Editing Washington Monument (section)

===Construction===
[[File:Jefferson Pier and Washington Monument.jpg|thumb|The west side of [[Jefferson Pier]] with the Washington Monument (in background)]]
The Washington Monument was originally intended to be located at the point at which a line running directly south from the center of the [[White House]] crossed a line running directly west from the center of the [[United States Capitol|U.S. Capitol]] on [[Capitol Hill]]. [[France|French]]-born military engineer [[Pierre Charles L'Enfant|Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant]]'s 1791 visionary [[L'Enfant Plan|"Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States&nbsp;..."]] designated this point as the location of the proposed central equestrian statue of George Washington that the old [[Congress of the Confederation|Confederation Congress]] had voted for in 1783, at the end of the [[American Revolutionary War]] (1775–1783) in a future American national capital city.<ref name="L'Enfant Plan">Peter Charles L'Enfant's [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3850.ct000512 "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t(he) United States&nbsp;..."] ''in'' [https://www.loc.gov/ official website of the U.S. Library of Congress]. Retrieved October 22, 2009. [[Freedom Plaza]] in downtown Washington, D.C., contains an inlay of the central portion of [[L'Enfant Plan|L'Enfant's plan]] and of its legends. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070730155115/http://www.loc.gov// |date=July 30, 2007 }}</ref>{{efn-ua | name=L'Enfant | L'Enfant identified himself as "Peter Charles L'Enfant" during most of his life, while residing in the United States. He wrote this name on his "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t(he) United States&nbsp;..." and on other legal documents.<ref name="L'Enfant Plan" /> However, during the early 1900s, the then French ambassador to the U.S., [[Jean Jules Jusserand]], popularized the use of L'Enfant's birth name, "Pierre Charles L'Enfant".<ref>Bowling, Kenneth R (2002). ''Peter Charles L'Enfant: vision, honor, and male friendship in the early American Republic.'' George Washington University, Washington, D.C.</ref>

The [[National Park Service]] identifies L'Enfant as "Major Peter Charles L'Enfant" and as "Major Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant" on pages of its website that describe the Washington Monument.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/Wash/text.htm#washington "Washington Monument" section ''in'' "Washington, D.C.: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary" page] ''in'' [http://www.nps.gov/ official website of U.S. National Park Service]. Retrieved October 22, 2009.</ref><ref>[https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/washington_monument.html "Washington Monument" page ''in'' "American Presidents" section] ''of'' [http://www.nps.gov/ official website of U.S. National Park Service]. Retrieved October 22, 2009.</ref> The [[United States Code]] states in {{UnitedStatesCode|40|3309}}: "(a) In General. – The purposes of this chapter shall be carried out in the District of Columbia as nearly as may be practicable in harmony with the plan of Peter Charles L'Enfant."
}}<!-- End of efn-ua --> The ground at the intended location proved to be too unstable to support a structure as heavy as the planned obelisk, so the monument's location was moved {{convert|390|ft|m|1}} east-southeast.{{efn-ua |The monument is located {{convert|370|ft|m|2}} east of the north–south White House axis, {{convert|123|ft|m|2}} south of the east–west Capitol axis, and {{convert|7387.4|ft|m|2}} west of the north–south Capitol axis.<ref name=Torres/>{{rp|16}}<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/resource/mtj3.058_0468_0474/ Letter from Nicholas King, Surveyor of the City to Thomas Jefferson, October 15, 1804] Survey of Jefferson Pier. 7696.8 feet – 370 feet + 60.6 feet = 7387.4 feet.</ref>}} At that originally intended site there now stands a small monolith called the [[Jefferson Pier]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds2.prl?retrieval_type=by_pid&PID=UA0024|title=Data Sheet Retrieval|work=noaa.gov}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=66000035}}|page=Continuation Sheet, Item No. 7, p. 4|title=Jefferson Pier Marker|work=National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form: Washington Monument|publisher=[[United States Department of the Interior]]: [[National Park Service]]|last=Pfanz|first=Donald C. |department=National Capital Region|date=December 2, 1980|access-date=February 13, 2012}}</ref> Consequently, the [[McMillan Plan]] specified that the [[Lincoln Memorial]] should be "placed on the main axis of the Capitol and the Monument", about 1° south of due west of the Capitol or the monument, not due west of the Capitol or the monument.<ref name=McMillan>{{cite book |editor-last=Moore |editor-first=Charles |title=The Improvement of the Park System of the District of Columbia |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Ob7PAAAAMAAJ |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Ob7PAAAAMAAJ/page/n99 51]–52 |date=1902}}</ref>{{efn-ua |The park portion of the [[National Mall|Mall]], including Madison Drive, Jefferson Drive, and four wide gravel boulevards between them east of the monument, and the [[Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool|Reflecting Pool]] and sidewalks west of the monument, are parallel to the offset Capitol-Monument-Lincoln axis. But the major highways immediately north and south of the Mall, [[Constitution Avenue]] and [[Independence Avenue (Washington, D.C.)|Independence Avenue]], are oriented east–west. This misalignment can be seen on a map of the area.}}

