Build Your Own Adventure: Stop at 156 Feet

About This Activity

Build Your Own Adventure: Washington Monument is an fun, online activity to learn more about what it took to build the Washington Monument. You choose what to do at each stage and discover the fascinating real-life twists and turns in the history of building this iconic monument to George Washington. 

Start at the beginning or continue with your adventure on this page. 

Proposed design for the Washington Monument incorporating the completed portion as a base for a statue

C. Seymour Dutton, National Archives

You Chose: Stop at 156 Feet

This is a reasonable choice. After all, for the past 20 years the monument has stood safely on its current foundation. Leaving it at its present height (156 feet) will almost certainly ensure that it will be ready for the nation's 100th birthday celebration in 1876. Some changes will be needed though. We can’t have the Washington Monument looking like a “hollow, over-sized chimney.”

There were many ideas proposed for what to do with the existing monument structure, including this suggestion by C. Seymour Dutton that the marble blocks could serve as a base for a statue of George Washington. It would be hard for a person to view the statue if it was up so high, though.

Activity

You have been assigned the job of figuring out what to do with the current monument if the height of the stack of marble blocks remains at 156 feet. Draw an illustration of your plan.

The committee rejects all of the proposals for a Washington Monument that is only 156 feet tall. The plan to finish the monument by 1876 is abandoned. That means that the only option is to fix the foundation.

Fix the Foundation