The Washington Monument Is Made of Three Shades of Stone

Look closely at the Washington Monument and you can see that it is not one even color. The U.S. National Park Service explains why. Construction began as a private effort in 1848. By 1854 the monument had reached 156 feet above ground, but the society building it had always struggled to raise money, and a change in its leadership drove it to bankruptcy that year. Congress’s attempts to help failed as attention turned to the crisis between the states and then the Civil War. Work did not resume until 1876, now as a public project. When it did, problems quickly emerged with the quality and color of the stone, and with irregular deliveries. The Park Service states that the stone never matched exactly, and that the three slightly different colors from the three quarries are distinguishable today.