====Excavation and initial construction====
Construction of the monument finally began three years later in 1848 with the excavation of the site, the laying of the cornerstone on the prepared bed, and laying the original foundation around and on top of the cornerstone, before the construction of its massive walls began the next year. Regarding modern claims of slave labor being used in construction, Washington Monument historian John Steele Gordon stated "I can't say for certain, but the stonemasonry was pretty highly skilled, so it's unlikely that slaves would've been doing it. The stones were cut by stonecutters, which is highly skilled work; and the stones were hoisted by means of steam engines, so you'd need a skilled engineer and foreman for stuff like that. Tending the steam engine, building the cast-iron staircase inside—that wasn't grunt work. ... The early quarries were in Maryland, so slave labor was undoubtedly used to quarry and haul the stone"<ref name=Riesman>{{cite web |last=Riesman |first=Abraham |url=http://www.vulture.com/2017/07/was-the-washington-monument-built-by-slaves.html |title=So, Was the Washington Monument Built by Slaves |date=July 10, 2017 |work=Slate |access-date=October 31, 2017}}</ref> Abraham Riesman, who quoted Gordon, states "there were plenty of people who worked as skilled laborers while enslaved in antebellum America. Indeed, there were enslaved people who worked as stonemasons. So the possibility remains that there were slaves who performed some of the necessary skilled labor for the monument."<ref name=Riesman/> According to historian Jesse Holland, it is very likely that African American slaves were among the construction workers, given that slavery prevailed in Washington and its surrounding states at that time, and slaves were commonly used in public and private construction.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Jesus|first1=Austin Elias-de|title=Spider-Man: Homecoming Says the Washington Monument Was Built by Slaves. Was It?|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/07/11/was_the_washington_monument_built_by_slaves_spider_man_homecoming_says_yes.html|access-date=July 11, 2017|work=Slate|date=July 11, 2017}}</ref>

Gordon's arguments are valid for the second phase (1879–1888) after slavery was abolished when every stone laid required dressing and polishing by a skilled stonemason. This includes the iron staircase which was constructed 1885–86. That the stonecutters in the quarry were slaves is confirmed because all quarry workers were slaves during the construction of the [[United States Capitol]] during the 1790s.<ref name=slaves>{{citation |last=Allen |first=William C. |title=History of Slave Laborers in the Construction of the United States Capital |url=https://emancipation.dc.gov/publication/history-slave-laborers-construction-us-capitol |date=June 1, 2005 |publisher=Office of the Architect of the Capitol}}</ref>{{rp|5–6}} However, Holland's views are valid for the first phase because most of its construction only required unskilled manual labor. No information survives concerning the method used to lift stones that weighed several tons each during the first phase, whether by a manual winch or a steam engine.<ref name=Torres/>{{rp|17–23}} The surviving information concerning slaves that built the core of the United States Capitol during the 1790s is not much help. At the time, the [[District of Columbia (until 1871)|District of Columbia]] outside of [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]] was sparsely populated so the federal government rented slaves from their owners who were paid a fee for their slaves' normal daily labor. Any overtime for Sundays, holidays, and nights was paid directly to the slaves which they could use for daily needs or to save to buy their freedom.<ref name=slaves/>{{rp|9}} Conversely, the first phase of the monument was constructed by a private entity, the Washington National Monument Society, which may not have been as magnanimous as the federal government, but most information was lost during the 1850s while two Societies vied for control of the monument. Useful information concerning the use of slaves during the major expansion of the Capitol during the 1850s, nearly contemporaneous with the monument's first phase, does not exist.

