title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: After Virat locks Sai in the room. Sai leaves the house, then has an accident and is hospitalized. She later returns home. Sai and Virat restart their relationship as friends, but Pakhi loves him too.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: Virat and Naxalite Shruti flee from the jungle after shooting a bullet at his best friend Naxalite Sada. Virat introduces Shruti as his wife in a hotel to protect her from the police and Mohit catches them. Police inform Virat that Sada's dead body is missing but Virat ignores it. Mohit reveals to the family that Virat was with Shruti in a hotel room as Mr. and Mrs. Chavan. This upsets Sai and she pleads that the matter is clarified, but Virat ignores her. Virat enjoys being Shruti's husband and spends much time with her. When Virat signs Sahas' birth certificate as the father, Sai feels heartbroken. The Chavan family witness Virat caring for Shruti and see Sahas as the son of Virat on his birth certificate and they disown him. Virat and Shruti start to live as husband and wife in a separate house. The Police department suspends Virat for bigamy. To save Virat's job and reputation, Sai asks for a divorce and submits backdated divorce papers to the Police department. So they ask him to rejoin duty.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: Sada is still alive and learns of Shruti's affair with Virat, so he kidnaps Sai and asks Shruti to return. Virat is injured in a landmine blast while rescuing Sai and the Police arrest Shruti and Sada for their crimes. Sai arranges a life-saving injection for Virat and he regains consciousness. But he blames Sai for his condition and requests that the police release Shruti from all charges.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: Sai returns to Chavan Niwas during Holi. The Chavan family supports Pakhi when she suggests throwing Sai into the Holi fire to be rid of her. On Holi, Sai brings Virat to the Holi function.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: The next day, Sai reads a letter from Shivan's ex-fiancé Rajeev. He tells Sai about feeling guilty after leaving Shivani and tells her that he only loved Shivani. Virat sees him and imprisons him. Sai informs Shivani that Rajeev felt guilty after leaving her and wants to patch up. The two women visit Rajeev in jail and Shivani forgives Rajeev.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: On Ram Navami, the family attends a function near the temple, but there is a fire there. Rajeev risks his own life to save Shivani. Impressed, the family arranges Rajeev and Shivani's wedding. Sai finishes her last exam and Virat breaks all ties with her. On Rajeev and Shivani's sangeet, Rajeev has a heart attack but Sai saves him.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: Sai encourages Virat to forgive his family and he does. Later, Sai and Virat confess their love to each other before the entire family and guests. The family, except Pakhi, Bhavani, Sonali, and Omkar, is happy. Later they announced that Rajeev and Shivani and Virat and Sai will be married simultaneously. Bhavani stops Sai and Virat during the pheras and tells Sai to either leave the house and become a doctor or leave the dream of becoming a doctor and become the daughter-in-law of the house. Virat chooses the latter option for Sai and they marry.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: Later he informs Sai that he lied to Bhavani about their future and encourages Sai to continue her internship, hiding from the family. The family realizes Virat's lie and the family's males support Sai. Soon Sai is revealed to be pregnant while Pakhi falls for Samrat. However, Jagtap kidnaps Sai and in his attempt to save her, Samrat is run over by Jagtap leading to his death. Pakhi blames Sai for the same and curses her due to which she suffers a miscarriage and becomes incapable to conceive. Sai and Virat hire a woman named Geeta to carry their child by becoming his surrogate mother but Pakhi manipulates the woman and becomes the surrogate mother of the baby. Soon she gives birth to Vinayak. Unwillingly, the family members take away Vinayak from Sai and give him to Pakhi.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: Sai has Pakhi arrested in a case of illegal surrogacy and manipulating Geeta. The family members ask Sai to let them bail out Pakhi but she refuses and threatens to leave the house along with Vinayak if they return Pakhi. Virat bails Pakhi out and brings her to Chavan Nivas. Sai leaves the house along with Vinayak. As she travels to Gadhchiroli on a bus, there is an accident. Virat reaches the accident spot and looks for Sai and Vinayak. Virat and the family members consider Sai dead and do her final rites. Sai survives and searches for Vinayak in vain. She thinks that Vinayak is dead and falls unconscious. She regains consciousness in the hospital and discovers that she is pregnant.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: Sai gives birth to a girl, Savi, raises her alone in Kankavli along with Usha, runs a school for housewives, and dreams to build a hospital in that place. Vinayak, Virat's adopted son whom he brought from an orphanage during a mission, goes camping and meets Sai and Savi and becomes their friend. Virat goes to Kankavli to surprise Vinayak. MLA Gulabrao, who opposes the idea of Sai's school, continuously conspires against Sai and attempts to kidnap Savi but Virat saves her and drops her at her house.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: Later, Virat and Vinayak return to Nagpur and are welcomed by Pakhi, who now owns the family business and became Virat's second wife on the Chavan's insistence and came to a compromise with Virat that they will be husband and wife just for their namesake. Virat still remembers Sai and considers himself responsible for letting her go. Ashwini hates Sai for leaving Virat and tells him to forget her. Later, Bhavani and Ashwini plan a holiday for Pakhi and Virat but they refuse to do so. Later, Virat and Vinayak go to Kankavli to meet Sai and Savi for Vinayak's treatment. Virat is shocked to see Sai alive and is angry with her and asks her about Savi. Later, Gulabrao insults Sai and questions her character and Virat beats him up. Later, Gulabrao's men kidnap Savi and attempt to kill her but Virat saves her and ends up getting hurt. Pakhi urgently goes to Kankavli to meet Virat along with Mohit and is shocked to see Sai alive. Later, Virat and Pakhi return to Nagpur along with Vinayak and the family members gets to know about Sai and Savi and break ties with Sai. Later, Vinayak's health deteriorates and Pakhi requests Sai to come to Nagpur for Vinayak's treatment. She agrees and comes to Nagpur and stays in a rented house along with Savi and Usha. Jagtap tells Virat about Savi being his daughter and Virat stops Sai and takes Savi from her and gets her arrested.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: The filming of the series began in September 2020. Mainly filmed in Mumbai, some initial sequences of the series were shot at Nashik.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: In March 2021, the filming was halted for a few days when Neil Bhatt and a crew member tested positive for COVID-19 virus, leading to a change in the track.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: On 13 April 2021, Chief Minister of Maharashtra announced a curfew from 15 April. On 16 and 17 April, the team shifted filming to Goa for a few weeks until the government issued a confirmation to resume shooting in Mumbai.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Uddhav Thackeray announced that shooting of all shows must halt within all parts of urban and rural Maharashtra. Hence, Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin producers moved to Goa and were permitted by the government to only shoot indoors, inside their bio-bubble. Everything proceeded as planned, but in May 2021 the producers shot a scene at Goa Fort, violating the regulations.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: The first promo of the series was released on 12 September 2020 featuring the leads Ayesha Singh and Neil Bhatt. The promo was released on 1 October 2020 and featured veteran actress Rekha promoting the series. The following promo released before premiere featured Deepika Singh in her character Sandhya Rathi from "Diya Aur Baati Hum" to promote the series.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: On 4 August 2021, Rekha again made an appearance in a teaser to promote the track of Sai and Virat's outdoor trip as well as Samrat's return in the series.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: The cast of "Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin" participated as a team in the musical game show "Ravivaar With Star Parivaar". It competed with the teams of other Star Plus's shows. "Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin" emerged as the 4th runner-up of the show.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: In July 2022, a lawsuit against the series makers was filed at IBF by some viewers against the ongoing surrogacy track where viewers claimed that Patralekha was shown becoming a surrogate mother through an illegal procedure.


title: Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

text: The title song "Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin" is a remake of the song "Ghum Hai Kisi ke Pyar Mein" from the 1972 film "Raampur Ka Lakshman", originally composed by R.D. Burman, written by Majrooh Sultanpuri and sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar. The song was recreated for the series, with the music composed by Dhruv Dhalla.


title: Washington Monument

text: The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the first President of the United States (1789–1797). Located almost due east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial, the monument, made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss, is both the world's tallest predominantly stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing tall according to the U.S. National Geodetic Survey (measured 2013–14) or tall, according to the National Park Service (measured 1884). It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances. It was the tallest structure in the world between 1884 and 1889, after which it was overtaken by the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Previously, the tallest structure was the Cologne Cathedral.


title: Washington Monument

text: Construction of the presidential memorial began in 1848 and was halted for a period of 23 years, from 1854 to 1877 due to a lack of funds, a struggle for control over the Washington National Monument Society, and the American Civil War. Although the stone structure was completed in 1884, internal ironwork, the knoll, and installation of memorial stones were not completed until 1888. A difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately or 27% up, shows where construction was halted and later resumed with marble from a different source. The original design was by Robert Mills (1781–1855) of South Carolina, but he did not include his proposed colonnade due to a lack of funds, proceeding only with a bare obelisk. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848; the first stone was laid atop the unfinished stump on ; the capstone was set on ; the completed monument was dedicated on ; and officially opened .


title: Washington Monument

text: The Washington Monument is a hollow Egyptian style stone obelisk with a tall column surmounted by a tall pyramidion. Its walls are thick at its base and thick at their top. The marble pyramidion has thin walls only thick supported by six arches, two between opposite walls that cross at the center of the pyramidion and four smaller corner arches. The top of the pyramidion is a large marble capstone with a small aluminum pyramid at its apex with inscriptions on all four sides. The lowest of the walls, constructed during the first phase 1848–1854, are composed of a pile of bluestone gneiss rubble stones (not finished stones) held together by a large amount of mortar with a facade of semi-finished marble stones about thick. The upper of the walls, constructed during the second phase 1880–1884, are composed of finished marble surface stones, half of which project into the walls, partially backed by finished granite stones.


