasury nearly empty.
The next two decades would see little progress for the monument. Especially during the Civil War, fundraising went very poorly, with less than $100 being raised in the entire year of 1860 despite robust efforts coordinated with the presidential election. Nothing much would happen until the national centennial celebrations of 1876 saw Congress spurred to finally complete the now 28 year-old project that was sitting derelict on the nation’s front lawn. On August 2, 1876, Congress passed a bill making sweeping changes for the monument. The project would now be under federal control, with $2,000,000 allocated for construction costs. There would also be a new survey to determine the strength of the foundation and its ability to support the full weight of the completed structure. The Army Corps of Engineers, now facilitating construction, determined that with some minor improvements to the foundation, the tower could reach a height of 555 feet.
Construction resumed in 1880, over 20 years after the last stones had been laid. Workers actually began by removing the stones that had been added by the Know-Nothings, as they were of substandard quality and the work had been shoddy at best. Today it is easy to see how tall the monument was in early 1880, as the stone used by the Army Corps of Engineers came from a different quarry as the stone in the bottom portion of the tower. There is a stark line about 1/3 of the way up the monument where the varying stones have reacted differently to the elements over the years. Within four years of resuming construction, workers were putting the capstone, a 100 ounce solid piece of cast aluminum, into place. The choice of aluminum seems strange to us now as it is a readily abundant industrial material used in soda cans and aircraft frames, but in the late 1800’s it was as exotic as silver and gold. Aluminum technology has advanced by leaps and bounds due to the use of electricity in processing, but in the pre-electrified world pure aluminum was a scarce commodity. At the time this was the largest single piece of aluminum ever cast, and America was making a statement by placing it atop this formidable monument.
The magnificent tower was dedicated on Washington’s birthday: February 22, 1885. Finishing touches, such as interior elevator and stairs, windows in the observation deck, and entrance doors all were still to be added. The inscribed stones donated from around the country and the world were placed on the interior so visitors could observe from the elevator and stairwells. This work was completed over the next three years while plans were drawn up for facilitating visitors, of which many were expected. On October 9, 1888, following 40 years of construction, politicking, fundraising, reconstruction, and surveying, the Washington Monument finally opened its doors to visitors.