The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-28

I that stands as the final effort. And the evolution Is not merely one of style; as the monument has grown in beauty and magnificence, so also the designers idea of what 1t Is to mean has developed. In It's final form 1t marks no special point or epoch in our history, but rather typifies America and the Americans from the Declaration of Independence to the pres ent day. It Is a monument of monuments. Why should not civilization at intervals place a symbol of It's progress and to given time?" asked MT Despradele, in recent interview What I have in mind Is an epitome of the vastness of Ameri- can civilization"
 A magnificent Idea and a magnificent design so all sorts of people have said and thought; and the French government has given 1t it's special commendatlon or as they express It, crowned 1t. Just why a government should thus concern itself about what exists only on paper might not at first appear for anyone 1t would seem. with bit of charcoal and an eye to architectural proportion, could design a graceful shaft to whatever airy
 height he chose. Yet to design a thing
 of this sort that would stand firmly and
 look well means--as every practcing ar chitect knows-much more than simply to | draw a picture of 1t. It Is not a child's | play but the work of a strong man, one
 of executive power and imaginative ca pacity. To begin with, although structure of certain form and proportion may appear
 to advantage If raised to the height of
 say 300 feet,@th Identical design built on | scale which raises 1t 1501S feet will ap-
 pear altogether out of proportion-and | this new monument Is to be between l 1900 and 1,500 feet high from the ground | to where it's far seen beacon burns, the 1 actual height depending somewhat upon | the character of the surrounding country i and the nature of the approaches, though 1 If it rose straight out from the sea its | elevation would be 1,5O0 feet. In planning ! for such a structure, of bigness hith- erto unknown to man, the architect Is face to face with problems never solved, so that at the outset, M. Despradelle found himself in the position of a pioneer. His one aim, the very condition of his success, was to express aspiration. His monument must not only be tall; 1t must look it.
 T believe" said he in his first cogita- | tions, that there is nothing more grand ly simple than the pyramids or the old obelisks; but these are monuments to dead gods and dead kings. They are cold and petrifed. We must have, in this case, something living, expressing motion and striving upward"
 l A glance of the accompanying ilustra l tion will show how well the two desirable
 
 ment undoubtedly contains some sugges-
 tions of an obelisk but there is nothing
 Egyptian about it; in it's lightness and l springiness 1t Is thoroughly American. 1 By the skillful arrangement of its grad
 ually ascending base. and the grouping l of uplifted pinnacles about it, it has an | eXpre ession of upward striving toward an 1 inaccessible ideal such as Is portrayed by
 no other monument that ever was built. l A few details of the construction help l the mind in consideroing this gigantic creation as structural possibility. The volume of the main central shaft is near l ly twenty-six million cubic feet Gemem- 1 Der 1t is over a quarter of mile high, and 225 feet square at the bottom) and 1 sdering the weight. of good building stone to be 1S0 pounds to the cubic foot. there would be a pressure of 46 tons on every square foot of the earth on which it stood. To build 1t solid would there- fore make 1t at once too heavy and too expensive. On the other hand the wind pressure upon it's enormous length will aggregate during the winter gales, hum dreds of tons, so that to erect 1t of steel framing with a mere sheathing of stone, like an office building, would render 1t liable to be broken off or blown over bodily. It was necessary. therefore to make another adjustment of differences The final plan shows a construction part ly hollowed out in galleries. for the sake of lightness, and comprising both steel and concrete in massive combination with heavy stone work on the exterior The result Is a structure, which accord Ing to all architectural experience, would stand firmly.
 When his Idea had been thus far de- veloped an additional brilliant idea came to the architect Since the structure was to be galleried on the interior. why not make 1t quite as much an American mon- ument within as without? Why not bring together in one large national mu- scum within it's massive walls all the m- portant relics and keepsakes of our American career and make one harmoni- ous chronological display of them instead l of having them scattered about the coun- 1 try? And finally, since the monument was thus to typify the growth. the might | and the accomplishments of our country, | from the very day we became a nation. | where else should 1t properly stand but | in the city of Washington?
 l Right here came the transition from i sidering it mere design, interesting | on paper, to considering 1t possibility | probability-in fact, a necessary pro- l ject. one that must sooner or later be undertaken. A gentleman whose infiu- ence in Washington is by no means in- considerable whose artistic feeling is strong. and whose heart Is enthusiastic ! ally American. has lately become very earnest over the idea and the design. and | is today putting forth his energy toward 1 its material realization. No matter about his name: he would rather not see it in | print quite yet in this connection; but
 suffice 1t that this has become his pet 1 idea.
 There seems, ad ding to his argument,