On August 23, 2011, an earthquake caused damage to the Washington Monument. Last year, the National Park Service installed scaffolding to conduct restoration work. After the work was completed, the scaffolding began to come down at a steady pace until a cold snap in early January.
For the past few weeks, the cold weather has frozen the scaffolding in place exactly at the level at which the Washington Monument construction stopped during the American Civil War era. You can see the change in the coloration of the stones just above the scaffolding where the work stopped for about twenty years. The height of the scaffolding illustrates how tall the monument was during the Civil War.
I antiqued this photo to evoke the Civil War connection.
@davydo Thanks, Dave. The Canada geese have apparently made DC their winter quarters this year. I see them en masse at various locations and at different times on the Mall and over by Arlington Cemetery.
@taffy Thanks, Taffy. I thought so too. I walked over yesterday to take the scaffolding picture and was surprised to see the field full of geese. They made an unusual addition to the photo.
