Note 58 — THE ADDITION TO THE CAPITOL

The Washington monument here mentioned had been begun in 1848. Work was continued, by State and other donations, until 1855, when it was abandoned until 1877. But as the unfinished condition of the shaft was felt to be a sort of national disgrace, its construction was resumed in the last-named year, under a Congressional appropriation, and steadily pushed forward until the completion of the noble obelisk in 1884, at a total cost of $1,300,000. It is built of white Maryland marble, and is 555 feet high—the loftiest masonry construction in the world, though much surpassed in height by the steel Eiffel Tower in Paris.