Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-05-08
A GREAT MONUMENT.

A GREAT MONUMENT.
WHAT IT wAr, Is now AND IS To BE.
M. a,.,ory Of what VIII he tho Highest
structure Ever RAISED ~
Mans Hand.
Washington Correspondent OF the Tribune.
Probably few persons outside Of Wash |
noton realize that the time has come to
max respectfully of the Washington
monument. That unsightly column..as
4 was for 90 many years-which used 70
stand like big stone stump between the
Ionic portico of the treasury and the broad
zIittering shadows of tho Potomac, mas
within the past two years risen INTO a
stately obelisk, whose marble sides gleam
in the sun-a simple and imposing shaft,
which will one day be majestic. The par
aeraphers, who are still joking
about it, are behind the age. 1t
ia now higher than any OF the
Egyptian pyramids except that of Cheops
and its companion pyramid, KING
Shafra's and when it is completed 1t VIII
be more than 100 feet higher than either
of these, and will be not only the hlghest
known structure in the world, but, so IL is
said. the highest structure which ls known
TO have been ever raised by the hand OF
man. The great spire of the Stras5urg
cathedral runs up to tho heighth OF 40S
feet the height of the tower of the ca.
thedral at Cologne is put at 51l feet st:
Peters from the pavement to the oase OF
the lantern is 44S feet, and the Milan ca
thedral is 355 feet to the very top OF the
statue of the Madonna. The Washington
monument is now $40 feet above the hoor
of the shaft. When completed, as it will
be BY December, 1885, at the latest, it will
be 555 feet high, or more than forty feet
higher than the very tip of the slender
pinnacles at Cologne. The comparison is
an awkward one, perhaps, but it has Its
uses nevertheless-a plain shaft is not to
be compared, architecturally, with ca
thedral or pyramid but it is OF some in
terest to remember that while the tower
of the Cologne cathedral will probably
taper into the air with very small diane,
ter. the Washington monument at 5OO
feet, or almost exactly the same height,
will show a width of thirty five feet on
each of its four faces. At the base each
of these sides has a width of 6fty-five feet,
showing that the tapering of the column
is very gradual. As one stands near the
foot and looks up, the column seems like
a great tower of rock growing out of the
earth and reaching the sky. Work is to
begin for this season on Monday, and by
December the monument will probably be
about 43O feet high.
The engineering feat by which new
and enlarged foundation was inserted
under a structure $50 feet high and weigh
ing II, 10000 pounds. rs the monument
was when work was begun in 1878, is ont
which can only be adequately described
by Colonel Casey, the engineer in charge
and he says that, though often urged to DC
SO, he shall not write line upon the sub
iect until tho monument is completed
Perhaps it will make the story more intel
ligible to 90 back little. The plan of q
monument to Washington in the cit!
bearing his uame was, as many will re
member, formally approved by Congress
in resolution passed less than fOrtnigh
after his death, and which requested tina
his family permit his body to be deposited
under it. The mOhdment was to be erected
by the United States, but nothing was done
In 1888 an association of leading citizens
here was formed, which, having collected
enough money by private subscription L
begin work, secured the site from Congress
in lS4S and laid the corner stone of JUL
on that year. In tho eight years follow W
ing the shaft was carried to the heighth O
156 feet, where work was suspended TO
lack of funds, and no stone was laid o.
the shaft from that time until August
1880, an interval of twenty four years
during which the slavery agitation, tn
civil war, and the convulsiOns growing
out of it, united to distract the publ
mind from work peculiarly national an
suggestive of peace aud unity. But one G
the great reasons why the flow of littl
subscriptions from all over the land Wa
stopped, was the belief, which becam
general, that the foundation was no
strong enough. When Mr.. COrcoran, DR.
John B. Blake, and other citizens here
succeeded in inducing Congress to under
take the completion, which it did by
resolution in the Centennial year cOnstitu
ting joint commission, it was found tia
this belief was correct. The monument
which, as already stated, showed
breadth of 55 feet on each side of its face
at the base line, rested upon a foundatio
only 80 feet square and % feet deep, an
poorly constructed a: that. Below thi
was the ground, of rather a yieldin
nature. If they had gone on heapin
stone upon the monument, the resu
would simply have been that the weigh
would have driven it downward like
punch. 1t would probably have settle
unevenly; and we should have had
either new leaning tower of Pisa, or pc
haps no tower at all. which would hav
furnished either way fine paragraph fr
the newspaper correspondents, but woul
not probably have been of much benef
to any other class in the community.
obviously the foundation needed to
strengthened, and Colonel Casey addresse
himself to a task which a good many Gu
gineers would have preferred not to under
take. Going down below the foundatio
already built, he dug from under it a
around a core of earth A feet squs +,
directly under the foundation and mon,
ment and the II, 500, coo pounds
weight stood on this pillar of earth. TIL
new excavation was of depth of 13 fee
and made cellar under the foundatiO
126 feet square. This was filled wit
solid masonry. except where the core I
earth stood, which was not remove,
Then the sides of the old foundatiC
above were torn down for considerabl
distance under the walls of the shaft, r
built of better materials, and spread O,
further over the new base below, thu
distributing the pressure over a muC
larger area. &c. instead of foundatio
only 80 feet square, that is, extending on
124 feet beyond each of the four face
there is now foundation 1876 feet squar,
fnnt t,nu ont, fon