So, as I mentioned in my last post, my parents, sister and nephew were here for the weekend to celebrate Nia’s Birthday. And what weekend in DC would be complete without a little sight-seeing, right? The tricky thing is, they saw most of the “biggies” last time they were here, so that made it more of a challenge. Thankfully, I had a secret weapon named Kyle who has magic connections to cool places! (He’s pictured below with Nia)
First, a little background on Kyle: He is the son of my Mom’s cousin. I have no idea what that makes us, but we’re related and have been hanging out our whole lives. He’s here for a year doing a one year internship with the National Park Service. He’s responsible for 6 parks including the White House!
Kyle’s awesome perks got us tickets to the White House Lawn Tour and tickets to go up the Washington Monument. Surprising as this may sound, I have never been up the Washington Monument, so I was just as excited as my guests were!
Here are a few fun facts about the Washington Monument:
- It is 555 feet tall and was the highest building of it’s time. No buildings in DC are allowed to be higher than it.
- It is 55 feet wide at its base.
- You can see over 30 miles from the top.
- It took 40 years to complete.
- The monument changes color about 1/3 of the way up because the project stopped in 1854 due to lack of funding. The project was taken over 25 years later by the US Government and used marble from a different quarry.
- It was finally completed in 1884.
- There are 897 stairs, which are not open to the public anymore.
- It takes 70 seconds to get to the top by elevator.
- It is made of 36,000 stones.
- There are 193 commemorative stones lining the inside of the monument. They were donated from cities, states and countries from around the world. As the elevator descends, you get to see a couple dozen of the stones.
- The monument does NOT sway in the wind, despite rumors of such.
- A 5.8 magnitude earthquake in August 2011 resulted in 150 cracks in the monument. It reopened in May 2014 after 15 million in repairs.
Now let’s get on to the views!
To the North: The Ellipse and White House
To the Northeast: Some beautiful Government Buildings
To the East: The Capital, Mall and Smithsonian Museums (lots of construction going on, as you can see)
To the South: The Potomac River, National Harbor
To the South: Tidal Basin, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Reagan National Airport, our House!
To the West: WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Arlington Bridge, Arlington Cemetery
Pretty spectacular, huh? Sorry the photos aren’t the best, it’s hard shooting through glass. I hope you can still get a general idea of how incredible it was!
Sources: https://sites.google.com/a/g.coppellisd.com/washington-monumentnl/fun-facts, http://www.nps.gov/wamo/faqs.htm, http://news.yahoo.com/washington-monument-reopening-facts-155136010.html, http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2015/02/10-fascinating-facts-about-the-washington-monument/
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