title: Washington Monument

text: The interior is occupied by iron stairs that spiral up the walls, with an elevator in the center, each supported by four iron columns, which do not support the stone structure. The stairs contain fifty sections, most on the north and south walls, with many long landings stretching between them along the east and west walls. These landings allowed many inscribed memorial stones of various materials and sizes to be easily viewed while the stairs were accessible (until 1976), plus one memorial stone between stairs that is difficult to view. The pyramidion has eight observation windows, two per side, and eight red aircraft warning lights, two per side. Two aluminum lightning rods, connected via the elevator support columns to ground water, protect the monument. The monument's present foundation is thick, consisting of half of its original bluestone gneiss rubble encased in concrete. At the northeast corner of the foundation, below ground, is the marble cornerstone, including a zinc case filled with memorabilia. Fifty American flags fly on a large circle of poles centered on the monument. In 2001, a temporary screening facility was added to the entrance to prevent a terrorist attack. An earthquake in 2011 slightly damaged the monument, and it was closed until 2014. It was closed again for elevator system repairs, security upgrades, and mitigation of soil contamination from August 2016 to September 2019.


title: Washington Monument

text: George Washington (1732–1799), hailed as the father of his country, and as the leader who was "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen" (in eulogy by Maj. Gen. 'Light-Horse Harry' Lee at Washington's funeral, December 26, 1799), was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. Even his former enemy King George III called him "the greatest character of the age".


title: Washington Monument

text: At his death in 1799, he left a critical legacy: Washington was the unchallenged public icon of American military and civic patriotism. He was also identified with the Federalist Party, which lost control of the national government in 1800 to the Jeffersonian Republicans, who were reluctant to celebrate the hero of the opposition party.


title: Washington Monument

text: Starting with victory in the Revolution, there were many proposals to build a monument to Washington, beginning with an authorization in 1783 by the old Confederation Congress to erect an equestrian statue of the General in a future American national capital city. After his December 1799 death, the United States Congress authorized a suitable memorial in the planned national capital then under construction since 1791, but the decision was reversed when the Democratic-Republican Party (Jeffersonian Republicans) took control of Congress in 1801 after the pivotal 1800 Election, with the first change of power between opposing political parties. The Republicans were dismayed that Washington had become the symbol of the Federalist Party; furthermore the values of Republicanism seemed hostile to the idea of building monuments to powerful men. They also blocked his image on coins or the celebration of his birthday. Further political squabbling, along with the North–South division on the Civil War, blocked the completion of the Washington Monument until the late 19th century. By that time, Washington had the image of a national hero who could be celebrated by both North and South, and memorials to him were no longer controversial.


title: Washington Monument

text: As early as 1783, the old Confederation Congress (successors after 1781 to the earlier Second Continental Congress) had resolved "That an equestrian statue of George Washington be erected at the place where the residence of Congress shall be established". The proposal called for engraving on the statue which explained it had been erected "in honor of George Washington, the illustrious Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States of America during the war which vindicated and secured their liberty, sovereignty, and independence". Currently, there are two equestrian statues of President Washington in the national capital city of Washington, D.C. One is located in Washington Circle at the intersection of the Foggy Bottom and West End neighborhoods at the north end of the George Washington University campus, and the other is in the gardens of the National Cathedral of the Episcopal Church on Mount St. Alban in northwest Washington.


title: Washington Monument

text: On December 24, 1799, 10 days after Washington's death, a U.S. Congressional committee recommended a different type of monument. John Marshall (1755–1835), a Representative from Virginia (who later became Chief Justice of the United States, 1801–1835) proposed that a tomb be erected within the Capitol and it was designed later to place such a crypt sepulchre below the rotunda of the great dome. However, a lack of funds, disagreement over what type of memorial would best honor the country's first president, and the Washington family's reluctance to move his body from Mount Vernon prevented progress on any project.


title: Washington Monument

text: Progress toward a memorial finally began in 1833. That year a large group of citizens formed the Washington National Monument Society. Three years later, in 1836, after they had raised $28,000 in donations (), they announced a competition for the design of the memorial.


title: Washington Monument

text: The society held a competition for designs in 1836. In 1845, the winner was announced to be architect Robert Mills, supposedly the first native-born American to be professionally trained as an architect. The citizens of Baltimore had chosen him in 1814 to build one of the first monuments to George Washington originally planned for the former courthouse square in their port city, and he had designed a tall elaborately decorated Greek column with balconies, surmounted by a statue of the President. Mills' Baltimore monument, with cornerstone laid and construction begun in 1815, was later simplified to a plain column shaft with a statue of a toga-clad Washington at the top when it was completed in 1829, but moved (because of its height) to the then rural hills to the north, where the city's growth would later extend. Mills also knew the capital well, with its being only southwest of Baltimore, and his having just been chosen Architect of Public Buildings for Washington. His design called for a circular colonnaded building in diameter and high from which sprang a four-sided obelisk high, for a total elevation of . A massive cylindrical pillar in diameter supported the obelisk at the center of the building. The obelisk was to be square at the base and square at the top with a slightly peaked roof. Both the obelisk and pillar were hollow within which a railway spiraled up. The obelisk had no doorway—instead its interior was entered from the interior of the pillar upon which it was mounted. The pillar had an "arched way" at its base. The top of the portico of the building would feature Washington standing in a chariot holding the reins of six horses. Inside the colonnade would be statues of 30 prominent Revolutionary War heroes as well as statues of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.


title: Washington Monument

text: Criticism of Mills's design and its estimated price tag of more than $1 million (in 1848 money, ) caused the society to hesitate. On April 11, 1848, the society decided, due to a lack of funds, to build only a simple plain obelisk. Mills's 1848 obelisk was to be tall, square at the base and square at the top. It had two massive doorways, each high and wide, on the east and west sides of its base. Surrounding each doorway were raised jambs, a heavy pediment, and entablature within which was carved an Egyptian-style winged sun and asps. Some of these details can be seen in the 1860 photograph below at Donations run out, after clicking on the image and viewing the original file at its highest magnification. This original design conformed to a massive temple which was to have surrounded the base of the obelisk, but because it was never built, the architect of the second phase of construction Thomas Lincoln Casey smoothed down the projecting jambs, pediment and entablature in 1885, walled up the west entrance with marble forming an alcove, and reduced the east entrance to high. The western alcove has contained a since 1992–93. Also during 1992–93 a was installed at the east elevator entrance decorated with a winged sun and asps to mimic Mills's 1848 design.


title: Washington Monument

text: The Washington Monument was originally intended to be located at the point at which a line running directly south from the center of the White House crossed a line running directly west from the center of the U.S. Capitol on Capitol Hill. French born and military engineer Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's 1791 visionary "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States ..." designated this point as the location of the proposed central equestrian statue of George Washington that the old Confederation Congress had voted for in 1783, at the end of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) in a future American national capital city. The ground at the intended location proved to be too unstable to support a structure as heavy as the planned obelisk, so the monument's location was moved east-southeast. At that originally intended site there now stands a small monolith called the Jefferson Pier. This offset caused the McMillan Plan to specify that the Lincoln Memorial should be "placed on the main axis of the Capitol and the Monument", about 1° south of due west of the Capitol or the monument, not due west of the Capitol or the monument.


title: Washington Monument

text: Construction of the monument finally began three years later in 1848 with the excavation of the site, the laying of the cornerstone on the prepared bed, and laying the original foundation around and on top of the cornerstone, before the construction of its massive walls began the next year. Regarding modern claims of slave labor being used in construction, Washington Monument Historian John Steele Gordon stated "I can't say for certain, but the stonemasonry was pretty highly skilled, so it's unlikely that slaves would've been doing it. The stones were cut by stonecutters, which is highly skilled work; and the stones were hoisted by means of steam engines, so you'd need a skilled engineer and foreman for stuff like that. Tending the steam engine, building the cast-iron staircase inside—that wasn't grunt work. ... The early quarries were in Maryland, so slave labor was undoubtedly used to quarry and haul the stone" Abraham Riesman, who quoted Gordon, states "there were plenty of people who worked as skilled laborers while enslaved in antebellum America. Indeed, there were enslaved people who worked as stonemasons. So the possibility remains that there were slaves who performed some of the necessary skilled labor for the monument." According to historian Jesse Holland, it is very likely that African-American slaves were among the construction workers, given that slavery prevailed in Washington and its surrounding states at that time, and slaves were commonly used in public and private construction.


title: Washington Monument

text: Gordon's arguments are valid for the second phase (1879–1888) after slavery was abolished, when every stone laid required dressing and polishing by a skilled stonemason. This includes the iron staircase which was constructed 1885–86. That the stonecutters in the quarry were slaves is confirmed because all quarry workers were slaves during the construction of the United States Capitol during the 1790s. However, Holland's views are valid for the first phase because most of its construction only required unskilled manual labor. No information survives concerning the method used to lift stones that weighed several tons each during the first phase, whether by a manual winch or a steam engine. The surviving information concerning slaves that built the core of the United States Capitol during the 1790s is not much help. At the time, the District of Columbia outside of Georgetown was sparsely populated so the federal government rented slaves from their owners who were paid a fee for their slaves' normal daily labor. Any overtime for Sundays, holidays, and nights was paid directly to the slaves which they could use for daily needs or to save to buy their freedom. Conversely, the first phase of the monument was constructed by a private entity, the Washington National Monument Society, which may not have been as magnanimous as the federal government, but most information was lost during the 1850s while two Societies vied for control of the monument. Useful information concerning the use of slaves during the major expansion of the Capitol during the 1850s, nearly contemporaneous with the monument's first phase, does not exist.


