The Washington Monument is the stone obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Robert Mills designed it, and Thomas Lincoln Casey of the Army Corps of Engineers completed it. Construction began on July 4, 1848, halted from 1854 to 1877, and ended in 1884. It was dedicated on February 21, 1885, and opened to the public on October 9, 1888.
It stands 555 feet (169 meters) tall. The shaft is granite faced with marble from three quarries. Its walls taper from 15 feet (4.6 meters) thick at the base to 1.5 feet at the top. The aluminum apex was cast in 1884. One elevator reaches the observation floor in 70 seconds, and 194 memorial stones line the interior walls.
The monument cost $1,409,500 and weighs 81,120 long tons with its foundation. An earthquake damaged it in 2011, and it reopened on May 12, 2014. It closed again from 2016 to 2019 and reopened on September 19, 2019.
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