Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-03-07
WASHINGTON'S MONUMENT.
THE HIGHEST STRUCTURE ERECT
ED BY HUMAN HANDS.
An Interesting Description of the
Famous Column-Its COnstFuc-
ton, Dedication, Etc.

George Washington was born 153 years
ago february %, 1882 in Westmoreland
county, Va. He died December IA, 1899,
aged 81 years, months and % days. He
was appointed General of the American
Revolutionary Army April 10, IT'S, and
having accomplished his work, resigned
his commission December %, 1888. He
was inaugurated President April 80, 1889,
reelected four years after, and finally re-
tired to his Mount Vernon farm in 1897,
two years before his death, which tool,
place while he was yet in full vigor,
through having taken 4 cold during a
severe storm. Ofhis services to the country
we need not speak here. AS early as 1888
Congress voted to erect an equestrian
statue of Washington, but it was not done.
On December "A, 1899, ten days after
his death, it was voted to raise marble
monument, and sundry aoves toward it
were made afterwards, but nothing was
actually done. In 1888,
MONUMENT SOCIETY
Was started, and subscriptions limited to
81 each, were invited. To this fund many
of us now living remember having con-
tributed our boyhood dollars. But only
$37 900 were collected up TO 1847. On
July 4, 184S, the cornerstone was laid.
But the work dallied along, for want of
funds, and during six years, it rose only 152
feet, at a cost of S230,000 from subscrip-
tions. Owing to some discussions among
those having the matter IN charge, and
other causes the work was suspended, and
up to and during the war, and years after,
until pretty full settlement of the ques-
tons involved in the contest and which
brought it on, the unfinished shaft stood as
fitting symbol Of the still uncompleted
work begun by Washington-:he CONSOLE
dation of our States into one strong, SIN
gie-headed and single-purposed, free people,
THE DESIGN AND STRUCTURE.
Twenty-one years passed thus-the
period from infancy to manhood. In 1876
the centennial year Of our independence,
and almost the first, if not the first, year of
our real consolidation as great, harmoni
Gus, free nation-CongresS took the monu-
ment in charge, appropriated $780, 900, and
followed this with some 100000 more in
subsequent years, making the t-.al cost
about 81, 100000. The close of 1884 wit
messed It's substantial completion, the cap
stone having been put in place December
last, and the dedication took place last
Saturday, as February 22d fell on Sunday
The first design embraced a grand circular
colonnade building around the base, $50
feet in diameter, $50 feet high, and vast
rotunda with thirty massive columns, sur
mounted with an entablature 20 feet high,
and a l5-foot balustrade above. But this
base was removed and the plain form
adopted.
FORK AND SIZE OF COLUMN.
The form is closely modelled after the
obelisks, several of which have been
transferred from Egypt to Rome and Paris,
and one to New York city; but in COM
paratiye size, the largest obelisk is a very
diminutive affair The Washington mon
nment is a single shaft, 555 feet on each
side at the ground surface; 81 feet 81
Japers one-tenth of the entire hight, being
at the top 555i feet above the sill. The
form is so well proportional that one look
ing at it rs it stands or at a picture of it,
gets but 4 faint conception of its magni-
NuAc hitdSuIS vi Oll tuC SlOIliu Si)tCt
of IS feet, nearly 3 rods, or over Is PAGES
wide at one end, and two rods wide at the
other, and in length nearly tenth of q
mile, or 80! rods, or 185 PAGES
CONCERNING ITS HIGHT.
Imagine a square stone covering all this
ground, raised to a perpendicular, upon It's
larger end, and standing before you. AS
another help to conception of its SIZE
think of its base as having the dimensions
of house or barn 55 feet square. A hun
dred men, of average hight, standing
aglinst It's side one on the head of an
otner, could hardly reach the top. The sill
is 10 feet above the surrounding ground,
so that the real hight of the monument
might be called SO feet, The apex is 597
feet above low water in the Potomac river,
which the monument looks down upon.
CONSTRUCTION AND MATERIAL.
It's walls at the base are 10 feet and l.
inches thick, leaving an interior opening
p feet square. At 500 feet the high walls are
j. feet thick, and the interior about 81
feet square. The two doors on two oppo-
site sides of the base, and two doors or
lookouts on each side of the cap are the
only openings The interior is lighted by
electricity and an elevator carries visitors
up. There is also an interior iron stair
way Of short flights along the north and
south walls with cross platforms between
900 steps in all. The entire outside, above
100 feet, consists of regular blocks OF white
mar lie Some of the base blocks are white
sandstone which resemble marble. These
blocks present an outer surface of four to
nine feet long, and are, we believe, uni
formly twenty-four inches thick. Tins
marble is from Maryland. Except this
outer layer, the walls are Of New England
granite and stone masonry up to 492 feet;
above that marble alone
FOUNDATION AND WEIGHT.
The foundation is so feet square at the
bottom, covering 6 400 feet, or one-Seyenth
of an acre. Il is of blue gneiss rock, and
extends below the floor 2SB feet The
concrete Il part cement, 2 parts sand and
4 parts of broken stone) stands pressure
of about a ton, or 900 pounds to the square
inch, 10y actual experiment. There are g.
6l3 OF the marble blocks above the white
sandstone. The weight of the foundation
and earth upon it is 50, 9l2 tons of the 100
feet of the old portion, q, 1873 tons; of the
new portion of the shaft, q, 260 tons; Of
pyramidion 300 tons; iron stair frame,
2I5 tons. Total weight, 81, 100 tons, or
1872. eco pounds.
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