title: Washington Monument

text: Only a small number of stones used in the first phase required a skilled stonemason, the marble blocks on the outer surface of the monument (their inner surfaces were left very rough) and those gneiss stones that form the rough inner walls of the monument (all other surfaces of those inner stones within the walls were left jagged). The vast majority of all gneiss stones laid during the first phase, those between the outer and inner surfaces of the walls, from very large to very small jagged stones, form a pile of rubble held together by a large amount of mortar. The top surface of this rubble can be seen below at Walls in an 1880 drawing made just before the polished/rough marble and granite stones used in the second phase were laid atop it. The original foundation below the walls was made of layered gneiss rubble, but without the massive stones used within the walls. Most of the gneiss stones used during the first phase were obtained from quarries in the upper Potomac River Valley. Almost all the marble stones of the first and second phases came from two Maryland quarries about north of downtown Baltimore in rural Baltimore County where stone for their first Washington Monument was obtained.


title: Washington Monument

text: On Independence Day, July 4, 1848, the Freemasons, the same organization to which Washington belonged, laid the cornerstone (symbolically, not physically). According to Joseph R. Chandler:


title: Washington Monument

text: Two years later, on a torrid July 4, 1850, George Washington Parke Custis (1781–1857), the adopted son of George Washington and grandson of Martha Washington (1731–1802), dedicated a stone from the people of the District of Columbia to the Monument at a ceremony that 12th President Zachary Taylor (1784–1850, served 1849–1850) attended, just five days before he died from food poisoning.


title: Washington Monument

text: Construction continued until 1854, when donations ran out and the monument had reached a height of . At that time a memorial stone that was contributed by Pope Pius IX, called the Pope's Stone, was destroyed by members of the anti-Catholic, nativist American Party, better known as the "Know-Nothings", during the early morning hours of (a priest replaced it in 1982 using the Latin phrase "A Roma Americae" instead of the original stone's English phrase "Rome to America"). Economic and political conditions of the time caused public contributions to the Washington National Monument Society to cease, so they appealed to Congress for money.


title: Washington Monument

text: The request had just reached the floor of the House of Representatives when the Know-Nothing Party seized control of the Society on February 22, 1855, a year after construction funds ran out. Congress immediately tabled its expected contribution of $200,000 to the Society, effectively halting the Federal appropriation. During its tenure, the Know-Nothing Society added only two courses of masonry, or , to the monument using rejected masonry it found on site, increasing the height of the shaft to . The original Society refused to recognize the takeover, so the two rival Societies existed side by side until 1858. With the Know-Nothing Party disintegrating and unable to secure contributions for the monument, it surrendered its possession of the monument to the original Society three and a half years later on . To prevent future takeovers, the U.S. Congress incorporated the Society on with a stated charter and set of rules and procedures.


title: Washington Monument

text: The American Civil War (1861–1865), halted all work on the monument, but interest grew after the war's end. Engineers studied the foundation several times to determine if it was strong enough for continued construction after 20 years of effective inactivity. In 1876, the American Centennial of the Declaration of Independence, Congress agreed to appropriate another $200,000 to resume construction.


title: Washington Monument

text: Before work could begin again, arguments about the most appropriate design resumed. Many people thought a simple obelisk, one without the colonnade, would be too bare. Architect Mills was reputed to have said omitting the colonnade would make the monument look like "a stalk of asparagus"; another critic said it offered "little ... to be proud of".


title: Washington Monument

text: This attitude led people to submit alternative designs. Both the Washington National Monument Society and Congress held discussions about how the monument should be finished. The Society considered five new designs, concluding that the one by William Wetmore Story (1819–1895), seemed "vastly superior in artistic taste and beauty". Congress deliberated over those five as well as Mills's original. While it was deciding, it ordered work on the obelisk to continue. Finally, the members of the society agreed to abandon the colonnade and alter the obelisk so it conformed to classical Egyptian proportions.


title: Washington Monument

text: Construction resumed in 1879 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Casey redesigned the foundation, strengthening it so it could support a structure that ultimately weighed more than 40,000 tons (). The first stone atop the unfinished stump was laid on August 7, 1880, in a small ceremony attended by President Rutherford B. Hayes, Casey and a few others. The president placed a small coin on which he had scratched his initials and the date in the bed of wet cement at the level before the first stone was laid on top of it. Casey found 92 memorial stones ("presented stones") already inlaid into the interior walls of the first phase of construction. Before construction continued he temporarily removed eight stones at the level so that the walls at that level could be sloped outward, producing thinner second-phase walls. He inserted those stones and most of the remaining memorial stones stored in the lapidarium into the interior walls during 1885–1889. The bottom third of the monument is a slightly lighter shade than the rest of the construction because the marble was obtained from different quarries.


title: Washington Monument

text: The building of the monument proceeded quickly after Congress had provided sufficient funding. In four years, it was completed, with the 100-ounce (2.83 kg) aluminum apex/lightning-rod being put in place on December 6, 1884. The apex was the largest single piece of aluminum cast at the time, when aluminum commanded a price comparable to silver. Two years later, the Hall–Héroult process made aluminum easier to produce and the price of aluminum plummeted, though it should have provided a lustrous, non-rusting apex. The monument opened to the public on October 9, 1888.


title: Washington Monument

text: The Monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885. Over 800 people were present on the monument grounds to hear speeches during a frigid day by Ohio Senator John Sherman (1823–1900), the Rev. Henderson Suter, William Wilson Corcoran (of the Washington National Monument Society) read by Dr. James C. Welling because Corcoran was unable to attend, Freemason Myron M. Parker, Col. Thomas Lincoln Casey of the Army Corps of Engineers, and President Chester A. Arthur. President Arthur proclaimed: I do now ... in behalf of the people, receive this monument ... and declare it dedicated from this time forth to the immortal name and memory of George Washington.


title: Washington Monument

text: After the speeches Lieutenant-General Philip Sheridan (1831–1888), Civil War Cavalry veteran and then General-in-Chief of the United States Army led a procession, which included the dignitaries and the crowd, past the Executive Mansion, now the White House, then via Pennsylvania Avenue to the east main entrance of the Capitol, where 21st President Chester Arthur (1829–1886, served 1881–1885) received passing troops. Then, in the House of Representatives Chamber at the U.S. Capitol, the president, his Cabinet, diplomats and others listened to Representative John Davis Long (1838–1915), (former Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Massachusetts and future Secretary of the Navy) read a speech written a few months earlier by Robert C. Winthrop (1809–1894), formerly the Speaker of the House of Representatives when the cornerstone was laid 37 years earlier in 1848, but now too ill to personally deliver his speech. A final speech was given by John W. Daniel (1842–1910), of Virginia, a well-regarded lawyer, author and Representative (congressman), and Senator. The festivities concluded that evening with fireworks, both aerial and ground displays.


title: Washington Monument

text: At completion, it was the tallest building in the world, until the Eiffel Tower was completed four years later in Paris in 1889. It is still the tallest building in Washington, D.C. The Heights of Buildings Act of 1910 restricts new building heights to no more than greater than the width of the adjacent street. This monument is taller than the obelisks around the capitals of Europe and in Egypt and Ethiopia, but ordinary antique obelisks were quarried as a monolithic block of stone, and were therefore seldom taller than approximately .


title: Washington Monument

text: The Washington Monument attracted enormous crowds before it officially opened. For six months after its dedication, 10,041 people climbed the 900 steps and 47 large landings to the top. After the elevator that had been used to raise building materials was altered to carry passengers, the number of visitors grew rapidly, and an average of 55,000 people per month were going to the top by 1888, only three years after its completion and dedication. The annual visitor count peaked at an average of 1.1 million people between 1979 and 1997. From 2005 to 2010, when restrictions were placed on the number of visitors allowed per day, the Washington Monument had an annual average of 631,000 visitors. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service (an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior), the national memorial was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.


title: Washington Monument

text: In the early 1900s, material started oozing out between the outer stones of the first construction period below the mark, and was referred to by tourists as "geological tuberculosis". This was caused by the weathering of the cement and rubble filler between the outer and inner walls. As the lower section of the monument was exposed to cold and hot and damp and dry weather conditions, the material dissolved and worked its way through the cracks between the stones of the outer wall, solidifying as it dripped down their outer surface.


title: Washington Monument

text: For ten hours in December 1982, the Washington Monument and eight tourists were held hostage by a nuclear arms protester, Norman Mayer, claiming to have explosives in a van he drove to the monument's base. United States Park Police shot and killed Mayer. The monument was undamaged in the incident, and it was discovered later that Mayer did not have explosives. After this incident, the surrounding grounds were modified in places to restrict the possible unauthorized approach of motor vehicles.


title: Washington Monument

text: The monument underwent an extensive restoration project between the years of 1998 and 2001. During this time it was completely covered in scaffolding designed by the American architect Michael Graves (who was also responsible for the interior changes). The project included cleaning, repairing and repointing the monument's exterior and interior stonework. The stone in publicly accessible interior spaces was encased in glass to prevent vandalism, while new windows with narrower frames were installed (to increase the viewing space). New exhibits celebrating the life of George Washington, and the monument's place in history, were also added.


