The Opelousas courier., 1883-06-30
THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
History Of What VIII BE the Highest Structar
Ever Raised by Mans Iiand.

come to SPEAK Respectfully Oh we
Washington Monument. The Unslght-
L. column-as it WIS for Sc many years
which used TO stand as y big stone
stump between the Ionic portico OF the
Treasury and the broad, glitterlng
shadows of the Potomac, has, within
the past two years, risen into q stately
obelisk, whose marble sides CLEAN In
the sun--a simple and imposing shaft,
which will one day be majestic. The
paragrapers, who are still Joking about
it., are behind the age. It is nov high
er than any of the Egyptian pyramids,
except that Of the Cheops and its com
panion pyramid, King Shafra's; and
when it is completed, it will be more
than 100 feet higher than either Of
these, and will be not only the highest
known structure in the world. but, so
it is said, the highest structure which
is known to have cveG boon raised by
the hand of man. The great spire of
the Strasburg Cathedral runs up to
the height Of 468 feet; the height Of
the tower of the Cathedral i'll Cologne
is put at 81 feet; st. Peters, from the
base of the lantern, is AIS feet, and
the Milan Cathedral is 355 feet to the
very top Of the Statue Of the Madon-
ma. The Washington Monument is
now $40 feet above the floor of the
shaft. When completed, as it will be
by December, 1885, ct the latest, it
will be 555 feet high, or more than for
ty feet higher than the very tip of the
slender pinnacles at Cologne. The
comparison is an awkward one, per
haps, but it has it's uses nevertheless
q plain shaft is not to he compared,
INTELLECTUALLY, with Q cathedral or
pyramid; but it is of some interest to
remember that while the tower of the
Cologne Cathedral Will probably taper
into the air with q very small diameter,
the Washington Monument at SOC feet,
OF almost exactly the same height, will
show d width of thirty-tiye feet on
each of it's four faces. At the base
each of these sides have o width of
ffty-fve feet.
The engineering feat by which a
new and enlarged foundation was in
serted under a structure $50 feet high
and weighing 71,5C0,000 pounds, as the
monument was when work was begun
in 1878, is one which can only be ade-
quately described by Col. Casey, the
engineer in charge, and he says that,
though often urged to do SO, he shall
not write a line upon the subject until
the monument is completed. Perhaps
it will make the story more Ineligible
to go back a little. The plan of a
monument to Washin gton in the city
bearing his name was, as many will
remember, formally approved by Con
gress in q resolution passed less than a
fortnight after his death, and which re
quested that his family permit his body
to be deposited under it. The monument
was to be erected by the United States
but nothing was done. In 1892 an as
ISOLATION of leading citizens here was
formed, which. having collected
enough money by private subscription
to begin work, secured the site from
Congress in 1913 and laid the corner,
stone on July Of that year. In the
eight years following the shaft was car.
ried to the height Of 15G feet, where
work was suspended for lack Of funds
and no stone was laid on the shaft from
that time until August s, 1880, all in.
terval of twenty-four years, during
which the slavery agitation, the civil
war and the commissions growing GU
of it, united to distract the public mini
from a peculiarly national and suggos
tive OF peace and unity. But one o
the great reasons why the flow Of little
subscriptions from all oyer the lant
was stopped, was tie belief, which be
came general, that the foundation wa
not strong enough. When MI. Corco
ran, DR.. John B. Blake and other citi.
zens here, succeeded in inducing Cen
gress to undertake the completion
which it did by a resolution in tn
Centennial year constituting a join
commission, it was found that this be
lief was correct. The monument
which, as already stated, showed
breadth of IS feet on each of its face
at the base line, rested upon a foun
dation only so feet square and % fee
, deep, and poorly constructed at that
!, Below this was the ground, of rather
yielding nature. IT they had gone Oh
{ heaping stone upon the monument, tn
!, result would simply have been that til
weight would have driven it downwar,
like q punch. It would probably hav
!, settled unevenly; and we should hav
had either o new leaning tower of Pisa
!. or perhaps no tower at all, which woul,
have furnished either way q fine para
graph for the newspaper correspond
ents, but would not probably have bee
= of much benefit to any other class i
, the community.
Obviously, the foundation needed t
, be strengthened, and Col. Casey ad
dressed himself to a task which a goo
: many engineers would Lave preferre
! not to undertake. Going down belo,
:. the foundation already built, he du
! from under it all around, leaving
core of earth A feet square directl
. under the center of the foundation an
monument; and the 71.500,O00 pound
;, of weight stood or this pillar of eartl
, The new excavation was of a depth G
13 feet, and made a cellar under til
foundation 126 feet square. This wa
filed with solid masonry, except wher
the core of earth stood, which was NO
removed. Then the sides of the oil
foundation above were torn down TO
: a considerable distance under the wall
! of the shaft, rebuilt OF better materials
8 and spread out further over the ne7
f base below, thus distributing the press
t ure over a much larger area. So, in
: stead of a foundation only so feet square
8 that is, exceeding only 12a feet be
Yond each of the four faces. and run