Even before the death of our first President, American citizens and politicians had been talking about erecting a monument to honor General George Washington. In 1833, the 100th anniversary of Washington's birth, the Washington National Monument Society was formed. It was this group of private citizens who first began work on the Washington Monument in 1833. It was not until 1888 that the structure was completed, however, due to a number of unintended setbacks and funding problems.
Soon, the Washington National Monument Society had raised $28,000 in donations and in 1836, they held a competition for designs. The winner, Robert Mills, drew up plans for a massive Greek obelisk surrounded by a Greek colonnade. The colonnade itself was supposed to be pantheon featuring statues of 30 prominent American heroes. On top of the colonnade, Mills envisaged a statue of Washington wearing a toga in a Roman chariot. It was estimated that the monument would cost $1,000,000 (about $27,000,000 today), and many of the members were not thrilled about the colonnade. Nevertheless, they decided to begin building the obelisk in the hopes of raising additional funds from patriotic Americans who would be more willing to give once they saw some progress being made on the monument. If they raised enough money for the colonnade, they might build it too.
The cornerstone for the monument was held on the 4th of July in 1848, but the monument was not without controversy. The society had requested that the various states and territories of the Union send stone to be used in the construction and many did. Many American Indian tribes, professional organizations, societies, businesses and foreign nations contributed stone as well. Pope Pius IX sent a stone, but it was stolen and apparently thrown into the Patomic by members of the anti-Catholic "Know-Nothings" party. This party had taken charge of the project and their actions cost the project the $200,000 that Congress had apportioned for the monument. In addition, all of the masonry which was added by the Know-Nothings had to be removed because it was so poorly laid. Thus, by the time the Know-Nothings released control of the project in 1858, the society had run out of money and it only had the bottom third of the monument to show for its efforts.
The monument was neglected until 1876 when appropriated another $200,000. Work did not resume until 1879, however, because of arguments about the design. Some wanted to start over with a completely new design, while some wanted to retain the original design. The society reviewed new submissions, but eventually decided to use the original design without the colonnade. They also changed the proportions of the obelisk to make it conform to the Egyptian style. Under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the work went quickly and the aluminum capstone was set into place in 1884. At the time, aluminum was considered a precious metal because it was extremely expensive to manufacture. The building was opened to the public in 1888 and has attracted millions of visitors from all over the world. When it was completed, it was the tallest building in the world and remains the tallest building in Washington DC.
