And now it's time for Who Smarted?
Hey Smarty Pants.
Today I, your trusty narrator, am coming to you from the capital of the United States of America.
Do you know where that is?
Did you say Washington, D.C.?
Of course you did, Smarty Pants.
I've been pretty busy.
First, I took a tour of the White House, where the president lives.
Then I checked out the Capitol building, where Congress passes laws.
And now I'm headed to the mall.
Attention mall shoppers.
Free meat cake samples now available in the food court.
No, not a shopping mall.
The National Mall, home to what was once the tallest structure in the world.
Any guesses, smarty pants?
Did you say the Washington Monument?
And I'm going to the top until my fear of heights kicks in.
But first, let's marvel at it from the ground.
Standing 555 feet and 5 1⁄8 inches tall.
The Washington Monument is a truly majestic obelisk, by which I mean a giant four-sided stone pillar with a pyramid on top.
And if that wasn't enough, there's a reflecting pool in front of it to double the fun.
How awesome is that?
Meh, it's okay.
Who said that?
Clearly you're not a fan of George... Washington?
Is that you?
I cannot tell a lie.
It is I...
Um, what are you doing here?
I heard there were free meatcake samples at the mall.
I just hope I can chew them with my wooden teeth.
Right.
George, it's not that kind of mall.
But it is a national mall where an amazing monument has been constructed in your honor that you don't seem to be super thrilled with.
Meh.
Meh?
Meh?
But your monument is inspiring.
When it was constructed in 1884, it was the tallest structure in the world.
And it remained that way for five years.
It weighs as much as 400 Statues of Liberty.
You can see 30 miles in each direction from the top.
Yeah, yeah, I know all that.
It's just, it could have been so much more.
Did you know they had a contest where people submitted designs for the monument?
And the winning design was a lot fancier than this.
Really?
How so?
Well, for one thing, it was 50 feet taller.
And the obelisk was just one part of it.
There was going to be a Roman temple with 30 stone columns.
Between each column, there'd be a different signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Oh, that does sound cool.
That's not even the best part.
On top of the temple was going to be a statue of me driving a horse-drawn chariot.
Now that's what I call a monument.
So what happened?
It's a long story.
Well, Mr. President, I for one would love to hear it.
Plus, it's a great way to teach the smarty pants about your monument, like who built it and how.
Why did they suddenly stop building it for 25 years?
And what major mistake did the builders make that we can still see today?
Oops.
Get ready for another whiff of science and history on Who Smarted?
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Is it me?
Is it science or history?
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Okay George, I know you were a ghost at the time, but you must have been excited when you heard they were going to build a monument to honor you, right?
Of course.
It was 1833 and my friend, former President James Madison, had formed the Washington National Monument Society, whose goal was to raise money to build me a fancy memorial.
Pierre L'Enfant, the fellow who designed the layout of Washington DC, had already chosen this very spot for it back when I was still alive, so I kinda knew it was coming.
So it was Madison's Monument Society that held the design contest?
Yes, they picked that awesome Roman temple design I told you about.
And in 1848 they held a big event to lay the cornerstone and commemorate the official start of construction.
Who was there?
Who wasn't there?
There were over 20000 people, including the current president, James Polk, and three future presidents James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and a little-known congressman from Illinois by the name of Abraham Lincoln.
Hey, George, can I borrow a penny to get some meat cakes?
Wow, that's some guest list.
Now, you mentioned the cornerstone, which is a key part of a building's foundation.
Besides the tradition of celebrating the cornerstone, it's also a tradition to bury mementos inside the cornerstone.
Smartypants.
Which of these objects do you think was not buried inside the Washington Monument's cornerstone?
A. A copy of the Declaration of Independence.
B. A portrait of President Washington.
Or C. A Washington Nationals baseball cap.
I hope you guessed the baseball cap.
Anyway, after that, they were off and running building the monument.
Right, George?
Correct.
But how did they do it?
Wait, don't tell me.
I want to see for myself.
Prepare to teleport!
Here we are.
It's 1854, about six years into construction.
Hey, looks like they've got about 150 feet of monument built.
That's about one-fourth.
Ooh, one-fourth equals what, smarty pants?
Did you say a quarter?
And who's on the quarter?
Why, George Washington!
Coincidence?
As you can see trusty, they're using a steam-powered elevator inside the monument that can lift as much as six tons of stone up to where they're working.
Wow.
They're also using ropes and pulleys to lift stones and set them into position.
They keep inching their way higher and higher, stone by stone.
By the end, they'll have placed 36,000 stones.
Whoa.
I can't wait to see them finish.
Uh, where are all the construction workers going?
They're quitting.
Why?
The Pope.
Did you say the Pope?
As in the head of the Catholic Church?
I did.
Really?
Why would the Pope cause them to stop building?
Remember the Monument Society?
Madison's group, sure.
Well, they asked people to donate special ceremonial stones to be used in my monument's construction.
It just so happened the Pope at the time, Pope Pius IX, decided he was going to donate a stone.
So what's wrong with that?
It infuriated the members of the Know Nothing Party.
They were a powerful political party in Washington back then and they really didn't like Catholics or immigrants or anyone else.
I'm not going to lie, they weren't very nice people.
Gotcha.
One night in 1854, a group of Know Nothing snuck up to the monument, locked the night watchman in a shed and stole the Pope's stone.