Only a small number of stones used in the first phase required a skilled stonemason, the marble blocks on the outer surface of the monument (their inner surfaces were left very rough) and those gneiss stones that form the rough inner walls of the monument (all other surfaces of those inner stones within the walls were left jagged). The vast majority of all gneiss stones laid during the first phase, those between the outer and inner surfaces of the walls, from very large to very small jagged stones, form a pile of [[rubble]] held together by a large amount of [[mortar (masonry)|mortar]]. The top surface of this rubble can be seen below at [[#Walls|Walls]] in an 1880 drawing made just before the polished/rough marble and granite stones used in the second phase were laid atop it. The [[#Foundation|original foundation]] below the walls was made of layered gneiss rubble, but without the massive stones used within the walls. Most of the gneiss stones used during the first phase were obtained from quarries in the upper [[Potomac River]] Valley. Almost all the marble stones of the first and second phases was [[Cockeysville Marble]], obtained from quarries north of downtown Baltimore in rural [[Baltimore County]] where stone for their first Washington Monument was obtained.<ref name="Loudermilk 1998 k599">{{cite web | last=Loudermilk | first=Suzanne | title=A monumental encore Quarries: Baltimore County marble was used in building the Washington Monument in the nation's capital, and marble from the same place might be used as it is restored. | website=Baltimore Sun | date=November 3, 1998 | url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-11-03-1998307058-story.html | access-date=June 29, 2023}}</ref>

On [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]], July 4, 1848, the [[Freemasonry|Freemasons]], the same organization to which Washington belonged, laid the cornerstone (symbolically, not physically).<ref name=Harvey/>{{rp|45, 136–143}} According to [[Joseph R. Chandler]]:<ref name=Harvey/>{{rp|136, 140–141}}<ref name="Reading 2: Construction of the Monument"/>

{{Blockquote|No more Washingtons shall come in our time ... But his virtues are stamped on the heart of mankind. He who is great in the battlefield looks upward to the generalship of Washington. He who grows wise in counsel feels that he is imitating Washington. He who can resign power against the wishes of a people, has in his eye the bright example of Washington.<ref name="Reading 2: Construction of the Monument">{{cite web | url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/62wash/62facts3.htm | title=Reading 2: Construction of the Monument | work=National Park Service | access-date=10 March 2015}}</ref>}}

Two years later, on a [[wikt:torrid|torrid]] July 4, 1850, [[George Washington Parke Custis]] (1781–1857), the adopted son of George Washington and grandson of [[Martha Washington]] (1731–1802), dedicated a stone from the people of the [[District of Columbia]] to the Monument at a ceremony that 12th President [[Zachary Taylor]] (1784–1850, served 1849–1850) attended, just five days before he died from [[Foodborne illness|food poisoning]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Perry|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H4ig_dTZbzkC&pg=PA93|title=Lee: A Life of Virtue|publisher=Thomas Nelson|location=[[Nashville, Tennessee]]|year=2010|pages=93–94|isbn=978-1595550286|oclc=456177249}} At [[Google Books]].</ref>

