September 29, 2011 Washington Monument Engineers
 

On August 23, an earthquake hit the Mid-Atlantic region. It was fairly big by East Coast standards, and it caused moderate damage to the Washington Monument. The Monument is basically just a bunch of blocks stacked on top of one another, reaching 555 feet high, and is not really designed to withstand earthquakes. It has been closed since the earthquake for safety reasons and a perimeter around the base is now fenced off.

The National Park Service is hoping to re-open the monument one day, but first it must inspect each and every block and joint on the exterior. The mortar between the stone blocks is relatively soft compared to the blocks themselves and much of the mortar between the joints fell out during the quake. With winter coming, the worry is that water will get into the damaged joints, freeze, and damage the blocks even more.

Enter the "difficult access team" from engineering firm Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates. These 4 engineers, hired by the NPS, are repelling down each face of the monument, cataloging the damage and doing emergency weatherization.

I just had to take a walk over there on my lunch hour and snap some pictures. There were around 100 people doing the same thing.
http://cellar.org/2011/glattmonument1.jpg

We need to zoom out a little for some perspective.
http://cellar.org/2011/glattmonument2.jpg

Here you can see one of the engineers actually working on the joint under a broken marble block.
http://cellar.org/2011/glattmonument3.jpg

Nicely done sir!

"We've secretly replaced George's safety harness with new Folger's Crystals... let's see what he thinks!"

those blocks look like they're the same proportions as a domino, a large rectangle, relatively thin for its area.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing none of them fell off during the quake. I guess they are wedged in there pretty tight.

I really could have used a pair of binoculars, but one thing I could see was that each one of these guys had a bucket clipped to them. I think they were removing loose mortar chunks and putting them in their bucket to bring them inside and down the stairs rather than drop them to the sidewalk below.

Also, they had dropped ropes down the sides of the monument, but for some of them, the ropes didn't reach the ground and were a good 50 feet from the ground. Not much use. Although now that I think of it, the ropes were also looped inside the windows just below them, so maybe there was enough slack there to account for reaching the ground.

You know, I've never really paid attention. What's the Washington Monument used for? Is that how we communicate with the space aliens?

No capital city is complete without a generous supply of giant dicks.

Wow! Great pics!

My first impression was "Cool, we have our own pyramid."

Then I wondered how in the world they got the ropes on the top of the point. That was some lassoing job!

There was a short article in the paper this morning. Some interesting tidbits:
-of the 4 engineers, there were 2 men and 2 women
-they carried iPads containing all the relevant data from the big renovation done about a decade ago
-they carried digital cameras to document everything, (and I saw them taking each other's pictures.)
-they carried rubber mallets for tapping on each block to listen for any hollow sounds that might indicate hidden cracks
-they also had a small collection of trowels and other masonry tools

I wouldn't do that job for all the money in the world.
It's making my flesh creep just looking.

Fascinating though. Great thread, Glatt.

Me neither. Can you walk inside anything?

I would. If I'd been born with gumption and mettle, I could've pursued such a career. I love heights, I love thrilly stuff, I'm fearless, I have good eye/hand coordination. :p:

I bet they make beaucoup bucks, too.

Good job! I can't remember an IOTD actually generated by an IOTD'er.

I've been there and wore myself out walking DOWN the stairs.

"Not really designed to withstand earthquakes." What an understatement.

I'm amazed it did, but there has to be more than just "stacking" involved.

I could hardly stand the inside of the Capitol dome. I can't imagine the outside of the Monument.

The only other IOTD I remember taken by one of us was

http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=7543

Whale Penis, by staceyv

nice job, glatt