Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1883 — THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. [ARTICLE]

THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.

What R Was, What It Ik.Rew, and It Is to Bd. History of What Will Be the Highest Structure Ever Raised by Han*s Hand. [Washington Telegram.] Probably few persons outside mt Washington realize that the time has come to speak respectfully of the WashihgtOn Monument The unsightly column—as it was for so many yeabs—which used to stand as a big s tone stump between the lonic portico of the Treavurv and the broad, glittering shallows bf the Potomac, has, within the past two years, risen into a stately obelisk, whose marble sides gleam In the sun—a simple and imposing shaft, which will one daybe majestic. The paragrapers, who are still joking abdut it, are behind the age. It is now higher-than any of the Egyptian pyramids, except that of Cheops and its companion pyramid. King Shaira s; and when it is completed, it will be more than 100 feet higher than either of these, and will be not on W the highe t known strheture in the world,, but. So it is Said, the highest structure which is known to have Over been raised by the hand of man. The great spire M the Btra* burg Cathedral runs up to the height of 468 feet; the height of the tower of the Cathe* dral at Cologne is put at 611 feet: Bt. Peter’s, from the pavement to toe base of toe lantern, is 448 feet, and tne Milan Cathedral is 366 feet to the very top of toe statue of toe Madonna. The Washington Monument is now 340 feet above toe floor of the shaft When completed, as it WiU be by December, 1885, at the latest, it will teiM feet high, or more than forty feet higher than toe very tip of toe slender pinnacles at Cologne. The comparison is an awkward one, perhaps, but it has Its uses neverthe-* less—a plain shaft is not to be compared, architecturally, with a cathedral or pyramid; but it is of some interest to remember that while the tower of toe Cologne Oa* thedral will probably taper into toe air wito a very small diameter, tne Wapiungton Mon* ument at 500 feet, or almost exactly thl same height, will show a width of thirty-tnd feet on each of its four faces. At toe base each of these sides have a width of nfty-nve f6 The engineering feat by which a new and enlarged foundation was inserted under a structure 150 feet high and weighing 71,500,000 pounds, as the monument was when work was begun in 1378, is one whioh cad only be adequately described by Col. Casey, the engineer in charge, and be says that, though often, urged to do so, he shall aol write a line upon the subjeot until the monument Is completed Perhaps it will make the story more intelligible to go back a little. Ti e plan of a monument to Washington in the city bearing his name was ad many will remember, formally approved by Congress in a resolution parsed less than a fortnight after his death, and which requested that his family permit his body to be deposited under it, Tx.e monument was to be erected by toe United States, but nothing was done. In 1833 an association of leading ci'tirem here wes formed, which, having collec ed enough money by private subscription to begin wont, secured the site from Congress in 1848 and laid toe corner-stone on July 4of that year. In toe eight years following the shaft was carried to toe height of 156 feet, where work was suspended for lack of funds, and no stone was laid on the shaft from that time until August 8, 1881, , an interval of twenty-four years, during which toe slavery agitation, toe oivil war and the convulsions growing out of it, united to distract the public mind from a work peculiarly national and suggestive of peace and unity. But one of toe great reasons why toe now of little subscriptions from all over the land was stopped, was the belief, whioh became general, that toe foundation was not strong enough. When Mr. Corcoran, Dr. John B. Blake and other oitizens here, succeeded in inducing Congress *o undertake the completion, which it did by a resoifftion in the Centennial year constituting a joint commission, it was found that this belief was correct The monument, which, as already stated, showed a breadth of 55 feet on each of its faces at toe base line, rested upon a foundation only 80 feet square and 23 feet deep, and poorly constructed at that Below this was the ground, of rather a yielding nature. If they had gone on heaping stone upon the monument, the result would simply have been that toe weight would have driven it downward like a punch. It would probably have settled unevenly; and we should have had either a new leaning tower of Pisa, or perhaps no tower at all, whioh would have furnished either way n fine paragraph for toe newspaper correspondents, but would not probably have been ol much benefit to any other class In the community. Obviously, the foundation needed to be strengthened, and CoL Casey addres ed himself to a task which a good mamy engineers would have preferred not to undertake. Going down below the foundation already built, he dug from under it all around, leaving a core of earth 44 feet square directly under the center of toe founda ion and monument; and the 71,500,000 pounds of weight stood on tots pillar of earth The new excavation was of a depth of 13 feet, and nude a cellar under toe foundation 126 feet square. This was filled with 6olid masonry, except where toe core of earth stood, whicn was not removed. Then toe sides ol toe old foundation above were tom down for a considerable distance under the walla of the shaft, rebuilt of better materials, and spread out further over the new base below, thus distributing the prefirra over a much larger area So, Instead of a foundation oqly 80 feet square, that is, extending only feet beyond each of the four faces, there is now a foundation 126 feel square, extending 85 feet beyond each face, and running 13 feet deeper. A good many engineers have come at different times to visit the monument and Inspect this interesting work. One of them looked at it a longtime without saying anything. Then he remarked quietly, “well, that’s easy enough to do, but I don’t know one engineer in a thousand who would want to toy It* The result proves how well toe work has been done Since the laying of stone was renewed 28,865 tons of stone have been added to the pile, and the settlement of the shaft due to*this load haa been just one and a quarter inches. The settlement is so even that the greatest variation in the sinking of the four comers is a difference of four-hnndretbs of an inch between the southwest and northeast comera The --other two have settled exactly alike, even -td - the hundreto part of an inch. The total pteisure now borne by toe bed of foundation is 74,871 tons, or 90 per cent of the whole pressure that will be plaoed upon it. The line at which the work rested in 18.56 can plainly be t een, toe old portion of the monumen; be ng darker and more weather-beaten than the new. The slow ra ; .e at whioh contractors are able to deliver the marble regulates toe progress of the monument Tne money which Congress has ar< ady appropriated, about 0800,003 in all, will suffice to complete the shaft and pyramidion, as it is oalled, toe pyramid which is to top the shaft at the he ght of 500 feet a* d rise for fltty-flve feet, part of it being of gia=*, in order to light the deep well of the monument.