The Beautiful Things of Washington, DC

Our latest play Guards at the Taj is about (duh) the Taj Mahal, a world-famous symbol of beauty and a testament to the power of human ingenuity, with a fascinating history of its own. It got us thinking about the monuments of DC — and how little we really know about them! We did a little research, and we want to share a few fun facts we learned.

The Washington Monument

1. Architect Robert Mills designed the first (but ultimately scrapped) plan for the monument, which featured a pantheon decked out with a classically-inspired statue of George Washington in a horse-drawn chariot. Oh yeah, and 30 statues of other founding fathers. That’s a lot of chiseled marble.
2. The cornerstone ceremony in 1848 was quite an affair, including a two-hour oration delivered by Speaker of the House Robert C. Winthrop, and a Freemason ceremony using George Washington’s Masonic gavel, apron and sash. In attendance were 15,000 to 20,000 people, and a bald eagle (it’s true!).
3. At the time of its dedication in 1885, The Washington Monument was the world’s tallest building, standing at 555 feet, 5 inches tall. The soon-to-be-built Eiffel Tower, coming in at a whopping 986 feet, surpassed it upon its completion in 1889.
4. When the Washington National Monument Society asked for ceremonial stone donations, Pope Pius IX donated a memorial stone of marble. The rabidly anti-Catholic Know Nothing Party, a major political force at the time, was not amused.
5. There are many other “Washington Monuments.” In Boonsboro, Maryland, there’s a 34-foot-tall stone tower dedicated to Washington dating back to 1872. There’s also a Washington Monument in Baltimore featuring a 178-foot-high column finished in 1829.

The Lincoln Memorial

1. Daniel Chester French designed the statue of Lincoln, which was built by a family of Tuscan marble carvers known as the Piccirilli Brothers. The Piccirillis are responsible for the Roman-influenced aspects of the monument, including the bundles of wood on which Lincoln’s arms are resting.
2. Meanwhile, architect Henry Bacon designed the surrounding building with Greek influences in mind, modeling his design after the Parthenon. Bacon reportedly felt that “a memorial to the man who defended democracy should be modeled after a structure from the birthplace of democracy.”
3. Speaker of the House Joe Cannon disapproved of the proposed design and location for the monument, which he felt were unworthy of Lincoln. “So long as I live,” he once told Secretary of War Elihu Root, “I’ll never let a memorial to Abraham Lincoln be erected in that god damned swamp.”
4. Only 60% of the monument is actually above-ground: the foundation extends 66 feet into the earth at its deepest point to support the weight of the marble structure.
5. Among those present to observe the Lincoln Memorial’s official dedication in May 1922 was a 78-year-old Robert Todd Lincoln, the only surviving son of the former president, who had visited the site during construction.

The Jefferson Memorial

1. The Jefferson Memorial’s 26 pillars represent the number of states in existence at the time of Jefferson’s death.
2. The Commission of Fine Arts objected to the initial plan for the monument, with its pantheon-style designs, fearing it would look too much like the Lincoln Memorial. President Roosevelt, however, preferred the pantheon design and gave his permission for construction on the memorial to proceed.
3. Marble from four different states was used in the construction of the memorial. The marble came from Missouri, Georgia, Tennessee and Vermont.
4. The interior of the memorial contains a 19-foot statue of Thomas Jefferson, intentionally facing the White House. Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, which he authored, can be found on the southwest interior wall.
5. The original statue of Thomas Jefferson in the Jefferson Memorial was made of plaster, because metal was rationed during World War II. After the war, it was replaced with the 19-foot-tall bronze statue that stands today.