Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-06-15
WASHINGTON MONUMENT,
The Highest Shaft in the World Rising Rapidly
Why the Postponement has Proved Good
washington Cor. Hartford Courant

| Washington Cor. Hartford Courant.]
The design has been somewhat chang
ed. The original plan called for height
of six hundred feet, as requisite to show
our devotion to the memory of the
"Father Of his Country" The spire of
the Strasburg cathedral is 468 feet in
height. ST. Peters dome is 457 feet and
the dome of the capitol here is 3O6 feet.
But the Cologne spire is 500 feet, there
fore we have decided to put the monu-
ment up $50 feet. The base is fifty-ive
feet square, and the top will be thirty
SIX and half feet square, this being the
difference, though the great height will
make it much smaller at the top. The
foundation has been enlarged from so
feet square to 126 feet, and strengthened
by filings OF Portland cement. It is S
feet below the surface and II feet above,
The monument will be reached by ter
race. The old work shows great lack of
skill IN the laying of the blocks, the
edges OF which are broken, instead of
having been properly cut or trimmed so
as to be perfectly joined together The
stairs are carried up with the wall, and
are OF iron. They cross the north and
south sides, alternating with the plat
forms or landings on the east and west
sides. In this way the ascent will be
comparatively easy. For instance, you
mount half a dozen steps on the
north side, then cross the landing on the
west, then up the steps on the south,
then the landing on the east, and so on
round the square, till the top is reached.
1t is already quite dark in the monu-
ment, though not half the original or in
tended height is yet built.
However, the monument must be
lighted. One cannot climb the steps in
the dark, neither can the inscriptions on
the monumental stones be read. These
are placed in the east and west walls,
and easily seen on the way up. The out
side walls of the monument are of mar
BILE from Maryland quarries, and the
inner walls are of granite. The stones
set in are of various kinds of marble,
many of them very deliberately cut, par
ticularly those of the fire companies and
orders of Masons, Odd Fellows and tenn
perance.
Among the foreign contributions are
a gray granite block sent by the "Free
Swiss Confederation;;" gray granite with
the Brazilian coat-of-arms sent by
Brazil; polished red granite sent from
Bremen with gilt inscription; a small
gray stone from the William Tell chapel,
built in 1888 at Lucerne, where he es-
capped from Gesler, and sent by S. FL.
M. Byers, our consul. This will help
to renew the faith of those who doubt
the existence of Tell-though the story
is too pretty to be doubted. David Pot
ter Heap presented a curious block
found at Carthage. This is block of
colored marble with black medallion,
having a horse reaching up to the palm
tree, the latter of a cream marble, the
figures inlaid in the block. Another
piece is white marble carved with Egyp-
tan characters. A book is from the
islands of Paros and Naxos in the Greek
archipelago, sent twenty-five years ago.
The offering of the Pope Plus met with
strange fate, at the time of the great
Know Nothing excitement. Some of
the anti-C Catholics got the Pope's block
and threw it into the Potomac. It is a
pity not to have the beautiful Italian
marble, but the wrath of our fellow citi-
zens was appeased. Almost every state
has sent monumental stone, and there
is an infinite variety in the sculptures
and inscriptions. Granite "from the
home of Stark was sent by the ladies
of Manchester, New Hampshire,
and Tennessee has given her own
lovely marble, highly polished with
"The Federal Union must be pre-
served" in gilt letters. Over twenty
years ago, the defendants and neigh
bors of Washington gave White mar
BILE block. A white marble with the
medallion of Shakespeare was presented
| ho 1ror
ago, and another is from the Cherokee
Nation; a gray stone is froms Braddock's
field, a black marble from the battle
ground of Long Island, and block of
gray granite is from American citizens In
China. Handsome marbles have been
given by the children of the public
schools in different cities, and also from
the order of the Temple of Honor. These
stones will furnish interesting reading
for the patriotic climber, from base to
top. There are over a hundred of them,
and doubtless more will be given. 1t is
believed that the structure will he COM
pleted in about four years. AS large a
! force as can be accommodated are kept
at work on the walls. Six feet of the old
work was taken off the top before the
new began. A derrick at the top swings
| the blocks into place, some OF them
weighing several tons. They are laid
with the Portland cement, the length and
width alternating, On the day of my
visit the walls were then eight feet in
thickness, having been decreased from
eleven feet, the thickness at the starting
of the new work. This is done to de-
crease the weight of the walls upon the
foundation which could not possibly
bear the weight of the original thickness
up the whole height. The thinning of
the walls is only perceptible on the in
side. It is perfectly evident that the
new work is much superior to the old. SO
that the long interval of years showing
the unfinished monument, has been an
advantage derived from the improve
ments and progress in the building of
great structures. A strong, heavy net
work is put around the walls at the top,
| I % 1,o Col