The National Park Service has determined that the Washington Monument will be closed indefinitely, a result of the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that caused structural damage that must be corrected.
Never before seen video, shot from three interior security cameras, shows visitors scrambling down shaking stairwells amid falling debris.
A block-by-block inspection of the exterior by a team of engineers will begin Tuesday, September 27. They will undertake a rappelling operation, harnessed to small seats hung from ropes that will allow them to move around the exterior. A mountaineering and rope-rigging ranger was brought in from Denali National Park in Alaska to train engineers and oversee the operation.
Each stone is numbered, and engineers will be using small hammers to tap on each stone to determine the soundness of each based on a definitive sound that will identify weak spots.
The interior inspection is already complete, with the worst damage in the pyramidium, the pyramid-shaped top of the structure. In that area, daylight is visible at a number of the vertical joints where mortar is missing.
Because of the wide cracks at the top of the structure, water from subsequent rain storms has caused additional damage.
Check out the video below–providing footage from three different cameras, with slight pauses between:
Photo: WENN