The Washington Monument Is Finally Reopening, Mashable Got a Sneak Peek Inside — mashable.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s been nearly three years since a 5.8-magnitude earthquake rattled through Washington, D.C., structurally damaging the iconic Washington Monument. It reopens on Monday to the public, marking a complete restoration of the world’s tallest stone structure and an iconic piece of architecture. Mashable was one of the first publications to get a look inside. Weighing 81,120 tons and standing 555 feet tall over the U.S. capital, there were approximately 665 linear feet of cracks to the granite and marble structure, 14,185 linear feet of repointing mortar joints, 132 dutchman repairs and hundreds of mortar patches that required repairing. According to the U.S. National Park Service, if you combined the total length of all the cracks caused by the earthquake, they would be 500 feet long — one crack alone was 4 feet long. In total, there are approximately 9,040 exterior stones
 and 10,746 interior stones.

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