The Washington Monument

When you are thinking of touristy things to do in Washington, the Washington Monument is surely near the top of your list. It meets most criteria for a top tourist attraction:

• It’s historic.
• It’s easy to get to.
• It’s cheap. Free, actually.
• It’s a great photo opp.
• It’s really, really, big.

Anyone can get near the Monument, and, really, if you take a photo of the Washington skyline, the Monument is likely to be in it by default.

However, if you want to take a tour of the inside of the Monument and take the elevator to the top, you need a ticket. Timed tickets are distributed for free every day at the Visitor Center hut beginning at 9 a.m., and tours run every 15 minutes through 4:45 p.m. (winter hours). But don’t expect to come at 4 p.m., like I did, and get a ticket. It’s also possible to order tickets in advance for a minimal fee ($1.50 a ticket, plus shipping & handling) at recreation.gov. Apparently, cherry blossom season is already booked, but I didn’t have any problems getting tickets for Dec. 26.

Interesting things I learned about the Washington Monument from the Visitors’ Center and the Interweb:

• Building started on the Monument on July 4, 1848. It stopped in 1858 for 18 years, at a stubby 156 feet tall (less than one-third its present height) until President Ulysses S. Grant approved an act authorizing the federal government to finish the project. It was dedicated in 1885.
• The original design by architect Robert Mills called for a Pantheon-like temple at the base of the monument that would house statues of Revolutionary War heroes. Mills’ original design also differed from the classic dimensions of Egyptian obelisks, in that it had a flat top and would have been taller. After work on the Monument restarted after the Civil War, alternative designs were proposed. Let us all pause now and thank the gods of architecture that the new designs were rejected, and the colonnade at the bottom was eliminated.
• There are 897 steps to the top.
• Hey, Dan Brown fans: It is capped by an aluminum pyramid 9 inches high.
• Baltimore has its own Washington Monument, which predates the one in the District by several decades and was even designed by the same architect, Robert Mills.
• The National Park Service offers an informative Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plan on the Monument.