The Washington Monument, designed by Robert Mills and eventually completed by Thomas Casey and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, honors and memorializes George Washington at the center of the nation's capital. The structure was completed in two phases of construction, one private (1848-1854) and one public (1876-1884). In 1853, without funds, work on the monument slowed to a halt. For more than two decades, the monument stood only partly finished, doing more to embarrass the nation than to honor its most important Founding Father. Congressional attempts to support the Washington National Monument Society failed as attention turned toward the sectional crisis, then the Civil War. Only as the nation was rebuilding did attention once again turn toward honoring the man who had once united the states in a common purpose.

Source: National Park Service