No way!
Some people say they tossed it into the Potomac River.
But either way, it was never found.
Then, not long after, the know-nothing swooped in and took over the Monument Society.
Such drama.
And this stopped construction?
Yep.
Because of all of the controversy, people stopped sending in donations.
No money, no monument.
They didn't set another stone for 25 years.
Of course, there was also something that began in 1861 that didn't help.
Smarty pants.
What big event in U.S. history grabbed the nation's attention and available cash?
Was it the invention of the automobile?
The Civil War?
Or the stock market crash?
If you said the Civil War, great job.
My unfinished monument just sat there like a tree stump.
Famous author Mark Twain called it a hollow, oversized chimney.
And if that weren't insulting enough, during the Civil War they used the grassy area around my monument to graze cattle.
The whole place smelled like cow poop.
That is no way to treat the father of our country.
Anyway, the whole mess was so embarrassing.
In 1876, Congress finally decided to take over and resume construction.
But to save money, they scrapped the Roman temple and my horse-drawn chariot.
Whatever.
It's not like I helped win the country's independence or anything.
True, but hey, you're one of the only people to ever have a massive monument built for you.
Plus, it's an awesome, perfect obelisk.
You're joking, right?
Uh, I wasn't.
Take a close look at my monument through and tell me how perfect it is.
Um, okay.
Oh, I think I see the problem.
Yeah, that's not good.
Smarty Pants.
Can you guess the builder's big mistake that still haunts the Washington Monument to this day?
The mystery revealed right after this quick break.
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As the trusty narrator, I've taken the smarty pants on countless adventures.
I'll do anything for the fans.
But off mic, I prefer to keep my adventures in the safe space of my own backyard.
However, even a homebody like me can't avoid the unexpected chaos that comes with family life.
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Oh, and you know how so many of you have asked for a trusty narrator face reveal?
Well, you're going to get it, because I'll be on camera personally teaching the video lessons.
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Now back to Whosmarted.
I'm somehow here with George Washington at the base of the Washington Monument, and after close inspection I've noticed a major flaw in its construction.
One that has George Washington pulling his hair, er, I mean, his wig out.
Ugh, so meh.
What do you think this design flaw is, smarty pants?
Is the monument two different colors?
Is it leaning dangerously to one side?
Or does it have a huge dent in it?
The surprising answer is it's two different colors.
Actually, it's three different colors.
What?
Three?
Let me take another look.
Oh, wow.
You're right.
The top, bottom, and a small section near the middle are all different colors.
How the heck did that happen?
Easy.
They got the stones from three different places.
You see, when they started up construction again after stalling for 25 years, they discovered the quarry in Maryland where they got the original stones from had shut down.
So they tried another quarry in Massachusetts.
And whoops, after just a few layers they could tell the color of the new stone didn't match the old stuff at all.
So then what did they do?
They tried yet another quarry in Maryland.
Luckily, this stone was a perfect match. till it rained.
These new stones looked very different after being exposed to the elements.
Oh boy.
And that's why the monument to me, George Washington, number seven on People Magazine's list of history's most influential people is white on the bottom, light brown in the middle and tannish pink on top.
Thank you very much.
Okay okay.
So it looks a little like Neapolitan ice cream, but despite its flaws, it's still a beautiful monument.
If it wasn't, would millions of people visit it every year?
Hmm?
It even survived an earthquake in 2012.
Sure.
Oh, and there's something pretty cool I haven't told you yet.
Yeah?
What?
You mind flying us to the top with your teleporter thingy?
Done.
See this pyramid-shaped stone block at the very top?
It's called the capstone.
And at the tippity-top of the capstone is a nine-inch-tall pyramid made of a very rare, very precious metal.
In fact, when they installed it in 1884, it was one of the most valuable metals on Earth, as I'm sure it still is today.
Ooh, any guess what precious metal I'm looking at, Smarty Pants?
Is it gold, silver, or aluminum?
Believe it or not, it's aluminum.
Aluminum?
What's so funny about aluminum?
It's very rare and precious and valuable.
Sorry, George.
As a trusty narrator, I too cannot tell a lie.
Aluminum may once have been a rare precious metal as valuable as silver, but today, not so much.
That's because we found a ton of it.
Many tons, in fact.
And now we use it for lots of ordinary things like tinfoil and soda cans.
As metals go, they don't get much cheaper than aluminum.
Wow.
And here I thought I couldn't dislike this monument more.
Well, at least the aluminum helps deter lightning strikes.
Um, we better get down before lightning strikes.
Save yourself, trusty.
I'm just a ghost, remember?
But hey, I can see myself reflected in that pool of water down there.
How cool is that?
Bye, George.
I think we did it.
A monumental shout out to Thomas in Fairfax Virginia, who loves smarting with us on the way to and from school and on weekends.
That is some seriously dedicated smarting.
Well done.
This episode, The Washington Monument, was written by Steve Monumental Melcher and voiced by Mike Presidential Praviti.
Kim Declaration Davis, Adam Obelisk Davis, Max Cherrytree Kamaski, and Jerry Kolber.
Technical direction and sound design by Honest Josh Hahn.
Who Smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios.
Our associate producer is Max Kamaski.
The theme song is by Brian Stone Suarez with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex Davis.
Who Smarted? was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Kolber.
This has been an Atomic Entertainment production.
Who Smarted?
