News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-01-08
WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
FROM THE CORNER STONE IN 1913 TO
THE CAPsTONE IN 1884.
Exceeding Height of the Shaft-Curfous
View from the Summit-Programme of
Celebration.
From the New York Herald

ueAIicAS duu ueIS from GDo top OF the
Washington Monument is completed,
and the memorial shaft can now be seen
in its simplicity of lofty grandeur. The
corner stone was laid by President Polk,
July 4, 184S. The capstone and alum
mum tip were set December 6, 1884
Thus far only the monument proper has
been finished. Tho base and surround
ings are yet to be completed, while as
yet not even the plans for this last work
have been agreed upon. This monu-
ment, whose square at the base is only
tfty-three feet, gradually tapering to
forty feet at the beginning of the pyra-
midal roof, Notwithstanding its great
nelght, does not appear as imposing to
those who live in Washington as to
those who visit the city and see it for
the first time. Perhaps familiarity with
its steady rise has diminished interest
| in the fact that it is the highest struc-
| ture In the world. For nearly quarter
of a century it remained at 1876 feet. The
weather beaten marble discIoses where
the masons stopped work at the close of
| the season in 1854. 1t was in that year
that the memorial stone presented to
the Washington Monument Society by
Pope Plus TX. was broken into frag.
ments and the pieces sunk in the middle
of the Potomac. From that time until
Congress assumed the responsibility of
finishing the shaft the Washington
Monument Society found but very little
If any public encouragement for finish
ing the design projected by the society.
Tt is a coincidence that while Engineer
Casey and his assistants in charge of the
hn Of
day, December 6, 1884, at two o'clock,
p. M, the third Plenary Council of the
Catholic Church in the United States
we're finishing their labors in which
hundred archbishops, bishops and mitred
abbots had taken part.
The cost of the shaft is. in round
numbers, 81, 100000, of which $4,000
was raised by the society and 5000, 900
appropriated by the government. 1t is
remembered by many who were school
children when the corner stone was laid
that an appeal was made throughout
the country to the pupils of the public
schools, each to contribute one cent to
help build a monument to the memory
of the great Washington. Whether the
penny SO contributed by the writer is to-
day part of the grand contribution out
of which the first $50 feet was erected
it is impossible to say.
1t is towering pile, visible for many
miles down the Potomac, overlapping
the Capitol and the first object beheld
by travellers approaching Washington
by rail. Unfortunately a site was
selected not many feet above the water
line of the Potomac, so that the extra
ordinary height is not so readily OBJ
served as if the pile were on some emil
hence, such as Capitol Hill or Meridian
Hill. When Pennsylvania avenue was
flooded few years ago by the waters of
the Potomac being backed by an ice
blockade the base of the monument was
surrounded by water. The flat ground
in this reservation is unencumbered by
buildings. A little distance to the south
is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
which by the measure of the eye looks
like a squatty building compared with
the height of the monument. It's tower,
ITO feet high, is as a pipestem alongside
of this massive marble obelisk. The
Smithsonian Institution, on the same
reservation, has its giant towers dwarfed
into Lilliputs as contrasted with the
grand height of the Washington Monu-
ment.
If the readers of the Herald care to
make their own contrast let them stand
in front of Trinity Church, on Broadway,
and imagine, if they can, the height of
the steeple just double what it is. ITS
height is put down at two hundred and
eighty-f four feet. Twice that would be
five hundred and sixty-four feet, or about
thirteen feet higher than the aluminium
apex of the Washington Monuments
By contrast with the surrounding build
ings, many of which in the neighbour
hood of Trinity are higher than the pub
lie buildings in Washington, some idea
may be had of where such a towering
monument carries the eve. From the
south front of the State Department or
from the windows of the Presidents
house it does not strike the observer as
being such a wonderful object; but at
its base, looking up at its sides, or on
Pennsylvania avenue, looking down the
sloping roadway west of the Treasury
Department, just where the sight undi-
verted can take in the ground and fol-
low the sharp lines to the top, then Its
proportions and elevation are truly re-
vealed. The dome of the Capitol is but
307 feet in height, and the western view
of the obelisk from there impresses one
that its summit is always in the clouds.
The marble quarried for this great
work came from Maryland, 1t has
clean, bright look, and is not likely to
become soiled, as the front of the Cap
itol perpetually is, with dust and dirt.
If it were few shades darker it would
add considerably to the effect, for most
of the time the marble tint and cloudy
Il Of hn
well through which the elevator has car
ried every block to its final resting place
will eventually be walled with an iron
stairway, and another elevator provided
for passengers who are not afraid to risk
their lives in the ten minutes It requires
to reach the upper landing. Just above
the line of the pyramidal roof, at an ele-
walton of $50 feet, there are small win
dows, out of which the city of Wash
ington looks like a toy town. Long
Bridge becomes as a thread and the me-
andering water of the Potomac ribbon
of silver The hills of Virginia and
Maryland are outlined like so many
housetops, and appear as an immense
amphitheatre of woods. The people
beneath walking Pennsylvania avenue
look like black dots. Carriages and
horses are but children's playthings.
The engineering skill required to
strengthen the foundation to bear the
enormous weight which is piled upon it
is one of the wonders of this marvellous
piece of masonry, though now invisible.
It is 234 feet deep and so feet square Of
the bottom, and carried up in steps OF
about feet rise and II feet tread, the
top being 80 feet square. Fifty thou
sand tons of marble, it is calculated,
rest upon this foundation without caus-
ing variation in its level.
PROGRAMME OF THE CELEBRATION.
The joint commission appointed by
Congress to report programme for
the celebration of the completion is still
considering the subject. The 22d of
February, next year, falls on Sunday,
so the preceding day has been agreed
upon for the ceremonial. General
sheridan has consented to act as chief
marshal, and Mr.. Robert @. Winthrop,
VINO delivered the address at the laying
OF the corner stone in 1848, is announced
to deliver the Grafton in the hall of the
House on its completion. AS vet these
are all the features settled upon. Con
gress has appropriated 81, 500 to be ex-
pended IN printing cards of invitation,
programmes, etc., and another sum has
been given to carry out the details of
the plan. Preceding, as it will, the in
auguratIon of President Cleveland but
eleven days, it is expected that thou
sands OF strangers will be attracted to
he Washington ceremonial and remain
until after the other great event.
Dividing tho SurnIus