Evening star., 1898-12-14

;OES CUNNING.
habitants of the city about twenty years
| ago to the effect that President and Mrs.
| Jefferson We're present when the founda-
! ton of the pier was being laid that Mrs.
| jefferson gave her thimhe to he placed
| under the foundation, and that the pier
| ever after was known as the Jefferson
| pier"
Mr.. Robert Mills, first architect of the
| Washington monument, stated November
| Z, 1873:
In order to establish a permanent bench
mark, denotfng the relative differences of
| level between it and certain point the
| foundation of the monument. with a view
to future operations to determine at proper
| times whether any settlement had taken
I place in such foundation, l. on this day
made series of levels from point on the
| top of the third course or step of the
foundation, northwest angle, to point on
| top of the meridian stone monument near
/ tide water (Which stone monument was
placed there by President jefferson to de
| termine the Intersection of the meridian
line from the center of the Presidents house
with a line drawn west from the center
of the CapitoD, and find the top of e
meridian stone monument to be 13 feet |
inch and 9s of inch lower than said
foundation at the top of said third course
or step"
The said jefferson stone pier on the
meridian line. selected and used as the
bench mark for the monument, was also
used for a mooring post of the old canal.
to which bdrgeS bringing building mate
rails to the monument were fastened. and
continued to be SO used after the work on
the monument had been discontinued, until
1t became le~led to the ground and left
IN tnat state and forgotten. When con-
structins the present roadway from the
Presidents park tWhte LoO south by the
west side of the jefferson pier in 1872 those
In charge of that work collected all stones
on the ground for the roadbed. and OH
serving part of the pier then in original
position, had the stones in it taken out
except about twenty inches of its founda-
ton. The eXcaVated earth from the found
alton of the "Babcock Lake" north of the
Washington monument, was dumped
around the position of the jefferson pier
(Which stood originally in the face of the
bank of Goose creek, and they also re-
claimed about 130 linear feet of the creek
west of the jefferson pier, as at present
formed and graded.
Jefferson Pier RediscOyered
During the progress of the case The
United States V. NJ F. Morris ct al" it
was discovered that the said jefferson pier
had been used as bench mark from which
several old surveys were made of the land
on that part of the Potomac river front
referred to in said case. The United States
attorney in said case made a requisition to
the Attorney General of the United States
to have the Jefferson pier rediscOvered.
Col. o. II. Ernst. at that time the officer in
charge of public buildings and grounds re-
quested John Stewart, c. E, craftsman of
this office, to recover such pier who did
so, as per his report on file, dated January
3. 1880. wooden box six feet square at
the bottom, tapering to four feet square
at the top, and five feet long was centered
over the remains of the old foundation of
the jefferson pier and filed with wel-pre-
pared concrete. A granite block 3 feet
inches by = feet by , feet was specially
prepared, having inscribed its west side
Position of the meridian post erected Sep
tember 20. 1873, and position of the .Jeffer-
son stone pier erected December Is. 1891.
and recovered and re-erected Dece mber l.
1889" and set on top of the concrete found
alton, the Inscription facing the roadway
and readable from the same. Packing the
ground at the base of the granite block
was not completed when instructions were
received to lower the block within eight
inches of its top.
Obelisk No. ., the meridian line due
west from the south end of the Capitol
(additions have been built to the length of
the Capitol since the time here referred
to-. was a rough-dressed freestone about
3 feet 3 inches long. II inches square at
base, and 10 inches square at top. having
a grooved line down the center of its north
and south sides. 1t was removed in 1889
Settling of the Monument
Soon after the approval of the act of Con-
gress making an appropriation for the COM
pietion of the Washington monument dated
August = 1876. Second Lieut.. Dan c. King
man, Corps of United States Engineers. ex-
amined the stability of the monument and
reported. under date of December % 1876.
that the structure had settled $50 inches
since 1SiS. with dip that would correspond
10 an inclination of o.36 inch toward the
north, and also an inclination 20 the west:
that the bench mark was found and the
line rerun; that the bench does not appear
TO have been molested disturbed" He
| used obelisk No. for his bench mark and
corrected his mistake September a. 1877,
stating: II find by instrumental measure
ment that the stone used bench mark
last winter in ascertaining the amount of
settlement of the Washington monument is
situated upon a north and-south line
through the center of the Presidents house,
but not upon an exact eaSt-and-We line
through the Capitol it being about 175 feet
south of their intersection AT the intersec-
ton of these TWO lines | caused an excava-
ton to be made, and at the depth of about
$50 feet we came upon a mass of stone
The ground at this point is IL. I:s0 feet lower
than the top of the stone used as a bench
mark last winter, 16.SG0 feet below the
first course of the foundation of the Wash
ington monument visible above ground The
top of the masonry founda ton disclosed by
excavation was 22.510 feet below this course
or step"
1t was the third course or step of the
foundation that Architect Mills states he
had used.
Levels.
The lowest part of the foundation has
BERNIE, on which rested pillars reaching
above the surface of the ground. These
were used as leveling points during con-
struction.
After construction four levelng points
We're established-one at each corner of the
obelisk-and these are now used.
Levels are referred to "A carefully built
bench mark shown on the drawing here
with.
From the existing records of levels it is
evident that if the levels have been correct
ly taken the monument rises and falls and
also inclines first in one direction and then
in another. This is also shown by the read
ings of the plumb line, but no means at
present exist for comparing the two records
Notwithstanding variations shown by the
record of levels. the monument foundation
was horizontal on August 1S. 1897, and May
10. 1898, although not al the same level as
on August Z, 1890.