The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1885-01-09
THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
The Highest Work of Man in the World by
Forty-three Feet.

EOrtl -llltt Itces
To-day the aluminium cap wa
placed on the top of the Washingto
monument and its exterior is complei
ed, writes a correspondent OF IN
C7eueland Leader. Five hundred an
iifty-fve feet high, it has an area a
the base large enough for two big cit
houses, but its top as 1t kisses tn
clouds, is no larger than the point OF
pin. At five hundred feet above tn
ground it has four sides each of whicl
is thirty-fve feet wide. Its area a
this point is that of a comfortable six
room house, each room of which nigh
be twelve by sixteen. 1t would TAXI
more than 125 yards of carpet to cove
its floor, and a man with good eleva
vator might make a pleasant summer
residence of house built up here
This square forms the base of the pyr
amidal top which runs from it fifty
five feet until it terminates in its me-
talic point. This point is constructed
of the largest piece of aluminium ever
made. 1t is pyramid nine inches
high, which shines like speck of light
away up there under the rays OF the
sun. 1t weighs just one hundred
ounces and is one-third as light as it
would be if il was made of copper.
Aluminium does not corrode, and it
makes one of the best conductors of
lightning. A wire will be fastened to
the lower side of this little pyramid
and run down into the earth. This
will make the longest lightning rod
ever constructed.
Standing by the monument one is
greatly impressed with the mechanical
skill required to build it. Its stones
are great blocks, in some cases nine
feet long, two feet thick, and three and
four feet wide. There are more than
$4,000 of them. They are of white mar
BILE, and weigh several tons each. The
ingenuity which can raise such stones
several hundred feet above the ground
seems the triumph of mechanical skill,
and one is inclined to pat himself on
the back in that he belongs to an age
so far advanced in the march of pro-
gress. He is inclined to sheer at the
works of the past, and to think that the
massive structure before him will out
asst the ages. A second thought bids
him pause. He remembers the saying
in regard to the Roman Coliseum.
While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand,
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall,
And when Rome falls, with it shall fall the
world
Still the Coliseum, when it was built
1t the beginning of the Christian era,
had better chance of lasting than the
monument. 1t was far
more wonderful structure, and the
skill required in building
t was quite as great. The largest
heater to-day in the world will not
eat 1000 spectators. The Coliseum
las seats for 81, 900 and standing room
or 20, 900 more. Its walls were made |
# heavier blocks than those in the |
monument, and they ran
81 feet high. Its interior was so
arge that the Washington monument
ould have beer laid inside of it with
'ut disturbing its masonry, and of the
ne-third of the gigantic structure
7hich remains after Rome has been
uilding from it and ravaging it for
enturies. the materials alone are said
D be worth S2,500,000. This is twice
s much as the cost of the Washington
,onument, and 100000 to spare.
1t was a greater work than this to
rect the Colossus of Rhodes, that i'm
lense brazen statue, 140 feet high,
'hich stood at the entrance of the
arbor so that tall-masted boats could
all between its huge legs without in
Try. This statue weighed nearly
10000 pounds, and after an earth
uake overthrow it, as one indeed NAV
)metime do the monument, its ruins
" for nine centuries, and at the end
that time it took a caravan of 900
imels to carry the metal away.
Look at Pompey's column which
i'll stands overlooking the Mediter-
mean on the outside of Alexandria,
Egypt. A small shaft, 67 feet high
Id 9 feet in diameter, of the heaviest
red granite, raised upon a pedestal
a feet high. The mechanical skill
quired to elevate that immense shaft
Id to bring it thousand miles down
e Nile, is quite equal to anything of
e present. And then the pyramids
ne top of the great pyramid has
atform 80 feet square, only three
ct less than this Washington monu-
ent where its pyramidal top begins.
ne blocks of which the pyramids are
instructed are much larger than
ose in the Washington monument,
I'd it is said it took ten years to make ]
e road over which to carry these c
avy stones. 1t took whole cities of c
en- to build the pyramid of Cheops, t
ID according to Herodotus the rad {
les and onions which the workmen 8
G cost once and one-half the price of I
G Washington monument This pyr- /
aid has an area of thirteen acres at 6
base, and its height is 4S3 feet. 1t '
ast have cost billions to build it, and +
sting in the dry atmosphere of the t
sert one would think that here at T
lst would be morsel too hard and I
y for the tooth of time. But the f
nd and the weather have eaten even |
20 the pyramids, and their beauty e
d splendor show the effect of decay. +
le Washington monument in the L
mid atmosphere of America, as it |
eathes year by year the exhalations S
the swampy Potomac, will have a t
: shorter career. The seeds of nat C
2, invisible to the eye, will creep t
o the crevices, and time will crum- b