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Washington Monument At 125

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NPS PHOTO

The Washington Monument.



Join the National Park Service as we celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Washington Monument's completion and dedication.

In 1783, George Washington resigned his commission after having led Continental forces to victory in the American Revolution.  The Continental Congress resolved to honor him with a monument at the future seat of the new national government. In 1790 the Residence Act provided that President Washington appoint a designer for the new federal city. Peter L’Enfant’s 1791 plan made the monument the city’s centerpiece.

It took until 1836 for a Washington National Monument Society to select Robert Mills’s architectural design, an obelisk with a pantheon of the Founding Fathers. The Society laid the cornerstone of the obelisk in 1848 but vicissitudes including the Civil War interrupted progress until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took over and completed the structure in 1884.

In 2010 we celebrate the 125th anniversary of the dedication of the Washington Monument on February 21, 1885. Be sure to visit the Washington Monument and talk to National Park Service interpretive staff to find out more about George Washington, the Revolutionary War, and the Washington Monument’s architects and memorial stones.   


Click HERE for a full schedule of events throughout National Mall and Memorial Parks.