The capstone of the Washington Monument is a 9-inch tall aluminum pyramid, placed on December 6, 1884, to finish the 555-foot obelisk. Aluminum was chosen because it was as valuable as silver at the time due to the difficulty in refining. At the time it was the largest piece of cast aluminum ever made.
Two years later, newly discovered industrial processes brought the price of aluminum down to earth but the original capstone is still there.
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My father was a union electrician working in the DC area and one of his jobs was replacing the red flashing aircraft avoidance lights on Washington Monument back in the 60’s. He worked of temporary scaffolding outside the top of the monument. One day he bought home a small chunk of the stonework that he had to remove for the job and gave it to me. Well, it’s been lost through the annals of time but I had a piece of it for a while when I was a kid. The top of the monument is 555 feet tall. Probably some kind of Masonic meaning to that.
Good story! I wonder if there is significance to the 555 feet height..
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