Washington Monument
The world's tallest stone structure on a live webcam, with a 23-year pause written into its marble.
About this view
At 555 feet and five inches, the Washington Monument is the tallest stone structure in the world and the tallest obelisk ever built. It is marble, granite and gneiss, just over 55 feet square at the base, and this live webcam keeps it in frame around the clock.
Look about 150 feet up and the stone changes colour. That line is where construction stopped for 23 years, funding collapsed, then the Civil War intervened, and when masons resumed they were cutting from different quarries. The join has never blended, and it is the detail most visitors miss from the ground.
Eastern time, UTC−5. Dawn and dusk do the most for it, when low light rakes the marble and the colour break stands out. The Fourth of July puts fireworks directly behind it.
