The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1885-01-03
our NATIONAL MONUMENT.
WIN IL OutlAst the Agess-The Fate Of
Other Structures.
Washington Cor. Cleveland Leader,l


Washington Cor. Cleveland Leaderl
Standing by the Washington monu-
ment 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 more feet wide. There are more
than $4,000 of them. They are Of white
marble, 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
progress He is inclined to sneer at the
works Of the past, and to think that the
massive structure before him win outlast
the ages. A second thought bids him
pause. He remembers tho saying In re-
gard to the Roman Coliseum.
While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall
stand,
When falls the COLISEUM, Rome shall fall,
And when Rome falls, with IL shall fall tho
Still the Coliseum, when it was built
at the beginning of the Christian era,
had better chance of lasting than the
Washington monument. 1t was far
more wonderful structure, and the me-
chanical skill required in building 1t
WAS quite as great, The largest theatre
to-day in the world will not seat 1000
spectators. The coliseum has seats for
81, 600 and standing room for 10000
more. Its walls were made Of
heavier blocks than those in the
Washington monument, and they ran 157
feet high. Its interior was SO large that
the Washington monument could have
been laid inside of it without disturbing
its masonry, and of the one-third of the
gigantic structure which remains after
Rome has been building from it and
ravaging it for centuries, the materials
alone are said to be worth So, 500, 600.
This is twice as much as the cost Of the
Washington monument, and $500, 900
to spare.
1t was greater work than this to
erect the Colossus of Rhodes, that i'm
mense brazen statue, lao feet high,
which stood at the entrance Of the
harbor so that tall -masted boats could
sail between its huge legs without injury.
This statue weighed nearly 800, 900
pounds, and after an earthquake over
threw it, as one indeed may sometime
do the monument, its ruins lay for nine
, centuries, and at the end of that time it
took caravan of 500 camels to carry
the metal away,
Look OF Pompey's column which still
stands overlooking the Mediterran can
| on the outside of Alexandria, in Egypt.
A solid shaft, sixty seven feet high and
nine feet in diameter, of the heaviest of
red granite, raised upon a pedestal 104
feet high. The mechanical skill required
! to elevate that immense shaft and "a
bring it 1000 miles down the Nile, is
> quite equal to anything Of the present.
. And then the pyramids! The top OF
f: the great pyramid has platform thirty
. two feet square, only three feet les
than this Washington monument where
= its pyramidal top begins. The blocks 0i
" which the pyramids are constructed ar
It much larger than those in the Washing
ton monument and it is said it took ten
> years to make the road over which Il
r carry these heavy stones,
e 1t took whole cities OF men to build
n the pyramid of Cheops, and according
to Herodotus the radishes and onion
y which the worknen ate cost once an(
t, one-half the price of the Washington
l. monument. This pyramid has an arei
,s OF thirteen acres OF its base and it
height is 463 fest. 1t must have COS
le billions to build it, and resting in tn
as dry atmosphere OF the desert one woult
In think that here at least would ks a NOR
sel too hard and dry for the tooth O
10 time. But the wind and the weathe
le have eaten even into the pyramids, an
% their beauty and splendor show the ei
II feet of decay. The Washington monu
y" nent in Sae humid atmosphere Q
le America, as it breathes year by year th
r. exhalations of the swampy Potomac, wi
II have far shorter career. The seeds {
= nature, invisible to the eye, will cree
~ into it's crevices, and time will crumbl
is its now solid marble.
or p Still the monument will, while it last
20 be considered one of the wonders of Il
world. 1t Is now the highest thing
90 the world--forty- three feet higher the
to the spires Of the Cologne cathedral, an
at 50 tai that tho Sphynx could be put {
=, the top of St Pauls and still be mo
iu than hundred feet below it. 1t W
I'd attract travellers from far and near.
m do not agree with those who say it
,is nothing but great chimney, 1t is
' work of massive, symmetrical and wo
hg derful immensityi and no man can vie
nd 1t without being filled with gre
he thoughts Of man and nature in their i
:, finite possibilities.