Team of Two Men and Two Women Inspect Washington Monument

A team of two men and two women prepared to descend the four faces of the Washington Monument on Wednesday morning to search for cracks in the landmark's marble.

The team of two architects and two civil engineers will descend the monument in unison, and check each stone individually for damage.

The progress of their work hinges on the weather.  Forecasters call for thunderstorms early and late on Wednesday.

“We fully intend that the Washington monument will be restored to its full grandeur and will reopen to the public,” National Parks spokesperson Bill Line said on Wednesday morning.  “What we cannot tell you is any sort of reliable time frame.”

In a briefing, Line said that the four climbers will remove the lightning rods from the top of the monument so they are not damaged by the climbers' ropes.

The four climbers are all employees of the WJE architectural firm contracted to perform the survey of the Monument’s damage.  They will all ascend to the top of the pyramidium, and then slowly descend their ropes in unison, checking for damage to the stone.

The Park Service documented the condition of each stone between 1999 and 2000, when scaffolding went up around the Monument.  The climbers will carry iPads in order to check the conditions of the stone against the previous records.

In addition to iPads, climbers are equipped with masonry tools, a soft mallet to perform inspections, digital cameras, and two-way radios.

Carol Johnson, a spokesperson for the National Mall, said that the climbers would take 1 hour to gear up before performing the inspection.  She said the team is “chomping at the bit to get on the wall.”

The team can conduct their survey during rain, but will come down if lightning or winds over 20 miles per hour threaten.

The ropes for the climbers are anchored to a beam inside the monument.  The Park Service was careful to emphasize that no holes had been drilled into the exterior of the monument.

The four climbers that will perform the survey are: Erik Sohn, 33, architectural engineer, Emma Cardini, 32, a civil engineer, Daniel A. Gach, 35, architect, and Katie Francis, 27 a civil engineer.