Washington Monument

At 555 feet high, the Washington Monument is said to be the tallest obelisk in the world. It was built to commemorate George Washington, the first president of the USA, though it wasn’t completed until 89 years after his death. The original plan was to have him occupy a tomb in Washington, but his and his family’s resistance to this prevailed. George Washington died in 1799, two years after his presidency, at his home, Mount Vernon, the morning after a cold winter ride all over the plantation in freezing rain. His wife Martha fought to keep his body at Mount Vernon, in a vault where she eventually joined him. The federal government continued to try to lure his remains to the capital, and even built a tomb chamber for him at the Capitol, which is still there, and still empty. In 1831, 31 years after he died, a new and bigger tomb at Mount Vernon, which Washington himself had requested in his will, was finally ready, in time for his 100th birthday. Meanwhile plans for the Washington Monument continued to evolve. A cornerstone was laid in 1848, but the construction was delayed and intermittent, and the official opening wouldn't occur for another 40 years.