The Washington Monument was completed in 1884. The obelisk honors George Washington, the Continental Army commander and first president of the United States.
Construction began in 1848, but work stopped for more than two decades because of financial problems, political disputes, and the Civil War. The monument’s distinctive color change marks the point where construction resumed after the interruption. The Army Corps of Engineers completed the upper section under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey.
The monument was topped with an aluminum cap on December 6, 1884, and it was dedicated on February 21, 1885. At 555 feet 5 1/8 inches, it was then the world’s tallest building or structure, depending on the comparison used.
The monument opened to the public in 1888. Its completion came more than a century after Washington led the Revolutionary War and more than 90 years after his death, making it a later national memorial rather than a monument from the founding era itself.