The following is a post we’ve shared from our other Petrillo Stone website:

In August 2011, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake rocked Washington D.C. and caused over 150 structural cracks to the 130-year-old Washington Monument. At 555 feet tall, the stone symbol required extensive, careful repair that cost around $15 million. In fact, teams worked on scaffolding for nearly 1,000 days to better work stone by stone.

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Construction of the Washington Monument began in 1848 to honor our nation’s first president. On July 4th of that year, a team began to assemble the 80-foot square step pyramid foundation made of blue gneiss. They then used a system of pulleys to create a marble, obelisk structure roughly 156 feet off the ground by 1854. After architect Robert Mills died in 1855, the monument remained half finished for almost two decades. Building resumed in 1876, although builders had issues finding matching stone and incorporated stone and marble from three different quarries. Actually, three distinct stone patterns can still be seen by the naked eye today…

For the full post, visit PetrilloStone.net.