CBS Sunday Morning Almanac: "On This Day in 1888: Washington Monument Opens"

CBS SUNDAY morning Almanac: “On this day in 1888: washington monument opens to the public”

“CBS Sunday Morning” and Charles Osgood brought us back to October 9, 1888 when the Washington Monument officially opened to the public on the National Mall.

While construction initially began on the Washington Monument in 1848, funding problems prevented it from being completed for many more years than initially planned. It a combination of fundraising efforts of regular citizens, and their donations, and government support that made the Washington Monument a testament to private-public partnership that rises 555 feet above the National Mall today. The iconic structure was completed in 1885 and opened to the public in 1888.

“President James Knox Polk laid the first cornerstone way back on July 4, 1848. But because of funding problems and the Civil War, the monument wasn’t finished and dedicated until February 1885, three and a half years before it was open to the public.”

- Charles Osgood, “CBS Sunday Morning Almanac”

Did you know that nearly every monument and memorial on the National Mall was created in part through private donations? Private philanthropy has made the iconic landscape that we know as the National Mall possible, and philanthropy is key to preserving, restoring and elevating this treasured space for generations. Federal funding alone is not enough. The Trust for the National Mall is the leading, nonprofit partner of the National Park Service to help leverage private funding to help tell our American story and create a vibrant and engaging future for the National Mall.

You can make a gift to support our work and ensure that America’s Front Yard remains vibrant…for generations to come.

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