Norton in Contact with NPS Officials to Ensure an End to Washington Monument Elevator Breakdowns

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has been in touch with National Park Service (NPS) officials about yesterday's malfunction of the Washington Monument elevator, which left 63 visitors and two pregnant women needing assistance in getting down from the top of the Monument. While Norton praised the quick response of both paramedics and NPS staff who assisted visitors, she expressed concern about the incident, which is the second elevator malfunction at the Monument this summer.

"I have nothing but praise and gratitude for the District of Columbia's first responders and trained NPS staff who helped visitors stuck at the top of the Washington Monument safely down the stairs and outside," Norton said. "I am pleased that NPS had an elevator repair team on call which resolved the problem before the Monument opened for business this morning, but two elevator closures in one season are two closures too many. I would not like to have been among those yesterday who found that getting down was a lot more difficult than getting to the top of the Monument. I am concerned that there was a malfunction in a newly rehabilitated elevator in what may be the busiest tourism month of the year. In 2014, August had the largest number of visitors to the Monument, with over 76,000 guests riding to the top. We don't want word to get out to residents and visitors that the highest point of our nation's capital is also the point of highest risk. NPS is well aware that the Monument's only elevator is the most used elevator in the entire city, and must run 12 hours a day. Such unusual use may call for a daily maintenance level even beyond what NPS already has in place."

Norton said that many visitors from around the country and the world visit the nation's capital more intent on going to the top of the Washington Monument than seeing senators or representatives. She then said that while getting to a zero failure standard may be difficult, NPS must seek to achieve it.

Norton, a native Washingtonian, said she doesn't recall hearing of an elevator breakdown at the Monument before its elevator was rehabilitated in 2011 after the earthquake. Norton said she hopes NPS will look to see what it might take for the current elevator, installed in 1995 and rehabilitated in 2011, to meet the standard of its predecessor.