"To the Immortal Name and Memory of George Washington": The United States Corps of Engineers and the Construction of the Washington Monument

by Louis Torres

The Washington Monument is one of the most easily recognized structures in America, if not the world, yet the long and tortuous history of its construction is much less well known. Beginning with its sponsorship by the Washington National Monument Society and the grudging support of a largely indifferent Congress, the Monument's 1848 groundbreaking led only to a truncated obelisk, beset by attacks by the Know Nothing Party and lack of secured funding and, from the mid-1850s, to a twenty-year interregnum. It was only 1n 1876 that a Joint Commission of Congress revived the Monument and entrusted its completion to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In "To the Immortal Name and Memory of George Washington" The United States Corps of Engineers and the Construction of the Washington Monument, historian Louis Torres tells the fascinating story of the Monument, with a particular focus on the efforts of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey, Captain George W. Davis, and civilian Corps employee Bernard Richardson Green and the details of how they completed the construction of this great American landmark. The book also includes a discussion and images of the various designs, some of them incredibly elaborate compared to the austere simplicity of the original, and an account of Corps stewardship of the Monument up to its takeover by the National Park Service in 1933. First published in 1985. 148 pages, ill.

156 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Dru · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched and documented account of the history of the construction of the Washington Monument. Written in 1985, 100 years after completion, by a historian of the Corps of Engineers. Plenty of details for WaMo nerds like me, but still not enough to satiate my desire for the Atlas Obscura type details I need. Good deets on the lightning protection system, but no mention of the mini-monument. Good deets on the foundation repair, but no mention of the 1958 upgrade of the aircraft warning system from red-lights-in-the-windows to the double-red-lights-above-the-windows system.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A meticulous accounting of the many missteps in the long, convoluted history of this iconic American monument.