The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-05-23
THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
The Highest Human structure in the
World to be Completed This Year.

completed will be the highest IN the
world. The spire of st. Stephens
church at Vienna is AL feet high; st.
Peters at Rome 456; Strasburg Cathe-
dral 46S and the pyramid of Ceops 48O
feet. No structure has yet reached the
altitude designed for the obelisk at
Washington of 555 feet.
It is built of white marble and at the
present time is Ala feet high. Work,
which had been suspended during the
winter, was resumed this week. Each
layer of stone is two feet in thickness:
The monument grows up towards the
skies at the rate of foot a day. 1t will
be completed the present season. AL
ready the committees of two Houses are
considering the programme of ceremon-
les attending the finishing of the
work. Robert G.. Winthrop, who, as
Speaker of the House, made the address
at the laying of the cornerstone forty
years ago, is to be invited to deliver
the Grafton at the completion OF the
monument next September
In order TO inspect the monument it
is necessary to procure a permit from
Col. Thomas l.. Casey, the engineer in
charge. When he was appointed to the
work in 1880 he founda weather-stained
and uncompleted structure 150feet high.
It had been raised to that hight by the
patriotic efforts of a monument society,
which, exhausted by the effort, had
ceased work years before. The obelisk
was an eye sore, and it wa questionable
whether it would ever be advanced
further by private endeavor. Congress
came to the rescue, and the qualitica-
tions of the engineer corps was called
into play. The plans We're changed and
improved, and the hight of the struc-
ture increased so as to stand when COM
pleted 555 feet above the floor. Its
base is ffty-fve feet square; it's apex
is to be sharpened after the ann of
| Cleopatra's Needle and other obelisks
of the Egyptian pattern.
The first thing found necessary was
to supply q new and o secure foun-
dation. To replace the ground work of
a structure $50 feet high, without
change of the pInmb-line, was an unex-
ampled engineering feat. The old
foundation was of stone and not much
broader of base than the obelisk which
it supported. Col. Casey determined
to substitute Portland cement and ex-
tend it beyond the line of the tower, its
sloping sides resting on a broader base
Ia pyramid upon an extended cube.
To accomplish this a tunnel was driven
into the stone foundation from n side
and to correctthe settling similar tun-
mel from the diagonally opposite side.
The tunnels were filed in with the Port
land cement, and when completed new
tunnels started. Delicate instruments
were arranged to note the detection
and some alarm was felt when one day
the plumb showed q considerable di-
yergence, not in accord with the instru-
ments. 1t was found that the mischief
was caused, not by irregular settling,
but by the operations OF a SPIDER winch
had connected its web with the plumb
line.
III uGM lOullttduiOn OOnllACOCOs hCCP
and broad enough to sustain the loftiest
super-structure, the work was ready to
go forward. In 1880 it went ~uptwenty-
six feet, in 1881, seventy-four feet, the
next year ninety, and the last year,
owing to the failure of tie stone con
tractors to supply material, only even
ty feet. There is now sufficient stone
ON hand, most of it ready wrought foI
the wallis, to complete the obelisk.
The interior of the monument is with.
out light, and various plans are being
considered to properly illuminate it
There is a space of twenty-five feel
square for the first $50 feet, and the
walls being diminished in thickness be
yond that point, the interior for the
rest of the way shows thirty-one feet o.
room. AT the very top of the wall, o.
rather whese the sharpenedpoi Of the
obelisk begins to slope, the wall is to bt
eighteen inches thick. There is an in
geniously contriyed elevator with cranes
at each corner to place the stones at the
proper places in the wall, when thoy
have been brought up from below
The masons are daring fellows. A stou
wire screen and platform follow up eacl
course from the outside. Its substan
tial anchorage is reassnring, but at thu
same time light headed persons canno
view II without dizziness.
The obelisk itself, being plain an,
chimney like, composed Of square block
Of white marble, the lapidarium il
which are deposited the gift stones |
the most interesting feature about tn
place. They are Of all sizes and quail
tiles, and come from all parts Of TIL
globe; forty Of them have already bee
placed in the interior walls and eighty
three are stored in the lapidarium. ]
will require an ingenious mechanic :