====Donations run out====
[[File:Washington Monument circa 1860 - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|upright=1|The partially completed monument, photographed by [[Mathew Brady]], {{c.|1860}}]]
Construction continued until 1854, when donations ran out and the monument had reached a height of {{convert|152|ft|m|1}}. At that time a memorial stone that was contributed by [[Pope Pius IX]], called the Pope's Stone, was destroyed by members of the [[anti-Catholic]], [[nativism (politics)|nativist]] American Party, better known as the "[[Know-Nothings]]", during the early morning hours of {{nowrap|March 6, 1854}} (a priest replaced it in 1982 using the Latin phrase "A Roma Americae" instead of the original stone's English phrase "Rome to America"). Economic and political conditions of the time caused public contributions to the Washington National Monument Society to cease, so they appealed to Congress for money.<ref name=Torres/>{{rp|23, 25–26}}<ref name=Jacob/>{{rp|16, 215, 222–223}}

The request had just reached the floor of the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] when the Know-Nothing Party seized control of the Society on February 22, 1855, a year after construction funds ran out. Congress immediately tabled its expected contribution of $200,000 to the Society, effectively halting the Federal appropriation. During its tenure, the Know-Nothing Society added only two courses of masonry, or {{convert|4|ft|m}}, to the monument using rejected masonry it found on site, increasing the height of the shaft to {{convert|156|ft|m}}. The original Society refused to recognize the takeover, so the two rival Societies existed side by side until 1858. With the Know-Nothing Party disintegrating and unable to secure contributions for the monument, it surrendered its possession of the monument to the original Society three and a half years later on {{nowrap|October 20, 1858}}. To prevent future takeovers, the U.S. Congress incorporated the Society on {{nowrap|February 22, 1859}} with a stated charter and set of rules and procedures.<ref name=Olszewski/>{{rp|chp 3}}<ref name=Harvey/>{{rp|52–65}}

====Post–Civil War====

The [[American Civil War]] (1861–1865), halted all work on the monument, but interest grew after the war's end. Engineers studied the foundation several times to determine if it was strong enough for continued construction after 20 years of effective inactivity. In 1876, the [[United States Centennial|American Centennial]] of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], Congress agreed to appropriate another $200,000 to resume construction.<ref name="reeves413">{{cite book| last = Reeves| first = Thomas C.| title = Gentleman Boss| url = https://archive.org/details/gentlemanbosslif00reev| url-access = registration| date = February 1975| publisher = Alfred A. Knopf| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-394-46095-6| page = [https://archive.org/details/gentlemanbosslif00reev/page/413 413] }}</ref>
[[File:Washington Monument, 6 design proposals for the completion ca. 1879.jpg|thumb|Proposals for the completion of the monument published in 1879. Number 6, Henry R. Searle's obelisk was already made public in 1847.]]
Before work could begin again, arguments about the most appropriate design resumed. Many people thought a simple obelisk, one without the colonnade, would be too bare. Architect Mills was reputed to have said omitting the colonnade would make the monument look like "a stalk of [[asparagus]]"; another critic said it offered "little&nbsp;... to be proud of".<ref name="wash" />

This attitude led people to submit alternative designs. Both the Washington National Monument Society and Congress held discussions about how the monument should be finished. The Society considered five new designs and an anonymous "interesting project of California" (which later turned out to be by [[Arthur Frank Mathews]]),<ref>Henry van Brunt: [https://archive.org/details/americanartamer01mont/page/n7/mode/1up?view=theater ''The Washington Monument.''], [[Internet Archives]], "American Art and Art Collections", Walter Montgomery (Editor), E. W. Walker and Company, Boston 1889, pages 354–368.</ref> concluding that the one by [[William Wetmore Story]], seemed "vastly superior in artistic taste and beauty". Congress deliberated over those five proposals (among others by Paul Schulze, who built [[Boylston Hall (Harvard University)|Boylston Hall]]  and [[John Fraser (architect)|John Fraser]] as well as Mills's original. While it was deciding, it ordered work on the obelisk to continue. Finally, the members of the society agreed to abandon the colonnade and alter the obelisk so it conformed to classical Egyptian proportions.<ref name=nps3 />

