Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-07
JOY AT A DIZZY HEIGHT.
WAsHINGTON'S BIG MONUMENT
SUCCESSFULLY CAPPED.

The Stars and Stripes Unfurled above
the Tallest Piece of Masonry in the
WOrld-The Event Greeted with a
Salute of 21 Guns and the Cheers of
a Crowd.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6.-The long-ex-
pected completion of the Washington
monument obelisk was accomplished this
afternoon by the setting in place of the
marble capstone and its pyramidal apex
of aluminium. The ceremonies were
few and simple, an elaborate celebration
of the event being reserved for W ashing-
toms birthday. Shortly after . O'Clock
Col. Thomas L. Casey, the Government
Engineer in charge, and his assistants,
Capt. Davis, of the United States Army,
and Bernard r. Green, civil engineer,
together with Master Mechanic McLaugh-
lin and several workmen standing on the
narrow platform built around the
sloping marble roof near the summit,
proceeded to set the capstOne, weighing
$500 pounds, which was suspended from
a quadrupod of heavy jOists supported by
platform, and lowered forty feet above
them. AS soon as the capstone was set
the American flag was unturled overhead,
and salute of tWenty-0ne guns was
promptly fired by Mai. Hanneman's
Militia Battery in the White House
grounds far below.
UP IN THE AIR.
The sound of cheers also came up family
from the crowd of spectators gathered
around the base of the monument, while
numbers of invited guests on the 50O-fOot
platform and in the interior of the mOnu-
ment at that level spontaneously struck
bn Ronnar9t on Of
patriotic songs. A steady down-pour of
rain had given place little while previ-
Ously to a brisk gale of wind, at this ele-
walton blowing about 80 miles an hour,
and very few of the invited guests cared
to avail themselves Of the privilege of
climbing a nearly perpendicular ladder
from the 500-fOot platform to the dizzy
height of 533 feet, from which three or
four journalists and half dozen other adj
venturous climbers witnessed the setting
of the capstOne and subsequently as
cended to the pinnacle.
A CONGRATULATIONS RESOLUTION.
Meanwhile the Washington Monument
Society, represented by DIR. Joseph Nj.
Taner, Hon. HOratiO King, Gen. VIM.
Mckee Dunn, DIR. Daniel Il. Clark, and 7.
L. Harvey. Secretary, held a meeting on
the elevator platform, at a height Of 800
feet, and, when the artillery firing an
n0unced the SetClng OF tne capStOne,
adopted a resolution, offered by Gen.
Dunn, congratulating the American
people on the completion of this enduring
monument of our nations gratitude 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 the monu-
ment more than thirty-siX years ago, and
the old watchman of the monument, who
has been continuously employed in that
capacity during nearly the whole of the
intervening period.
THE STARS AND STRIPES ABOVE ALL.
The flag over the monument fioated TO-
day and will remain for several days,
until the timbers are all removed, from
flag staff, the top of which is exactly 600
feet from the ground, thus displaying the
American col0rs at the greatest height Of
construction ever yet known in the world.
The monument Itself, with its total height
of $50 feet, far OvertOps every other
structure of human hands. The alum
mum apex of the monument is engraved
with inscriptions as follows: On one
face: