The Washington Monument

See Sara in front of the Washington monument, isn't she pretty! We learned on our way up to the top of the obelisk that during the construction, the Army Corps of Engineers asked all states and countries to donate a chunk of stone to the project with thoughts about George Washington inscribed upon them to be used as building materials. There was great response to the plea, and you can see the stones' inscriptions at certain points as you look out the elevator on the way to the top. In the pictues with Sara you can see that about a third of the way up the monument the color of the stone changes. This is because there was a 25 year halt to construction during the Civil War (and after due to lack of funds and disagreement about the ultimate design). When construction began again, a sufficient amount of the same stone couldn't be found, so a similar type of a slightly darker color was used instead. We loved seeing the Washington monument from the plane as we flew into the Reagan airport.

Yeah, so I'm a big fan of tall buildings, so I have to insert this little nugget of information: The Washington monument filled the position of world's tallest structure from 1884 until 1889, when the title was stolen by the Eiffel Tower. Just to put the difference of heights into perspective, the Eiffel tower is 300 meters, which is nearly double the height of the Washington Monument(169 meters). Any tall building fan is peeing his or her pants with excitement as we watch the Burj Dubai in construction, as it will top out as the world's tallest building at 605 meters - double the Eiffel Tower's height. Pretty darn cool!

Yeah, so the other picture is me next to the Smithsonian Castle. This bulding houses the administrative offices of the Smithsonian Institute. It was designed by the same architect who did St. Patrick's Catehdral in New York City.