title: Washington Monument

text: A temporary interactive visitor center, dubbed the "Discovery Channel Center" was also constructed during the project. The center provided a simulated ride to the top of the monument, and shared information with visitors during phases in which the monument was closed. The majority of the project's phases were completed by summer 2000, allowing the monument to reopen July 31, 2000. The monument temporarily closed again on December 4, 2000, to allow a new elevator cab to be installed, completing the final phase of the restoration project. The new cab included glass windows, allowing visitors to see some of the 194 memorial stones with their inscriptions embedded in the monument's walls. The installation of the cab took much longer than anticipated, and the monument did not reopen until February 22, 2002. The final cost of the restoration project was $10.5 million.


title: Washington Monument

text: On September 7, 2004, the monument closed for a $15 million renovation, which included numerous security upgrades and redesign of the monument grounds by landscape architect Laurie Olin (b. 1938). The renovations were due partly to security concerns following the September 11, 2001 attacks and the start of the War on Terror. The monument reopened April 1, 2005, while the surrounding grounds remained closed until the landscape was finished later that summer.


title: Washington Monument

text: On August 23, 2011, the Washington Monument sustained damage during the 5.8 magnitude 2011 Virginia earthquake; over 150 cracks were found in the monument. A National Park Service spokesperson reported that inspectors discovered a crack near the top of the structure, and announced that the monument would be closed indefinitely. A block in the pyramidion also was partially dislodged, and pieces of stone, stone chips, mortar, and paint chips came free of the monument and "littered" the interior stairs and observation deck. The Park Service said it was bringing in two structural engineering firms (Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. and Tipping Mar Associates) with extensive experience in historic buildings and earthquake-damaged structures to assess the monument.


title: Washington Monument

text: Officials said an examination of the monument's exterior revealed a "debris field" of mortar and pieces of stone around the base of the monument, and several "substantial" pieces of stone had fallen inside the memorial. A crack in the central stone of the west face of the pyramidion was wide and long. Park Service inspectors also discovered that the elevator system had been damaged, and was operating only to the level, but was soon repaired.


title: Washington Monument

text: On September 27, 2011, Denali National Park ranger Brandon Latham arrived to assist four climbers belonging to a "difficult access" team from Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates. The reason for the inspection was the park agency's suspicion that there were more cracks on the monument's upper section not visible from the inside. The agency said it filled the cracks that occurred on August 23. After Hurricane Irene hit the area on August 27, water was discovered inside the memorial, leading the Park Service to suspect there was more undiscovered damage. The rappellers used radios to report what they found to engineering experts on the ground. Wiss, Janney, Elstner climber Dave Megerle took three hours to set up the rappelling equipment and set up a barrier around the monument's lightning rod system atop the pyramidion; it was the first time the hatch in the pyramidion had been open since 2000.


title: Washington Monument

text: The external inspection of the monument was completed on October 5, 2011. In addition to the long west crack, the inspection found several corner cracks and surface spalls (pieces of stone broken loose) at or near the top of the monument, and more loss of joint mortar lower down the monument. The full report was issued in December 2011. Bob Vogel, Superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, emphasized that the monument was not in danger of collapse. "It's structurally sound and not going anywhere", he told the national media at a press conference on September 26, 2011.


title: Washington Monument

text: More than $200,000 was spent between August 24 and September 26 inspecting the structure. The National Park Service said that it would soon begin sealing the exterior cracks on the monument to protect it from rain and snow.


title: Washington Monument

text: On July 9, 2012, the National Park Service announced that the monument would be closed for repairs until 2014. The National Park Service hired construction management firm Hill International in conjunction with joint-venture partner Louis Berger Group to provide coordination between the designer, Wiss, Janney, and Elstner Associates, the general contractor Perini, and numerous stakeholders. NPS said a portion of the plaza at the base of the monument would be removed and scaffolding constructed around the exterior. In July 2013, lighting was added to the scaffolding. Some stone pieces saved during the 2011 inspection would be refastened to the monument, while "Dutchman patches" would be used in other places. Several of the stone lips that help hold the pyramidion's exterior slabs in place were also damaged, so engineers installed stainless steel brackets to more securely fasten them to the monument.


title: Washington Monument

text: The National Park Service reopened the Washington Monument to visitors on May 12, 2014, eight days ahead of schedule. Repairs to the monument cost $15 million, with taxpayers funding $7.5 million of the cost and David Rubenstein funding the other $7.5 million. At the reopening Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, "Today" show weatherman Al Roker, and "American Idol" Season 12 winner Candice Glover were present.


title: Washington Monument

text: The monument continued to be plagued by problems after the earthquake, including in January 2017 when the lights illuminating it went out. The monument was closed again in September 2016 due to reliability issues with the elevator system. On December 2, 2016, the National Park Service announced that the monument would be closed until 2019 in order to modernize the elevator. The $2–3 million project was to correct the elevator's ongoing mechanical, electrical and computer issues, which had shuttered the monument since August 17. The National Park Service requested funding in its FY 2017 President's Budget Request to construct a permanent screening facility for the Washington Monument. The final months of closure were for mitigation of possibly contaminated underground soil thought to have been introduced in the 1880s. The monument reopened September 19, 2019.


title: Washington Monument

text: After reopening in September 2019, the Washington Monument was closed on March 14, 2020, with the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. It reopened on October 1, 2020, and remained open through the remainder of that year, except for brief closures.


title: Washington Monument

text: On January 11, 2021, a few days after the storming of the United States Capitol, the National Park Service announced a two-week closure of the monument until after the presidential inauguration due to "credible threats to visitors and park resources". Following a lack of violence, the closure was extended due to a revival of COVID-19 fears.


title: Washington Monument

text: The monument then reopened on July 14, 2021, only to close yet again on August 16 for two weeks due to lightning strikes which damaged some electrical systems. This occurred just a week before the 10th anniversary of the August 23, 2011 earthquake and highlighted a decade when the monument was closed more than it was open.


title: Washington Monument

text: On September 20, 2022, the monument was closed for one evening because a man was defacing the monument with red paint and graffiti, "Have u been fucked by this" with an arrow pointing upward and "gov says tough shit" in red lettering at west facing ground level. He was arrested and charged with vandalism but pleaded not guilty in court.


title: Washington Monument

text: The cornerstone was laid with great ceremony at the northeast corner of the lowest course or step of the old foundation on . Robert Mills, the architect of the monument, stated in September 1848, "The foundations are now brought up nearly to the surface of the ground; the second step being nearly completed, which covers up the corner stone." Therefore, the cornerstone was laid below the 1848 ground level. In 1880, the ground level was raised to the base of the shaft by the addition of a wide earthen embankment encircling the reinforced foundation, widened another 30 feet in 1881, and then the knoll was constructed in 1887–88. If the cornerstone was not moved during the strengthening of the foundation in 1879–80, its upper surface would now be below the pavement just outside the northeast corner of the shaft. It would now be sandwiched between the concrete slab under the old foundation and the concrete buttress completely encircling what remains of the old foundation. During the strengthening process, about half by volume of the periphery of the lowest seven of eight courses or steps of the old foundation (gneiss rubble) was removed to provide good footing for the buttress. Although a few diagrams, pictures and descriptions of this process exist, the fate of the cornerstone is not mentioned.


title: Washington Monument

text: The cornerstone was a marble block high and square with a large hole for a zinc case filled with memorabilia. The hole was covered by a copper plate inscribed with the date of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776), the date the cornerstone was laid (July 4, 1848), and the names of the managers of the Washington National Monument Society. The memorabilia in the zinc case included items associated with the monument, the city of Washington, the national government, state governments, benevolent societies, and George Washington, plus miscellaneous publications, both governmental and commercial, a coin set, and a Bible, totaling 73 items or collections of items, as well as 71 newspapers containing articles relating to George Washington or the monument.


title: Washington Monument

text: The ceremony began with a parade of dignitaries in carriages, marching troops, fire companies, and benevolent societies. A long oration was delivered by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Robert C. Winthrop. Then, the cornerstone was pronounced sound after a Masonic ceremony using George Washington's Masonic gavel, apron and sash, as well as other Masonic symbols. In attendance were President James K. Polk and other federal, state and local government officials, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, Mrs. Dolley Madison, Mrs. John Quincy Adams, and George Washington Parke Custis, among 15,000 to 20,000 others, including a bald eagle. The ceremony ended with fireworks that evening.


title: Washington Monument

text: States, cities, foreign countries, benevolent societies, other organizations, and individuals have contributed 194 memorial stones, all inserted into the east and west interior walls above stair landings or levels for easy viewing, except one on the south interior wall between stairs that is difficult to view. The sources disagree on the number of stones for two reasons: whether one or both "height stones" are included, and stones not yet on display at the time of a source's publication cannot be included. The "height stones" refer to two stones that indicate height: during the first phase of construction a stone with an inscription that includes the phrase "from the foundation to this height 100 feet" () was installed just below the stairway and high above the stairway; during the second phase of construction a stone with a horizontal line and the phrase "top of statue on Capitol" was installed on the level.


title: Washington Monument

text: The "Historic Structure Report" (HSR, 2004) named 194 "memorial stones" by level, including both height stones. Jacob (2005) described in detail and pictured 193 "commemorative stones", including the stone but not the Capitol stone. The "Historic American Buildings Survey" (HABS, 1994) showed the location of 193 "memorial stones", but did not describe or name any. HABS showed both height stones, but did not show one stone not yet installed in 1994. Olszewski (1971) named 190 "memorial stones" by level, including the Capitol stone but not the 100-foot stone. Olszewski did not include three stones not yet installed in 1971.


