Who build Washington monument?

Answer 1

In 1832, which marked the 100th anniversary of Washington's birth, a large group of concerned citizens formed the Washington National Monument Society. In 1836, after they had raised $28,000 in donations ($600,000 in 2010 dollars), they announced a competition for the design of the memorial. The winner was the architect Robert Mills, who had just been chosen Architect of Public Buildings for Washington, D.C. Construction occurred in two stages. The initial construction started in 1848 and continued until 1854, when donations ran out. The monument had reached less than one third of its current height by then. Squabbles over the design and cost of the monument as well as over who could donate stones for the construction halted the project until after the conclusion of the Civil War. In 1876, the Centennial of the Declaration of Independence, Congress agreed to appropriate another $200,000 to resume construction. After a few more years of discussion, the design was altered to eliminate a proposed colonnade and the current design was agreed upon. Construction resumed in 1879 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the aluminum cap/lightning rod was placed on December 6, 1884 to complete the monument. Actual construction work was performed by engineers, masons, and construction workers hired by the Washington National Monument Society to perform the work.