Some of the most iconic memorials that grace Washington, D.C., drawing millions of visitors every year, only narrowly survived being scrapped altogether. In 1791, Pierre L'Enfant drew up designs ...

In his master plan for the new city of Washington ... a halt when the Civil War began in 1861. The monument sat there, a little less than a third completed, for 22 years. Local politicians ...

Completed in 1884 at 555 feet ... views from its observation deck to over 600,000 annual visitors. The Washington Monument is ...

You can find the National Park Service’s complete Washington Monument construction timeline here. Sources: The Department of Defense, Mount Vernon, National Park Service, U.S. Senate ...

At the western end of the National Mall, the Washington Monument towers over our country’s capital. The 555-foot obelisk—a four-sided stone pillar with a pyramid-shaped top—was built to ...

According to the website for Thalian Association Community Theatre, the stone was carved by Wilmington sculptor James ...