Washington’s Monument Design Changed from Grandiose to Simple Style

Congress approved a design and money in 1845 to build a monument to George Washington. The monument would be placed in a prestigious part of the U.S. Capitol to honor the commander of the Continental Army that defeated King James III’s superior British force during the Revolutionary War. In 1783, Washington was elected the country’s first president.

Nine years after Congress approved the building of the Washington Monument, construction stopped when money for the tribute ran out. After an extremely long delay, work resumed on a redesigned, simpler structure 25 years later in 1879.

George Washington and Robert Mills

Architect Robert Mills began the initial construction of a 600-foot obelisk that would be surrounded by a ring of 30 Romanesque columns. The base of the structure would resemble a pantheon or ancient temple-like building.

An obelisk is a tall, four-sided monument that tapers to a pyramid shape on top. Ancient Egyptians used the obelisk or spire to honor kings and military heroes. The idea of using obelisks as tributes spread to ancient Greek and Roman societies.  

Mills planned to carve a huge statue of Washington driving a horse-drawn chariot that would be housed inside the temple-like base. The overall design was very grandiose and extremely ornate.

The decades of delays after initial funding stopped included the country’s four-year Civil War that came and went. The war years dominated the country’s expenses, making the monument a low priority as it languished in its unfinished state. The long delay that showed no progress on the project encouraged criticisms from citizens and from at least one national celebrity.

Samuel Clemmons visited the abandoned construction site in 1868. Clemmons (a.k.a. Mark Twain) called the partly built tower an “ungainly old chimney.” He wrote newspaper articles in which he demanded that the monument should be completed or torn down. Work finally resumed in 1879 after Congress, still recovering from the financial drain of the U.S. Civil War, provided the funds needed to complete the monument.

Congressional members decided to skip the ornate temple and statue of Washington. The nation’s law makers declared that the architect’s plans to carve a large image of Washington driving a horse and chariot could be interpreted as representing a Roman emperor. Instead, people in control of financing the monument concentrated on the obelisk without any statures. That made the monument an understated and elegant tribute to the first president.

Mills argued that the redesigned obelisk looked, in his words, like a large “stalk of asparagus.” Against Mill’s objections, the Washington Monument was completed in a much simpler form. The obelisk was capped in 1884. At 555 feet, five and 1/8th inches, it became the tallest structure in the world.

Cost of the 40-year project that began 1848 to its official opening in October 1888 was slightly more than $1.4 million. That’s $3.5 hundred million in today’s money. The construction used more than 36,000 granite and marble blocks.

Approximately 10,000 marble blocks are visible on the outside of the obelisk. The final marble blocks came from a different stone quarry that yielded darker stones. That’s why the monument shows two shades of blocks; lighter colors are in the lower half and darker marble is visible in the top half of the spire.