Washington Monument

I got to visit the Washington Monument!! Pretty cool, right!!?

The Washington Monument is an obelisk, which is a four-sided square that tapers as it gets taller and has a pyramid on the top. It was built in honor of our first president--George Washington.

George Washington was a very modest man and didn't want a monument built in his name after his death.  But, apparently, the citizens forgot that and in 1849, 49 years after his death, they started building a monument to him.

About 1/3 done

By 1854 they had about a third of it built but the project ran out of money and construction stopped. Some people tried to keep the construction going over the years, but it pretty much stayed the same for 25 years. Then, in 1879 they were able to raise more money and they started building again. However, it had they so long that they now had to get their stone from somewhere else because the quarry where using before had closed. If you look close enough you can see a line where the color of the stone changes slightly from having to use a different stone. Finally, 40 years after it was started, they finished it and it opened to the public in 1888. Wow! They worked on the Washington Monument for a long time!!!

Some of the old graffiti

You can take an elevator to the top of it if you want, but you can also schedule a day to walk up it's 890 steps, and 50 landings to the time. As you go up there are tons of different special commemorative stones incorporated into the building. You can even see graffiti carved into the marble on the inside from civil war soldiers and other people who were there.

Sadly, the Washington Monument was damaged from the earthquake in August 2011. It's been closed since then, but engineers are trying to figure out how to repair it so it will last another 163 years. I hope it will be finished soon so I will be able to go inside of it and see all of the cool stones. It was still really cool being able to see the outside of it, though. You should visit the Washington Monument if you ever get the chance.

Quack Report:

My quack was awesome!!! You should've heard the echo. It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!