====Resumption====
[[File:Washington Monument - Setting the capstone - Harper's Weekly.png|thumb|upright=1|P. H. McLaughlin setting the aluminum apex with Thomas Lincoln Casey (hands up)]]
[[File:View of the uncompleted Washington Monument, taken from the roof of the Main building of the Department of... - NARA - 516531.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Washington Monument nears completion around 1884]]
Construction resumed in 1879 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel [[Thomas Lincoln Casey Sr.|Thomas Lincoln Casey]] of the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]]. Casey redesigned the foundation, strengthening it so it could support a structure that ultimately weighed more than 40,000 tons ({{convert|40,000|ST|t|disp=out|abbr=off}}). The first stone atop the unfinished stump was laid on August 7, 1880, in a small ceremony attended by President [[Rutherford B. Hayes]], Casey and a few others. The president placed a small coin on which he had scratched his initials and the date in the bed of wet cement at the {{convert|150|foot|m|adj=on}} level before the first stone was laid on top of it.<ref name=Torres/>{{rp|76}} Casey found 92 memorial stones ("presented stones") already inlaid into the interior walls of the first phase of construction. Before construction continued he temporarily removed eight stones at the {{convert|150|foot|m|adj=on}} level so that the walls at that level could be sloped outward, producing thinner second-phase walls. He inserted those stones and most of the remaining memorial stones stored in the lapidarium into the interior walls during 1885–1889.<ref name=Jacob/>{{rp|11–17}} The bottom third of the monument is a slightly lighter shade than the rest of the construction because the marble was obtained from different quarries.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc72.htm | title=Washington Monument | work=National Park Service | access-date=March 10, 2015 | quote=The walls of the monument range in thickness from 15' at the base to 18' at the upper shaft. They are composed primarily of white marble blocks from Maryland with a few from Massachusetts, underlain by Maryland blue gneiss and Maine granite. A slight color change is perceptible at the 150' level near where construction slowed in 1854.}}</ref>

The building of the monument proceeded quickly after Congress had provided sufficient funding. In four years, it was completed, with the 100-ounce (2.83&nbsp;kg) aluminum apex/lightning-rod being put in place on December 6, 1884.<ref name="reeves413"/> The apex was the largest single piece of aluminum cast at the time, when aluminum commanded a price comparable to silver.<ref name=Binczewski>{{cite journal|author = George J. Binczewski|title = The Point of a Monument: A History of the Aluminum Cap of the Washington Monument|journal = JOM|volume = 47|issue = 11|pages = 20–25|year = 1995|url = http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9511/Binczewski-9511.html|doi=10.1007/bf03221302|bibcode = 1995JOM....47k..20B|s2cid = 111724924}}</ref> Two years later, the [[Hall–Héroult process]] made aluminum easier to produce and the price of aluminum plummeted, though it should have provided a lustrous, non-rusting apex.{{efn-ua |name=rust |The large gold-plated copper band added to the aluminum apex in 1885 discolored or damaged the surface of the aluminum so much that most of its inscriptions are no longer legible – see [[#Aluminum apex|Aluminum apex]].}}<ref>{{cite web |url = http://portal.acs.org/portal/PublicWebSite/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/aluminumprocess/index.htm |archive-url = https://archive.today/20130223151952/http://portal.acs.org/portal/PublicWebSite/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/aluminumprocess/index.htm |url-status = dead |archive-date = February 23, 2013 |title = Hall Process: Production and Commercialization of Aluminum |publisher = American Chemical Society |work = National Historic Chemical Landmarks |access-date = March 25, 2013 }}</ref> The monument opened to the public on October 9, 1888.<ref>[http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc72.htm "Washington Monument"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227003638/http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc72.htm |date=December 27, 2014 }}. ''Teaching with Historic Places''. National Park Service. Retrieved October 15, 2006.</ref>