(suspenseful piano chord) - The Washington Monument,
what the hell is this thing? (suspenseful music) With all due respect of course,
let's take our memories back and imagine ourselves centuries ago as members of the Founding Fathers, or people who were fighting
in the Revolutionary War, and one guy says to some other people, hey, you know it's pretty cool, right, George Washington, we should build him a statue or something. Yeah fully, but like what are we gonna do? They ended up with this, hardly a statue, but definitely something
that makes an impression. Okay, we're kidding, a little bit, but the point is this; the Washington Monument,
whether you love it or hate it, is one of the most iconic
and memorable structures here in Washington D.C., if
not in the entire nation. Here are four things you
might not know about it: number one, the idea for what this would eventually become,
actually started brewing before Washington was elected President. It goes back to 1783. That conversation we had at the top, oh hey, Washington that's pretty cool. Yeah fully, let's build
something about it; that did happen way back in 1783, and the thing wasn't finished until 1888. That's when it officially opened
to the public, and spoiler, that's not what it was
supposed to look like. You can see how construction
came and went based on the different colors of the
stone used in the quarry. You'll see it's lighter at
the bottom, darker at the top, 'cause they paused for
so long in construction that they could not use
stone from the same quarry. Boom, number two: what was
it supposed to look like? This is a weird thing. All right, so originally the design was something called a pantheon. That's a sort of temple, non-Christian, that incorporates
different statues, right? You'll think of the idea
of a pantheon of gods for instance, in Greek or Roman mythology. So here was this concept of this temple laid out with
around 30 stone columns, different statues of figures
from the Revolutionary War, signers of the Declaration
of Independence, and then, atop of it,
there would be Washington like on a chariot with horses and stuff, and (laughs) then there would
be this 600 foot obelisk, this thing rising from
the center of the temple, which bring us to point number
three; what's an obelisk? Why an obelisk? We don't have an obelisk for Lincoln. We don't have a Martin Luther
King obelisk, so what gives? Well, it is true that George
Washington was a Freemason, and you see some of these sorts of symbols in other Masonic architecture, sure; but an obelisk is a very old design. It dates all the way back
to builders in ancient Egypt who referred to it as a tekhenu, and this is usually found at the entrance or associated with temples,
again ancient temples; we're talking ancient religion. I mean we're not talking like Eldritch Lovecraftian Cthulhu stuff; Age of Man for sure, but
Age of Ancient Civilization. Boom, number four; okay, so if
you are at the very top there at the apex of the Washington Monument, let's say you're parachuting down, having one of those
National Treasure moments, you and Nick Cage or whatever,
and you land on the monument, and you just grab the very top
of it, at the summit there; you'll find an aluminum
cap, but this is no ordinary aluminum capstone, no,
in fact it has writing on each of the four directions
around it, and on the east facing side, there is a
phrase, just a phrase. The other three sides have dedications like you would expect, the architects, the other people involved; but this one, the eastern facing side,
only has a two word phrase, Laus Deo, the translation
being praise be to God, and for a lot of people,
this is an interesting thing, especially considering it's an obelisk, and considering we're supposed to be part of a different kind of temple, at the very least an homage
to an earlier religion, and even deifying in some
ways the Founding Fathers. So as you walk up this structure, at the various landings
you will see dedications, prayers from other places,
other states and stuff. This is actually a very
religious building, when you think about it,
and that's one of the things that a lot of people don't know. Oh, the last thing about it, when it was originally
part of this temple, it was gonna be 600 feet tall. When construction was
completed, it was open to the public 1888, it was 555 feet tall, and this doesn't even get
into the original plans, the statue of George Washington
in a toga, true story; that was gonna be the monument. That statue was made; it was
unpopular with the public, but it's still around today. Thanks for watching You can find more on Washington, the city and the guy here
represented by an obelisk, and Freemasons, if you
check out our channel. Also, check out our audio podcasts where we go more in depth on everything from UFO abductions to
government cover-ups. (suspenseful piano chord)