title: Washington Monument

text: Of 194 stones, 94 are marble, 40 are granite, 29 are limestone, 8 are sandstone, with 23 miscellaneous types, including stones with two types of material and those whose materials are not identified. Unusual materials include native copper (Michigan), pipestone (Minnesota), petrified wood (Arizona), and jadeite (Alaska). The stones vary in size from about square (Carthage) to about (Philadelphia and New York City).


title: Washington Monument

text: Utah contributed one stone as a territory and another as a state, both with inscriptions that include its pre-territorial name, Deseret, both located on the level.


title: Washington Monument

text: A stone at the level of the monument is inscribed in (My Language, My Country, My Nation, Welsh forever). The stone, imported from Wales, was donated by Welsh citizens of New York. Two other stones were presented by the Sunday Schools of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York and the Sabbath School children of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia—the former quotes from the Bible verse Proverbs 10:7, "The memory of the just is blessed".


title: Washington Monument

text: Ottoman Sultan Abdul Mejid I donated $30,000 toward the construction of the Washington monument. The Sultans' donation was the largest single donation toward the building of the Washington Monument. The Sultan's intention was to bridge peace between the Ottomans and the Americans. The stone containing the Turkish inscriptions commemorating this event is on the level. The translation of the inscriptions state, "To support the continuation of true friendship Abdul Mejid Khan's clear and pure name was written on the lofty stone in Washington." It combines the works of two eminent calligraphers: an imperial "tughra" by Mustafa Rakım's student Haşim Efendi, and an inscription in "jalī ta'līq" script by Kazasker Mustafa Izzet Efendi, the calligrapher who wrote the giant medallions at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.


title: Washington Monument

text: One stone was donated by the Ryukyu Kingdom and brought back by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, but never arrived in Washington (it was replaced in 1989).


title: Washington Monument

text: Many of the stones donated for the monument carried inscriptions that did not commemorate George Washington. For example, one from the Templars of Honor and Temperance stated "We will not make, buy, sell, or use as a beverage, any spiritous or malt liquors, Wine, Cider, or any other Alcoholic Liquor." (George Washington himself had owned a whiskey distillery which operated at Mount Vernon after he left the presidency.)


title: Washington Monument

text: The aluminum apex, composed of a metal that at the time was as rare and valuable as silver, was cast by William Frishmuth of Philadelphia. At the time of casting, it was the largest piece of aluminum in the world. Before the installation, it was put on public display at Tiffany's in New York City and stepped over by visitors who could say they had "stepped over the top of the Washington Monument". It was tall before was vaporized from its tip by lightning strikes during 1885–1934, when it was protected from further damage by tall lightning rods surrounding it. Its base is square. The angle between opposite sides at its tip is 34°48'. It weighed before lightning strikes removed a small amount of aluminum from its tip and sides. Spectral analysis in 1934 showed that it was composed of 97.87% aluminum with the rest impurities. It has a shallow depression in its base to match a slightly raised area atop the small upper surface of the marble capstone, which aligns the sides of the apex with those of the capstone, and the downward protruding lip around that area prevents water from entering the joint. It has a large hole in the center of its base to receive a threaded diameter copper rod which attaches it to the monument and used to form part of the lightning protection system. In 2015 the National Geodetic Survey reported the coordinates of the 1 mm dimple atop the aluminum apex as (WGS 84).


title: Washington Monument

text: The four faces of the external aluminum apex all bear inscriptions in cursive writing (Snell Round hand), which are incised into the aluminum. The apex was inscribed on site after it was delivered. Most inscriptions are the original 1884 inscriptions, except for the top three lines on the east face which were added in 1934. From 1885 to 1934 a wide gold-plated copper band that held eight short lightning rods, two per side but not at its corners, covered most of the inscriptions, which were damaged and illegible as shown in the accompanying picture made in 1934. A new band including eight long lightning rods, one at each corner and one at the middle of each side, was added in 1934 and removed and discarded in 2013. The inscriptions that it covered were still damaged and illegible in 2013. Only the top four and bottom two lines of the north face, the first and last lines of the west face, the top four lines of the south face, and the top three lines of the east face are still legible. Even though the inscriptions are no longer covered, no attempt was made to repair them when the apex was accessible in 2013.


title: Washington Monument

text: The following table shows legible inscriptions in and illegible inscriptions in . No colors appear on the actual apex. The inscriptions occupy the lower portions of triangles, thus the inscribed upper lines are necessarily shorter than some lower lines.


title: Washington Monument

text: Although most printed sources, Harvey (1903), Olszewski (1971), Torres (1984), and the "Historic Structure Report" (2004), refer to the original 1884 inscriptions, the National Geodetic Survey (2015) refers to both the 1884 and 1934 inscriptions. All sources print them according to their own editorial rules, resulting in excessive capitalization (Harvey, Olszewski, and NGS) and inappropriate line breaks. No printed source uses cursive writing, although pictures of the apex clearly show that it was used for both the 1884 and 1934 inscriptions.


title: Washington Monument

text: A replica displayed on the 490-foot level uses totally different line breaks than those on the external apex—it also omits the 1934 inscriptions. In October 2007, it was discovered that the display of this replica was positioned so that the Laus Deo (Latin for "praise be to God") inscription could not be seen and Laus Deo was omitted from the placard describing the apex. The National Park Service rectified the omission by creating a new display.


title: Washington Monument

text: The pyramidion, the pointed top of the monument, was originally designed with an tall inscribed aluminum apex which served as a single lightning rod, installed . Six months later on lightning damaged the marble blocks of the pyramidion, so a net of gold-plated copper rods supporting 200 gold-plated, platinum-tipped copper points spaced every was installed over the entire pyramidion. The original net included a gold-plated copper band attached to the aluminum apex by four large set screws which supported eight closely spaced vertical points that did not protrude above the apex. In 1934 these eight short points were lengthened to extend them above the apex by . In 2013 this original system was removed and discarded. It was replaced by only two thick solid aluminum lightning rods protruding above the tip of the apex by about attached to the east and west sides of the marble capstone just below the apex.


title: Washington Monument

text: Until it was removed, the original lightning protection system was connected to the tops of the four iron columns supporting the elevator with large copper rods. Even though the aluminum apex is still connected to the columns with large copper rods, it is no longer part of the lightning protection system because it is now disconnected from the present lightning rods which shield it. The two lightning rods present since 2013 are connected to the iron columns with two large braided aluminum cables leading down the surface of the pyramidion near its southeast and northwest corners. They enter the pyramidion at its base, where they are tied together (electrically shorted) via large braided aluminum cables encircling the pyramidion above its base. The bottom of the iron columns are connected to ground water below the monument via four large copper rods that pass through a square well half filled with sand in the center of the foundation. The effectiveness of the lightning protection system has not been affected by a significant draw down of the water table since 1884 because the soil's water content remains roughly 20% both above and below the height of the water table.


title: Washington Monument

text: During the first phase of construction (1848–1854), the walls were built with bluestone gneiss rubble, ranging from very large irregular stones having a cross section of about down to spalls (broken pieces of stone) all embedded in a large amount of mortar. The outer surface is marble stones thick in high courses or rows horizontally encircling the monument. Although each course contains both stretchers (stones parallel to the wall) and headers (stones projecting into the wall), about two to three times as many stretchers as headers were used. Their joints were so thin that some stones pressed on bare stone below them, breaking off many pieces since it was constructed. The batter or slope of the outer surface is 0.247 inches per foot (2.06 cm/m, 1°11'). The inner surface has disorderly rows of smaller roughly dressed bluestone gneiss. The base of the first phase walls has an outer dimension of square and a thickness of . The interior well is square and has square corners. The weight of the first phase walls up to is .


title: Washington Monument

text: During the second phase (1879–1884), the walls were constructed of smoothly dressed (ashlar) large marble and granite blocks (rectangular cuboids) laid down in an orderly manner (Flemish bond) with thick joints. Two-foot high marble surface stones, using an equal number of stretchers and headers, were backed by granite blocks from the 152-foot level (the first course above the rubble) to the 218-foot level, where marble headers become increasingly visible on the internal surface of the walls up to the 450-foot level, above which only marble stones are used.


title: Washington Monument

text: Between the 150- and 160-foot levels the inner walls rapidly slope outward, increasing the shaft well from 25 feet 1 inch square to square with a corresponding decrease in the thickness of the walls and their weight. The second phase walls at the 160-foot level were thick, which, combined with the larger shaft well, yields an outer dimension of square at that level. The top of the second phase walls are square and thick. The second phase interior walls have rounded corners ( radii). The weight of the second phase walls (from 150 feet to 500 feet) are . The walls of the entire shaft (combined first and second phases) are high.


title: Washington Monument

text: The first phase of the walls was constructed under the direction of William Dougherty. Its white Cockeysville marble exterior came from the Texas quarry now adjacent to and east of north I-83 near the Warren Road exit in Cockeysville, Maryland. The quarry was named for the Texas Station (no longer extant) and 19th-century town on the Northern Central Railway. During the first phase it was operated by Thomas Symington, but is now operated by Martin Marietta Materials and no longer produces building stone. The second phase of construction was under the direction of Lt Col/Col Thomas Lincoln Casey of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, who removed two defective courses added by the Know-Nothings and the last 152-foot course added by Dougherty before Casey began his construction. The next three courses of white marble () came from Sheffield, Massachusetts, while all courses above them came from the Beaver Dam quarry just west of the 19th-century town of Cockeysville. The latter quarry is located on Beaver Dam Road near its intersection with McCormick Road. During the second phase the quarry was operated by Hugh Sisson, but is now flooded, is called Beaverdam Pond, and is the home of the Beaver Dam Swimming Club. Both 19th-century towns are now within the city limits of Cockeysville.


