Washington Monument Reopens (UPI)
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22–The American flags encircling the memorial snapped in the wind. Children and adults of all colors and sizes walked and talked; some waited in line Friday to check out the new renovations to the Washington Monument while others wandered up to the concrete circle infested with reporters.
After more than four years of renovation and two years of being closed to the public, the monument reopened for business, rekindling a means of absorbing history that visitors and residence of the district have missed.
The United States is “very slowly getting back to normal,” and having the monument closed has “taken a lot away from Washington,” said Ruth, an onlooker who declined to reveal her last name. In town with her husband, the Buffalo, N.Y.-native was a ticket-holder of the sold-out admissions tour.
Raised in Washington, Rob Minor, who said he doesn’t recall ever having gone in the monument, agreed with Ruth: With the Washington Memorial closed, “you close off the story of history … history is shut down.”
Others in the crowd said Sept. 11 prompted their new interest in American history.
The monument “probably means a little more for us now because I used to not appreciate it as much,” said Amir, 13, who is visiting Washington for the first time with his Winnequah Middle School classmates from Wisconsin. “Sept. 11 kind of woke me up a lot.”
At 1 p.m. the ceremony began. Over a microphone, Fran Mainella, director of the National Park Service, called the monument a “symbol of freedom,” and noted that Friday marked the 270th birthday of George Washington.
Mainella mentioned the importance of tourism to Washington’s economic stability in the wake of Sept. 11, where 189 people were killed when a hijacked plane was flown into the Pentagon by terrorists.
She was joined by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and Washington Mayor Anthony Williams.
“We’ve seen what’s happened on Sept. 11,” Williams said, “and we’re rising to the challenge of opening our major public facilities, and rising to the challenge of showing that we are an open people, we’re not a coward people, and that the Washington monument will also be open to visitors and tourists alike.”
The ceremony concluded when Washington elementary school children Dayanira Hough and Tytianna Burns, with broad smiles on their faces, helped cut the red, white and blue ribbon, signifying the official reopening of the monument.
People clapped and cheered, and park rangers walked the first group of children into the memorial.
“It is one of our most historic national icons,” Chief of Resource Management Stephen Lorenzetti said. “It’s truly a measure of how our democracy works and what it represents. George Washington was the first person to turn down absolute power,” said Lorenzetti. “The peaceful transfer of power … is so much more important now to be remembered with what happened in September.”
When the first group of elementary school children emerged from the memorial, some acted dazed by the crowd while others yelped, smiled and boasted of the buildings they saw when they peered over the city at the top of the memorial.
“I would give it a 10,” said Nick Kelley, 12, a visiting student from Heath, Ohio.
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
