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The Washington Monument remained incomplete while the capital city grew up around it
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The Washington Monument Was Completed
December 6, 1884
The Washington National Monument Society laid the monument's cornerstone on Independence Day, 1848, 36 years before completion. But when the obelisk was a height of about 156 feet, the Society lost support and funding. The monument stood incomplete and untouched for 20 years. Finally, in 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to finish the project. When fully constructed, it was the world's tallest structure. Today, the approximately 36,000-stacked blocks of granite and marble compose the world's tallest freestanding masonry structure. But there's even more trivia to top that!
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