Evening star., 1924-07-14
THIS AND THAT
Will the Washington Monument
BY @. E. TRACEwELL.

os Iss Ak&SAS1S W 1/A~As i
I Will the Washington Monument
ever fall DOWN.,
Perhaps no one has ever looked al
the great shaft without sspecuIating
upon that possibility. wondering how
far the stones would ny in the event
OF such a great catastrophe.
So when sightseers came asserting
that the washington Monument IL
crumbling away" II seemed high time
to investigate. London bridge has
been falling down, In song. these
many centuries, yet stands there still
Thousands have worried about thf
Washington Monument being blown
over in high wind or clipping of
Its base. or Otherwise coming to grief
Yet nothing has ever happened
1T has great cracks in 1t and II
Is crumbling to pieces" was the
word brought 1t seemed worth look
ing into. anyway.
A special trip to the Washington
Monument is such an event in the
life of a Washingtonian that it de-
serves chronicling. Here Is the way
to do it, especially if you are bent
on finding out if the War Department
has been true to its great trust in
taking care of the shaft
Get one perfectly good umbrella
No matter IL the day 10 fair or foul
take an umbrella along.
The next step in your disguise Is
to carry your hat in your, hand.
Now, looking for all the world like
a tourist, you scout down D street,
seeking to come out on 18th street
by the white Lot. officially known as
the Ellipse.
Just before you come to 18th you
look through an areaway and see
an old lady, plump old lady, her
white hair cleaning above her sky
blue dress. In her hand she holds
hose and on her face is a great
smile.
Sprinkling the back yard is not
always such fun. You wonder why
she is getting so much enjoyment out
OF 1t. Then a heavy-set fox terrier
furnished the animated key to the
problem.
He Is dashing through the stream
Of water, gasping for breath, since
he seems to be endeavoring to swal-
low the Potomac River at each dash
Coughing his way about. wheeling
back and forward across the open
space, he seems to be having almost
as good time as the old lady.
y H. X 4
Leaving this festive scene behind
you, plunge across the street, skirt
around the Ellipse to the. east, gel
your bearings, then look around fol
the Monument. -- -'
The Monument has disappeared
Despite the fact that 1t Is exactly
500 feet five and one-eighth inches
high, and weighs SLIGO tons, it has
disappeared as completely as If only
five inches high and one pound il
weight
This may sound ridiculous, unit
one remembers that the Ellipse i:
fringed with great trees and thai
the whole neighborheod is filled witt
giant neighbors, spreading ,theil
branches of leafy beauty far out over
the greensward.
1t is really very easy to lose sigh
of the Monument, although one may
be headed in a bee line for it all the
time.
Clouds are obscuring the sun
There go two men and two women
each with umbrellas. They must b,
sightseers, too.
Now they are carrying their hat
in their hands. Yes, they are tour
lists, no doubt OF it now.
You strain your-eyes for fssure
| in, the side of the awe-inspiring ODE
| lisk as you come up the hill. Yo1
are walking over its foundation
many feet before you get near tn
| walls, but you no more realize tha
| than the sightseers who are in lin
aroupd the base, waiting their tur1
| at the elevator.
The wind whips around the shat
| as 1t does on the hurricane deck O
| a steamer, the nearness of the rive
| lending fresh quality to it A grou
| wall-also in line-grab at thei
skirts as the wind gets frisky
Now to see IL the Monument
crumbling away. If this giant crea
ture is on its last legs, what a fal
there will be. my countrymen!
THE tap.rins pyramid. the Egyp-
And wonder of the world. whose
spiky top
Has wounded the thick cloud"
If there are cracks, assures. rents
divisions, orificex. holes and the like
let them show up now or foreve
hold their peace.
What a master work the Washing
ton Monument is!
Standing here beneath the tire
mendous shaft, almost equally a mon
ument to Col Thomas Lincoln Casey
Corps Of, Engineers, as to Georg
Washington, one is impressed agai,
with it's greatness.
Think of it-after the shaft wa
156 feet in the air the entire orfgina
foundations of stone were taken ou
and new foundations Of concret,
slipped under. then a great slab O
concrete placed under all
The original foundations -wer,
eighty feet square. The presen
foundations are 126 feet 6 inche.
square. The weight of the founda
tions and the earth upon it is 36,el:
tons.
The walls are fifteen feet thick a
the entrance and but eighteen inche,
at the top. The shaft would hav,
to be two and two thirds it's presen
altitude, to come to a point-that is
| 1t would be considerably more thar
1000 feet high If allowed to run t,
a point: 1t cost $1,1s7,71o.sI Don
|
Now for the cracks.
Fissures running vertically are. t,
| be seen on the north wall, most ex
posed to storms, to a height of per
haps twenty feet. They have bee,
flied in, however, and the net resul
Is that the sheer beauty of the has
is bit marred, that is all. Th
south wall has few fissures, simi
larly filled in. running HORIZONTAL,
! Col: c. o. Sheriff., superintendent
| Of public buildings and grounds sav
that the pressure Of the outside walls a
one time caused a certain amount q
crumbling. but there. has been non
| in recent years
| So your alarm is needless.
| But the old fellow with the panam
in his hand is not to be convinced.
| Looks mighty bad to ma. Marv