, 1884-12-07
IT'S FINISHED.
Like Some Tall Cliff It Raises
Its Awful Form
And Frowns Down on Pigmy
Monuments of Man.
A Massive Pile of Granite in
Washington's Honor.
Washington's Monument Com
p1eted.


p1eted.
WASHINGTON, December 6.-The long
expected completion of the Washington
monument obelisk was accomplished this
afternoon by setting in place the marble
cap stone and its pyramidal apex of alum
mum. The ceremonies were few and
simple, the elaborate celebration of the
event being reserved for Washington's
birthday. Shortly after 2 o'clock Colonel
Thomas L. Casey. government engineer
in charge, and his assistants, Captain
Davis, U. S. A, and Bernard B. Green,
civil engineer, together with Master Me-
chanic Mclaughlin. and several workmen
standing on the narrow platform built
around the slipping marble roof near the
summit, proceeded to set the cap stone,
weighing $500 pounds, which was sus-
pended from the quadrupon of heavy
joists supported by the platform and tow
ering forty feet above them. As soon as
the cap stone was set, the American flag
was unfurled overhead and a salute of
twenty-one guns fired by the battery in
the White House lot far below. The sound
of cheers also came up family from the
crowd of spectators crowded around the
base Of the monument, while a number of
invited guests on the 500-foot platform
and in the interior Of the monument at
that level, spontaneously struck up THE
Star Spangled Banner and other patri-
otto songs. The steady down-pour of rain
had given place a little while previously to
a brisk gale of wind, at this elevation
blowing about ffty-fve miles an hour, and
very few of the invited guests cared to
avail themselves Of the privilege
of climbing the nearly perpendicular lad
der from the 500 foot platform to the
dizzy height of 533 feet, from which
three or four Journalists and half dozen
other adventures climbed and witnessed
the setting of the cap stone, and subse-
quently assembled to the pinnacle. Mean
while the Washington Monument So
ciety, represented by DR.. Joseph NJ.
Toner, Hon. Horatio King, General
William Mckee Dunn, DR.. Daniel B.
Clark and I. l. Harvey, Secretary, held
a meeting on the elevated platform at the
height Of 500 feet and, when the artillery
firing announced the setting of the cap
stone, adopted a resolution offered by
General Dunn, "congratulating the Amer
lean people on the completion of this en-
during monument of our nations graft
tude TO the Father of His Country"
Among those present to-day at the
completion Of the structure was one of
the master mechanics who laid the corner
stone of this monument more than thirty
six years ago. and an old watchman of
the monument, who had been continu-
ously employed in that capacity during
nearly the whole intervening period. The
flag over the monument foated to-day
from a flagstaff, the top of which is
exactly 900 feet from the ground, thus
displaying the. American colors at the
greatest height in construction ever yet
known in the world. The monument it
self, with its total height of $50 feet, far
overtops every structure of human. hands.
The aluminium apex of the monument
is engrayen with inscriptions as follows:
On one face Chief Engineer and Archi-
tect, Thomas Lincoln Casey, Colonel
Corps EnEineers, assistants George w.
Davis, l4th United States Infantry, Ber-
R. Green, Civil Engineer, Master Nc
chanic, P. H. Mclaughlin" On another;
Corner stone laid in bed of foundation
July 4, ls48. First stone at a height of
1852 feet laid August 7, 1880. Cap stone
Set December 6, 1884" On a third:
Joint commission at setting cap stone,
Chester A. Arthur. W. w. Corcoran.
Chairman NJ. E. Bell, Edward Clark.
John Newton, act Of August 2, 1876"
On fourth the words: 'Laus Deo."