Washington Monument Closed for Elevator Repairs

The Washington Monument will be closed until further notice as crews work to repair a damaged elevator box.

The box was damaged by a contractor working on an unrelated issue, according to WTOP.

No opening date will be set until repairs are evaluated, but the popular tourist attraction will likely be closed until early next week, at the earliest.

In a statement, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said she was worried about continued trouble at the monument, and elevator issues, in particular.

“There is a loss of revenue to the District’s significant tourist economy whenever visitors cannot enter the Monument,” she wrote. “I will request a meeting with NPS officials to discuss their investigation.”

Closed for more than two years, the monument required $15 million in repairs after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit the East Coast on Aug. 23, 2011. It The reopened in May 2014.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton:

“The NPS has been in contact with my office concerning the closing of the Washington Monument until early next week. I appreciate that NPS is conducting a thorough investigation of the cause of the elevator outage. However, I am concerned that this latest breakdown of the most important elevator in the nation’s capital should not become the continuation of a trend that we have seen since the elevator reopened in 2014 following major efforts to repair damages from the 2011 earthquake, and again last summer during the peak of the summer tourism season. There is a loss of revenue to the District’s significant tourist economy whenever visitors cannot enter the Monument. I will request a meeting with NPS officials to discuss their investigation. I will inquire not only about the circumstances surrounding the latest break down, but also about related issues about whether the contractor that apparently caused damage to the elevator control box while conducting unrelated work is the prime contractor responsible for the elevator when it has gone down since the Monument’s rehabilitation, who is responsible for the maintenance of the facility, the approximate number of visitors expected during the time period of this closure based on past records, and steps NPS plans to take to prevent a shutdown in the future.”