title: Washington Monument

text: The marble capstone of the pyramidion is a truncated pyramid with a cubical keystone projecting from its base and a deep groove surrounding the keystone. The aluminum apex replaces its truncated top. The inside upper edges of the topmost slabs on the four faces of the pyramidion rest on the keystone and in the groove. It has a large vertical hole through which a threaded copper rod passes and screws into the base of the apex, which used to form part of its lightning protection system. The keystone and groove occupy so much of its base that only a small horizontal area near its outer edge remains. The weight of the capstone is transferred to both the inner and outer portions of the shiplap upper edges of the slabs. It weighs , is high from its base to its top, and is square at its base.


title: Washington Monument

text: The marble pyramidion has an extremely complex construction to save weight yet remain strong. Its surface slabs or panels are usually only thick (with small thick and thin portions) and generally do not support the weight of slabs above them, instead transferring their own weight via wide internal marble ribs to the shaft's walls. The slabs are generally wide and high with a vertical overlap (shiplap) to prevent water from entering the horizontal joints. Twelve such courses, the internal ribs, the marble capstone, and the aluminum apex comprise the pyramidion. Its height is . Its weight is . The slope of the walls of the pyramidion is 17°24' from the vertical. There are twelve ribs, three per wall, which spring from the level, all being integrated into the walls up to the level. All are free standing above 500 feet, relying on mortise and tenon joints to attach neighboring stones. The eight corner ribs terminate six courses above the shaft, each corner rib resting on its neighboring corner rib via a miter joint, forming four corner arches. Each such arch supports a pair of square corner stones, one above the other totaling one course in height. Each corner rib is linked to the nearest center rib at the sixth course via a marble tie beam. The four center ribs terminate eight courses above the shaft at a marble cruciform (cross shaped) keystone, forming two main arches that cross each other. Two stones, each one course high, are mounted on each of the four ribs, supporting two additional courses above the cruciform keystone, leaving two courses to support the capstone's weight by themselves.


title: Washington Monument

text: The observation floor (nominally the 500-foot level) is above the entry lobby floor or lowest landing level. It is above the marble base of the pyramidion and the top of the shaft walls.


title: Washington Monument

text: Four pairs of wide observation windows are provided, spaced apart, inner stone edge to edge, all just above the lowest course of slabs (504-foot level). Six are high while two on the east face are high for easier egress. All were originally provided with thin marble shutters in a bronze frame each of which could be opened inward, one left and the other right per wall. After two people committed suicide by jumping through the open windows in the 1920s, hinged horizontal iron bars were added to them in 1929. A ninth opening in a slab on the south face just below the capstone is provided for access to the outside of the pyramidion. It is covered by a stone slab which is internally removable. In 1931, four red aircraft warning lights were installed, one per face in one of its observation windows. Pilots complained that they could not be easily seen, so the monument was floodlit on all sides as well. In 1958, eight diameter holes for new red aircraft warning lights were bored, one above each window near the top edge of the fourth course of slabs (516-foot level) in the pyramidion. In 1958 the observation windows were glazed with shatterproof glass. In 1974–1976, they were glazed with bulletproof glass and the shutters removed. New bulletproof glass was installed during 1997–2000.


title: Washington Monument

text: The pyramidion has two inscriptions, neither of which is regarded as a memorial stone. One is the year "1884" on the underside of the cruciform keystone; the other is at the same level as that keystone on the north face of the west center rib containing the names and titles of the four highest ranked builders. Its inscription () is almost identical to the inscription on the south face of the aluminum apex except for "U.S.", which is part of the phrase "14th U.S. Infantry" in the inscription inside the pyramidion, but the apex has only "14th Infantry". Additionally, the internal inscription does not use cursive writing and all letters in all names are capitals.


title: Washington Monument

text: The first phase began with the excavation of about of topsoil down to a level of loam, consisting of equal parts of sand and clay, hard enough to require picks to break it up. On this "bed of the foundation" the cornerstone was laid at the northeast corner of the proposed foundation. The rest of the foundation was then constructed of bluestone gneiss rubble and spalls, with every crevice filled with lime mortar. The dimensions of this old foundation were high, square at the base, and square at the top, laid down in eight steps, similar to a truncated step pyramid. At the center of the foundation a brick-lined square well was dug to a depth of below the bed of the foundation to keep it dry and to supply water during construction.


title: Washington Monument

text: During the second phase, after determining that the proposed weight of the monument was too great for the old foundation to safely bear, the thickness of the walls atop the unfinished stump was reduced and the foundation was strengthened by adding a large unreinforced concrete slab below the perimeter of the old foundation to increase the monument's load bearing area two and one half times. The slab was thick, with an outer perimeter square, an inner perimeter square, with undisturbed loam inside the inner perimeter except for the water well. The area at the base of the second phase foundation is . The strengthened foundation (old foundation and concrete slab) has a total depth of below the bottom of the lowest course of marble blocks (now below ground), and below the entry lobby floor. Casey reported that nowhere did the load exceed and did not exceed near the outer perimeter. To properly distribute the load from the shaft to slab, about half by volume of the outer periphery of the old rubble foundation below its top step was removed. A continuous sloping unreinforced concrete buttress encircles what remains. The buttress is square at its base, square at its top, and high. The perimeter of the original top step of the old rubble foundation rests on the larger top of the concrete buttress. Its slope (lower external angle from the vertical) is 49°. This buttress rests in a depression (triangular cross-section) on the top surface of the concrete slab. The slab was constructed by digging pairs of wide drifts on opposite sides of the monument's center line to keep the monument properly balanced. The drifts were filled with unreinforced concrete with depressions or dowel stones on their sides to interlock the sections. An earthen terrace wide with its top at the base of the walls and steep sides was constructed in 1880–81 over the reinforced foundation while the rest of the monument was being constructed. During 1887–88, a knoll was constructed around the terrace tapering out roughly onto the surrounding terrain. This earthen terrace and knoll serves as an additional buttress for the foundation. The weight of the foundation is , including earth and gneiss rubble above the concrete foundation that is within its outer perimeter.


title: Washington Monument

text: The monument is filled with ironwork, consisting of its stairs, elevator columns and associated tie beams, none of which supports the weight of the stonework. It was redesigned in 1958 to reduce congestion and improve the flow of visitors. Originally, visitors entered and exited the west side of the elevator on the observation floor, causing congestion. So the large landing at the 490-foot level was expanded to a full floor and the original spiral stair in the northeast corner between the levels was replaced by two spiral stairs in the northeast and southeast corners. Now visitors exit the elevator on the observation floor, then walk down either spiral stair before reboarding the elevator for their trip back down.


title: Washington Monument

text: The main stairs spiral up the interior walls from the entry lobby floor to the elevator reboarding floor at the level. The elevator occupies the center of the shaft well from the entry lobby to the observation floor, with an elevator machine room (installed 1925–26) whose floor is above the observation floor and an elevator pit (excavated 1879) whose floor is below the entry lobby floor. The stairs and elevator are supported by four wrought iron columns each. The four supporting the stairs extend from the entry lobby floor to the observation floor and were set at the corners of a square. The four supporting the elevator extend from the floor of the elevator pit to above the observation floor and were set at the corners of a square. The weight of the ironwork is . Cast iron, wrought iron, and steel were all used. The two small spiral stairs installed in 1958 are aluminum.


title: Washington Monument

text: Most landings occupy the entire east and west interior walls every from and including the east landing at the level up to the west landing at the level, east then west alternately. Three stairs with small landings rise from the entry lobby floor to the level successively along the north, west and south interior walls. Landings from the level up to the level are by , while landings from the level to the level are by . All stairs are on the north and south walls except for the aforementioned west stair between the levels, and the two spiral stairs.


title: Washington Monument

text: About one fourth of visitors chose to ascend the monument using the stairs when they were available. They were closed to up traffic in 1971, and then closed to all traffic except by special arrangement in 1976. The stairs had 898 steps until 1958, consisting of 18 risers in each of the 49 main stairs plus 16 risers in the spiral stair. Since 1958 the stairs have had 897 risers if only one spiral stair is counted because both spiral stairs now have 15 risers each. These figures do not include two additional steps in the entry passage that were covered up in 1975 by a ramp and its inward horizontal extension to meet the higher (since 1886) entry lobby floor. One step was away from the outer walls and the other was at the end of the passage, away from the outer walls.


title: Washington Monument

text: As initially constructed, the interior was relatively open with two-rail handrails, but a couple of suicides and an accidental fall prompted the addition of tall wire screening high with a large diamond mesh) on the inside edge of the stairs and landings in 1929. The original steam powered elevator, which took 10 to 12 minutes to ascend to the observation floor, was replaced by an electric elevator powered by an on-site dynamo in 1901 which took five minutes to ascend. The monument was connected to the electrical grid in 1923, allowing the installation of a modern electric elevator in 1925–26 which took 70 seconds. The latter was replaced in 1958 and again in 1998 by 70-second elevators. From 1997 to 2000, the wire screening at three platforms was replaced by large glass panels to allow visitors on the elevator to view three clusters of memorial stones that were synchronously lit as the elevator automatically slowed while passing them during its descent.


