Washington Monument restoration celebrated

With the Lincoln Memorial in the background, visitors walk to the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on Sunday

Improvements nearly complete; tourists to be allowed inside starting July 31

July 3, 2000
Web posted at: 10:49 p.m. EDT (0249 GMT)

In this story: 'We honor this place by taking care of it' Improvements made RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With the three-year face lift of the Washington Monument nearly complete, a restoration celebration was held Monday -- the eve of the nation's 224th birthday -- on the grounds of the popular attraction. But tourists will have to wait another four weeks to go inside.

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The scaffolding that covered the monument has been taken down, signifying that outside repairs are finished on the 555-foot marble and granite obelisk.

Inside, though, there's still a little more work to do.

The National Park Service has promised a reopening July 31, but the monument will close again in December for another two months. A new elevator cab will be installed before the $10 million restoration job is complete.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt was joined at Monday's ceremony by officials from the National Park Service and Target Stores.

Target donated $2.5 million and helped raise another $4 million for the renovations.

"We honor this place by taking care of it," Babbitt said.

Singer Amy Grant performed "America the Beautiful," and the U.S. Air Force Band played a new arrangement of the "Washington Waltz," composed by Julia Maedel around the time of the monument's dedication in 1885.

The restoration work -- even the much-admired blue and white scaffolding -- was designed and supervised by architect Michael Graves.

"You can imagine when Target and the National Park Service called me and said, 'Would you be willing to design scaffolding?' I had to think maybe this wasn't the best job in the world," he joked at the ceremony.

But Graves said the importance of the project and his admiration for Robert Mills, the Washington Monument's original designer, persuaded him to take the job.

"I thought, what a great opportunity to do something on the heels of Robert Mills, one of my heroes, and also to try to not cover it up," Graves said. "The last thing we wanted to do is hide the monument (during the restoration)."

The improvements have included:

• Repairing damage to the structure from time and weather.

• Improving the heating, air-conditioning and electrical systems.

• Replacing the observation windows.

• Installing a new lightning protection system.

• Restoring more than 190 commemorative stones in the building's interior.

"The elevator cab has lots of glass, so that you will be able to see the commemorative stones," Graves told CNN prior to Monday's ceremony.

"Most people don't know there are such objects inside the monument, but during the construction of the monument, various individuals, states (and) organizations contributed ... to the building of the monument, and their names are on these stones," he explained.

One of the capital's main tourist attractions, the monument -- built in honor of George Washington, the nation's first president -- normally draws more than a million visitors a year, with July 4 a peak day.

Correspondent Carl Rochelle contributed to this report.

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