washing tonite

[After Washington, Connecticut, where found; suff. -ite ( Min.).] Min.: A variety of Men acc a nite (q. v.). Wash'-Ing-ton Mon-ü-ment, s. A magnificent monument erected by the American people, in honor of George Washington. It stands in the Mall, a public park on the banks of the Potomac and Tiber Creek, Washington City. The corner-stone was laid by President Polk, July 4, 1848, and December 6, 1884, the cap-stone was set in position. The foundations are 126% feet square and 36 feet 8 inches deep. The base of the monument is 55 feet 11⁄2 inches square, and the walls 15 feet 1⁄2 inch thick. At the 500 foot mark, where the pyramidal top begins, the shaft is 34 feet 51⁄2 inches square and the walls are 18 inches thick. The monument is made of blocks of marble two feet thick, and it is said there are over 18,000 of them. The height above the ground is 555 feet. The pyramidal top terminates in an aluminum tip, which is 9 inches high and weighs 100 ounces. The mean pre ure of the monument is 5 tons per square foot, and the total weight, foundation and all, is nearly 81,000 tons. The door at the base, facing the capitol, is 8 feet wide and 16 feet high, and enters a room 25 feet square. An immense iron framework supports the machinery of the elevator, which is hoisted with steel wire ropes two inches thick. At one side begin the stairs, of which there are fifty flights, containing eighteen steps each. Five hundred and twenty feet from the base there are eight windows, 18x24 inches, two on each face. The area at the base of the pyramidal top is 1,1874 feet, space enough for a sixroom house, each room to be 12x16 feet. The Cologne Cathedral is 525 feet high; the pyramid of Cheops, 486; Strasburg Cathedral, 474; St. Peter's, at Rome, 448; the capitol at Washington, 306, and Bunker Hill monument, 221 feet. The Washington monument is the highest monument in the world; total cost, $1,500,000.