title: Washington Monument

text: Fifty American flags (not state flags), one for each state, are now flown 24 hours a day around a large circle centered on the monument. Forty eight American flags (one for each state then in existence) were flown on wooden flag poles on Washington's birthday since 1920 and later on Independence Day, Memorial Day, and other special occasions until early 1958. Both the flags and flag poles were removed and stored between these days. In 1958 fifty tall aluminum flag poles (anticipating Alaska and Hawaii) were installed, evenly spaced around a diameter circle. During 2004–05, the diameter of the circle was reduced to . Since Washington's birthday 1958, 48 American flags were flown on a daily basis, increasing to 49 flags on , and then to 50 flags since . When 48 and 49 flags were flown, only 48 and 49 flag poles of the available 50 were placed into base receptacles. All flags were removed and stored overnight. Since , 50 American flags have flown 24 hours a day.


title: Washington Monument

text: In the 2004 grounds renovation, two large circles were added to the landscaping with the obelisk in the intersection or vesica piscis. The monument's vesica piscis is not ideal because neither circle passes through the center of its neighbor. Furthermore, both "circles" are slightly elliptical.


title: Washington Monument

text: The total cost of the monument from 1848 to 1888 was $1,409,500 (). The weight of the above ground portion of the monument is , whereas its total weight, including the foundation below ground and any earth above it that is within its outer perimeter is . The total number of blocks in the monument, including all marble, granite and gneiss blocks, whether externally or internally visible or hidden from view within the walls or old foundation is over 36,000. The number of marble blocks externally visible is about 10,000.


title: Washington Monument

text: The monument stands tall according to the National Geodetic Survey (measured 2013–14) or tall according to the National Park Service (measured 1884). In 1975, a ramp covered two steps at the entrance to the monument, so the ground next to the ramp was raised to match its height, reducing the remaining height to the monument's apex. It is both the world's tallest predominantly stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk. It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances, but two are taller when measured above ground, though they are neither all stone nor true obelisks. The tallest masonry structure in the world is the brick Anaconda Smelter Stack in Montana at tall. But this includes a non-masonry concrete foundation, leaving the stack's brick chimney at tall, only about taller than the monument's 2015 height. If the monument's aluminum apex is also discounted, then the stack's masonry portion is taller than the monument's masonry portion.


title: Washington Monument

text: In 2001, a temporary visitor security screening center was added to the east entrance of the Washington Monument in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The one-story facility was designed to reduce the ability of a terrorist attack on the interior of the monument, or an attempt to seize and hold it. Visitors obtained their timed-entry tickets from the Monument Lodge east of the memorial, and passed through metal detectors and bomb-sniffing sensors prior to entering the monument. After exiting the monument, they passed through a turnstile to prevent them from re-entering. This facility, a one-story cube of wood around a metal frame, was intended to be temporary until a new screening facility could be designed.


title: Washington Monument

text: On March 6, 2014, the National Capital Planning Commission approved a new visitor screening facility to replace the temporary one. The facility will be two stories high and contain space for screening 20 to 25 visitors at a time. The exterior walls (which will be slightly frosted to prevent viewing of the security screening process) will consist of an outer sheet of bulletproof glass or polycarbonate, a metal mesh insert, and another sheet of bulletproof glass. The inner sheet will consist of two sheets (slightly separated) of laminated glass. A airspace will exist between the inner and outer glass walls to help insulate the facility. Two (possibly three) geothermal heat pumps will be built on the north side of the monument to provide heating and cooling of the facility. The new facility will also provide an office for National Park Service and United States Park Police staff. The structure is designed so that it may be removed without damaging the monument. The United States Commission of Fine Arts approved the aesthetic design of the screening facility in June 2013.


title: Washington Monument

text: A recessed trench wall known as a ha-ha has been built to minimize the visual impact of a security barrier surrounding the monument. After the September 11 attacks and another unrelated terror threat at the monument, authorities had put up a circle of temporary Jersey barriers to prevent large motor vehicles from approaching. The unsightly barrier was replaced by a less-obtrusive low granite stone wall that doubles as a seating bench and also incorporates lighting. The installation received the 2005 Park/Landscape Award of Merit from the American Society of Landscape Architects.


title: Washington Monument

text: The Washington Monument is served by Federal Triangle metro station and Smithsonian metro station. Traveling by Metro bus, one can take the DC Circulator on the National Mall route or ride bus number 34, 36, and 32.


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: Sidharth Shukla (12 December 1980 – 2 September 2021) was an Indian actor, host and model who appeared in Hindi television and films. He was known for his roles in "Balika Vadhu", "Broken But Beautiful 3" and "Dil Se Dil Tak". He emerged as the winner of reality shows "Bigg Boss 13" and "". He hosted "Savdhaan India" and "India's Got Talent." He won the World's Best Model title in December 2005 beating 40 other participants from across Asia, Latin America, and Europe. He made his acting debut with a lead role in the 2008 show "Babul Ka Aangann Chootey Na". In 2014, Shukla made his Bollywood debut in a supporting role in "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania".


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: Sidharth Shukla was born on 12 December 1980 into a Hindu Brahmin family in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) to Ashok Shukla, a civil engineer employed at the Reserve Bank of India and Rita Shukla, a homemaker. He lost his father because of a lung disease during his modelling days. He has two elder sisters. Shukla attended St. Xavier's High School, Fort, Mumbai and holds a bachelor's degree in Interior Design from Rachana Sansad School of Interior Design. Shukla has described himself as a very athletic child, and represented his school in tennis and football. He played against Italian football club, AC Milan’s under-19 team, on their Mumbai visit as part of Festa Italiana. After completing bachelor's degree in interior design, Shukla worked in an interior designing firm for a couple of years. In 2004, Shukla was runner-up in the "Gladrags Manhunt and Megamodel Contest". He appeared in a video "Resham Ka Rumal" sung by Ila Arun. In 2005, he represented India at the World's Best Model contest held in Turkey, and became the first Indian, as well as the first Asian, to win the title beating 40 contestants from across Asia, Latin America, and Europe. After winning the title, he appeared in advertisements for Bajaj Avenger, ICICI and Digjam.


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: In 2008, he made his acting debut with a lead role in the television show "Babul Ka Aangann Chootey Na" on Sony TV opposite Aastha Chaudhary. Shukla played Shubh Ranawat, a man dedicated to his work and family. The show ended in February 2009. In 2009, he appeared as Veer Vardhan Singh in "Jaane Pehchaane Se... Ye Ajnabbi" on Star One opposite Sanjeeda Sheikh and Aditi Tailang. The show ended in September 2010. After "Jaane Pehchaane Se... Ye Ajnabbi" ended, he also appeared in a few episodes of "Aahat". In 2011, he appeared as Rahul Kashyap in "Love U Zindagi" opposite Pavitra Punia on StarPlus. The show was inspired by the Bollywood movie "Jab We Met". He also appeared in an episode of "CID".


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: In 2012, Shukla appeared as District Collector Shivraj Shekhar, opposite Pratyusha Banerjee and Toral Rasputra in "Balika Vadhu". It was his portrayal of Shiv in the long-running Colors TV social drama series "Balika Vadhu" which earned him widespread recognition and popularity, including several awards and nominations. He received the "GR8! Performer of the Year (Male)" award at the Indian Television Academy (ITA) Awards. He left the show in 2015, when his character, Shiv, died fighting with terrorists. In 2013, Shukla participated in the celebrity dance reality show "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 6," and was eliminated in the 11th week. It was reported that Shukla had signed a 3-film-deal with Dharma Productions. In 2014, Shukla made his Bollywood debut in the romantic comedy "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" in a supporting role playing the character of Angad Bedi, an NRI doctor and fiancé of the female protagonist played by Alia Bhatt. The film earned him an award for "Breakthrough Supporting Performance (Male)" in the 2015 Stardust Awards.


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: In 2014, Shukla was named the host of "Savdhaan India". He introduced stories of common people who fought against crime. In 2015, after exiting from "Balika Vadhu", he hosted "India's Got Talent 6", with Bharti Singh, and the season finale was aired in June 2015. In 2016, Shukla won the stunt reality show "." The same year, he hosted "India's Got Talent 7" with Bharti Singh, and the season finale was aired in July 2016. Later in 2016, Shukla appeared as Mr. Chakraborty, an Indian businessman, in a Kazakhstan movie, "Business in Kazakhstan". In 2017, he appeared as Parth Bhanushali in "Dil Se Dil Tak" with co-stars Rashami Desai and Jasmin Bhasin. The series was inspired by the Bollywood movie, "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke". He left the series in December 2017.


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: In 2019, he participated in the reality show "Bigg Boss 13," and was declared the winner in February 2020. Ormax media rated Shukla to be the most popular contestant of "Bigg Boss 13," ranking him as number one throughout 20 weeks. He was voted the most favourite contestant of "Bigg Boss 13" in polls conducted by Hindustan Times, India TV News, and The Times of India. He was the most tweeted contestant of "Bigg Boss 13".


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: In 2020, after winning "Bigg Boss 13", Shukla's massive popularity helped him bag appearances in two music videos, "Bhula Dunga", and "Dil Ko Karaar Aaya". The same year, Shukla entered as one of the "Toofani" Seniors in "Bigg Boss 14", with Hina Khan and Gauahar Khan, for the first two weeks. Shukla then appeared in another music video "Shona Shona". In January 2021, Shukla hosted 16th week's "Weekend Ka Vaar" of "Bigg Boss 14", as Shukla was filling in for Salman Khan, who was missing from the show due to other work commitments.


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: Shukla made his OTT debut as Agastya Rao with the third season of the romance web series "Broken But Beautiful" opposite Sonia Rathee streaming on ALTBalaji and MX Player. The series and Shukla's performance received positive response from critics, Mugdha Kapoor of "DNA India" wrote, "It’s the fire and genuineness in Sidharth’s acting and freshness in Sonia’s performance that keeps the viewers glued and wanting to see more."


