Washington Monument fucked up
Serious cracks, some of which may threaten the actual structure, it looks like.
I’ve been up in it, at night, and it’s wonderful. Very wonderful. I used to have pictures north, south, east and west from there, but my ex has those now. I loved it. I loved how the inside was full of comemmorative stones that were sent there by states, organiztions, individuals.
I hope it gets fixed, safely, and properly. I hate to think that anything would happen to it.
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The fissures at the crown look very worrisome. It one thing to build scaffolding as you lay the blocks; another, when you’re worried if they’ll shear off onto you. That’s going to be the Queen Mother of repair jobs.
This is not the same world as when the monument was built, not the same people.
I see no reason to think it will be repaired any faster than the rebuilding being done at the World Trade Center. In other words… years of time and billions of dollars, for nothing.
An omen?
Used to be able to just barely see it from my barracks window @ WRMC … Walter Reed Medical Center. (which btw had a brand spanking new state-o’-the-art hospital when i was there circa 1980)
This makes me think of the TV series “The Event”.
“I hate to think that anything would happen to it. ”
Isn’t that usually preceded by “Nice business you have here”?
OH! The “Washington Monument Defense.” Of course. (Hey it’s 3:20 AM and I did see it only a bit delayed.)
I’ve never been, but it seems a shame to have it damaged so. Even though the Nat’l Park Service gets very little money for the Mall area, I’m sure this will be repaired ASAP, seeing as it bring a huge amount of tourism and revenue to the city.
Pascal: I was completely sincere in my post, but I can see how this might be used as a political tool, as it has been in the past.
The odd thing is that the buildings in the national capital region are not on a schedule of regular inspection by structural engineers looking for cracks. So an even like this comes along and suddenly, we find cracks everywhere and they all get chalked up to the Earthquake. No one know how many were there before, caused by accumulated freeze-thaw over many years.
An excellent point and probably quite true. The Washington monument cracks, though, are in fact very new. You never used to see light on the inside of the damned thing through cracks
You can visit the similar San Jacinto Monument if you’re ever in the Houston, Texas area. The battleship USS Texas is there, too, but is pitifully neglected.