River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-08-26
WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
Work Renewed After a Suspension of
Twenty-Five Years
Philadelphia Bulletin.

Twenty-Five years ago work was sus-
pended o. the Washington Monument,
after having attained the height of 100
feet. In the years that interviewed be-
tween the stoppage of work up to two
years ago nothing wos done toward
completing the structure, and it stood
as an emblem of unpatriotic devotion
of a great people to the illustrious man
who led the American armies to victory
over an oppressive foe. One hundred
years after the birth of the American
republic, congress took steps to com
plete the monument. Two years and
more were devoted to Strengthening the
foundations, so that it would stand
the pressure of the additional 10000
tons of stone necessary to take it up to
the height originally intended-500 feet.
For some weeks now the top of the
monument has shown signs of activity
and life. The old board covering and
the rotten derrick, which stoodthe sum-
mer heat and the wintry blasts for
twenty-five years, disappeared, AMI in
their places appeared evidence of
modern machinery and hosting ap
paratu1, and a score of wOrkmen en-
gagged in removing the upper layers of
stone, injured by the water and the
frosts Under the direction of Col.
Casey, the commissioners of public
buildings and ground, the work upon
the monument has progressed very
rapidly, and in few days more all the
work of carrying the monument up to
the height of 800 feet begun. The
diameter of the monument ut the base
is fifty-six feet, of which thirty-one feet
is of masonary, the well-hole in the
centre being twenty-five feet. AT the
height of $50 feet the thickness Of the
masonry is eleven feet eight inches, and
this Col. Casey thinks is wholly unneces-
sary, and so he proposes from this
point up to reduce the thickness about
three feet, making the distance from
the outside edge of the marble to the
inside line of the grant eight feet eight
inches. BY doing this the base of the
monument will be relieved of much
pressure and the structure will be
stronger The filling in back of the
marble to the line of the well-hole from
the base up to the present height, has
been done with irregular-sized blue
stone and cement. In removing the
upper layer of stone for the distance of
about two and a half feet, all sizes of
stone were found, from the size of a
mans hand to block eighteen inches
thick and two or three feet in length.
An even surface has now been made
and from this point up nothing but cut
grant blocks, every one made to tit IN
It's place, will be put in. The old plan
of putting in bluestone helterskelter
will not be followed, but instead a
regular course of grant. An elevator
has been erected inside the monument,
which carries all the stone and mater
ial to the top, and as the work progress
scs this will be extended upwards also.
The elevator is a permanent one, and
when the monument is finished Will be
used to take passengers to the top Col.
Casey told your correspondent to-day,
while standing on the top of the monu-
ment, that he expected to lay the first
stone next week. and to add twenty-five
feet to the height before cold weather
sets in. Before the end of this fiscal
year, the Both of next June, he feels
confident that seventy feet will be
added to the monument, making the
height then 220 feet.
A large number of memorial stones,
contributed to the monument twenty
five or thirty years ago, are in small
frame building ON the monument
grounds. These he does not intend to
build into the monument proper, but
will have them made thin and fastened
on the inside as it goes up by copper
bolts. As these stones are of irregular
sizes, Col. Casey says it will not be adj
l. l., mt no of hn
monument proper, because it will in
terfere with the regularity of the struc-
ture. All will be used, however, and
made to show to advantage Very
many of the memorial stones in the
monument on the inside, facing the
well-hole, are badly injured by the wa
ter running upon them and the effects
of the weather. A number Of these
were deliberately lettered in gilt, and the
lettering is almost illegible.