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: In 2014, he won the Gold Awards Most Fit Actor award and was included in Rediff's Television's Top 10 Actors. In 2013, Shukla entered the "Times of India's" Most Desirable Men of 2013 at 34th position, ranking 33rd in 2014, 44th in 2017, 41st in 2018, 15th in 2019, and 11th in 2020. He was ranked 5th and 7th in the "Times of India"'s Top 20 Most Desirable Men on Television in 2017 and 2018 respectively, and then he was ranked 1st consecutively in The Times 20 Most Desirable Men on Television in 2019 and 2020. He was announced "Hindustan Times" Most Stylish TV Personality 2017. Later in the year, he was also placed at the 10th position in the exclusive list of Top 12 Indian Male Hotties of 2017 by Trendrr.


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: In 2019, Shukla was the 9th most searched personality in India on Google. In 2021, he was declared The Times of India's Charismatic TV personality. Before "Bigg Boss 14" premiere, Sidharth was voted as the " Bigg Boss" Greatest Of All Times in a series of polls conducted by Colors TV, where 16 popular contestants across all the previous 13 seasons were nominated for the title.


title: Sidharth Shukla

text: Shukla died on 2 September 2021 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 40. Shukla's family consisted of his mother and two sisters. His family informed the Mumbai Police, that Shukla was not under mental stress and they did not suspect any foul play in his death. His family also appealed his fans to not spread rumours about his death.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857. It is located on, and named after, the Des Moines River, which likely was adapted from the early French name, "Rivière des Moines," meaning "River of the Monks". The city's population was 214,133 as of the 2020 census. The six-county metropolitan area is ranked 83rd in terms of population in the United States with 699,292 residents according to the 2019 estimate by the United States Census Bureau, and is the largest metropolitan area fully located within the state.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: Des Moines is a major center of the US insurance industry and has a sizable financial services and publishing business base. The city was credited as the "number one spot for U.S. insurance companies" in a "Business Wire" article and named the third-largest "insurance capital" of the world. The city is the headquarters for the Principal Financial Group, Ruan Transportation, TMC Transportation, EMC Insurance Companies, and Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. Other major corporations such as Wells Fargo, Cognizant, Voya Financial, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, ACE Limited, Marsh, Monsanto, and Corteva have large operations in or near the metropolitan area. In recent years, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Facebook have built data-processing and logistical facilities in the Des Moines area.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: Des Moines is an important city in U.S. presidential politics; as the state's capital, it is the site of the first caucuses of the presidential primary cycle. Many presidential candidates set up campaign headquarters in Des Moines. A 2007 article in "The New York Times" said, "If you have any desire to witness presidential candidates in the most close-up and intimate of settings, there is arguably no better place to go than Des Moines."


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: Des Moines takes its name from Fort Des Moines (1843–46), which was named for the Des Moines River. This was adopted from the name given by French colonists. "Des Moines" (; formerly ) translates literally to either "from the monks" or "of the monks".


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: The historian Virgil Vogel claimed that the name was derived from "Moingona," an Algonquian clan name, which means "Loon".


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: Some historians and researchers lacking linguistic or Algonquianist training concluded that "Moingona" meant "people by the portage" or something similar, a reference to the Des Moines Rapids. This was where the earliest known encounters between the Moingona and European explorers took place.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: In 2015, Michael McCafferty of Indiana University, while studying the Miami-Illinois language, concluded that the name was actually a derisive term coined by the Peoria tribe. McCafferty agrees with other linguists that the "Moines" in Des Moines is a French derivation of Moingoana. What he discovered, however, was that it wasn't the actual name of the neighboring tribe; it was an insulting nickname they hurled at their rivals. It translates, essentially, as "the feces-faces."


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: One popular interpretation of "Des Moines" ignores Vogel's research, and concludes that it refers to a group of French Trappist monks, who in the 17th century lived in huts built on top of what is now known as the ancient Monks Mound at Cahokia, the major center of Mississippian culture, which developed in what is present-day Illinois, east of the Mississippi River and the city of St. Louis. This was some from the Des Moines River.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: Based on archaeological evidence, the junction of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers has attracted humans for at least 7,000 years. Several prehistoric occupation areas have been identified by archaeologists in downtown Des Moines. Discovered in December 2010, the "Palace" is an expansive, 7,000-year-old site found during excavations prior to construction of the new wastewater treatment plant in southeastern Des Moines. It contains well-preserved house deposits and numerous graves. More than 6,000 artifacts were found at this site. State of Iowa archaeologist John Doershuk was assisted by University of Iowa archaeologists at this dig.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: At least three Late Prehistoric villages, dating from about AD 1300 to 1700, stood in or near what developed later as downtown Des Moines. In addition, 15 to 18 prehistoric American Indian mounds were observed in this area by early settlers. All have been destroyed during development of the city.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: Des Moines traces its origins to May 1843, when Captain James Allen supervised the construction of a fort on the site where the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers merge. Allen wanted to use the name Fort Raccoon; however, the U.S. War Department preferred Fort Des Moines. The fort was built to control the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes, whom the government had moved to the area from their traditional lands in eastern Iowa. The fort was abandoned in 1846 after the Sauk and Meskwaki were removed from the state and shifted to the Indian Territory.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: The Sauk and Meskwaki did not fare well in Des Moines. The illegal whiskey trade, combined with the destruction of traditional lifeways, led to severe problems for their society. One newspaper reported:


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: "It is a fact that the location of Fort Des Moines among the Sac and Fox Indians (under its present commander) for the last two years, had corrupted them more and lowered them deeper in the scale of vice and degradation, than all their intercourse with the whites for the ten years previous".After official removal, the Meskwaki continued to return to Des Moines until around 1857.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: Archaeological excavations have shown that many fort-related features survived under what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and First Street. Soldiers stationed at Fort Des Moines opened the first coal mines in the area, mining coal from the riverbank for the fort's blacksmith.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: Settlers occupied the abandoned fort and nearby areas. On May 25, 1846, the state legislature designated Fort Des Moines as the seat of Polk County. Arozina Perkins, a school teacher who spent the winter of 1850–1851 in the town of Fort Des Moines, was not favorably impressed:


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: This is one of the strangest looking "cities" I ever saw... This town is at the juncture of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers. It is mostly a level prairie with a few swells or hills around it. We have a court house of "brick" and one church, a plain, framed building belonging to the Methodists. There are two taverns here, one of which has a most important little bell that rings together some fifty boarders. I cannot tell you how many dwellings there are, for I have not counted them; some are of logs, some of brick, some framed, and some are the remains of the old dragoon houses... The people support two papers and there are several dry goods shops. I have been into but four of them... Society is as varied as the buildings are. There are people from nearly every state, and Dutch, Swedes, etc.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: In May 1851, much of the town was destroyed during the Flood of 1851. "The Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers rose to an unprecedented height, inundating the entire country east of the Des Moines River. Crops were utterly destroyed, houses and fences swept away." The city started to rebuild from scratch.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: On September 22, 1851, Des Moines was incorporated as a city; the charter was approved by voters on October 18. In 1857, the name "Fort Des Moines" was shortened to "Des Moines", and it was designated as the second state capital, previously at Iowa City. Growth was slow during the Civil War period, but the city exploded in size and importance after a railroad link was completed in 1866.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: In 1864, the Des Moines Coal Company was organized to begin the first systematic mining in the region. Its first mine, north of town on the river's west side, was exhausted by 1873. The Black Diamond mine, near the south end of the West Seventh Street Bridge, sank a mine shaft to reach a coal bed. By 1876, this mine employed 150 men and shipped 20 carloads of coal per day. By 1885, numerous mine shafts were within the city limits, and mining began to spread into the surrounding countryside. By 1893, 23 mines were in the region. By 1908, Des Moines' coal resources were largely exhausted. In 1912, Des Moines still had eight locals of the United Mine Workers union, representing 1,410 miners. This was about 1.7% of the city's population in 1910.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: By 1880, Des Moines had a population of 22,408, making it Iowa's largest city. It displaced the three Mississippi River ports: Burlington, Dubuque, and Davenport, that had alternated holding the position since the territorial period. Des Moines has remained Iowa's most populous city. In 1910, the Census Bureau reported Des Moines' population as 97.3% white and 2.7% black, reflecting its early settlement pattern primarily by ethnic Europeans.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: At the turn of the 20th century, encouraged by the Civic Committee of the Des Moines Women's Club, Des Moines undertook a "City Beautiful" project in which large Beaux Arts public buildings and fountains were constructed along the Des Moines River. The former Des Moines Public Library building (now the home of the World Food Prize); the United States central Post Office, built by the federal government (now the Polk County Administrative Building, with a newer addition); and the City Hall are surviving examples of the 1900–1910 buildings. They form the Civic Center Historic District.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: The ornate riverfront balustrades that line the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers were built by the federal Civilian Conservation Corps in the mid-1930s, during the Great Depression under Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a project to provide local employment and improve infrastructure. The ornamental fountains that stood along the riverbank were buried in the 1950s when the city began a postindustrial decline that lasted until the late 1980s. The city has since rebounded, transforming from a blue-collar industrial city to a white-collar professional city.


title: Des Moines, Iowa

text: In 1907, the city adopted a city commission government known as the Des Moines Plan, comprising an elected mayor and four commissioners, all elected at-large, who were responsible for public works, public property, public safety, and finance. Considered progressive at the time, it diluted the votes of ethnic and national minorities, who generally could not command the majority to elect a candidate of their choice.