Norton Says No April Fools’: Washington Monument Elevator Down for the Second Time this Week

WASHINGTON, D.C.—With the latest shutdown of the Washington Monument elevator—the second closure this week and the fifth since the Monument reopened after the 2013 earthquake— Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today called the National Park Service (NPS) for the second time this week seeking answers. Although, fortunately, no one was on the elevator at the time of the shutdown, the visitors on the observation deck had to walk all the way down the Monument steps to evacuate. In the absence of Superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks Gay Vietzke, Norton instead spoke with Deputy Superintendent Karen Cucurullo, and learned that the Washington Monument elevator, the only one that services the Monument, will be closed at least through Saturday when engineers are due to inspect it. Deputy Superintendent Cucurullo could not assure Norton of when the Monument would reopen.

“I wish today’s news of a second breakdown of the Monument elevator in a week were an April Fools’ joke, but the joke is on visitors to the nation’s capital and to our residents,” Norton said. “These breakdowns appear as if on cue, when they can do the greatest damage to visitors and the economy of this city and the region. The elevator shutdowns must now be classified as chronic, and must become a top priority for the National Park Service.”

Although no evaluation has been done, Superintendent Vietzke told Norton earlier this week that the mechanism that controls the elevator could be at fault, because that system is at least 20 years old. However, Norton today told Deputy Superintendent Cucurullo that she was amazed that a 20-year-old system that operates during tourist season 13 hours a day, seven days a week, was working at all. Norton said she understood that NPS was among the most underfunded federal agencies, but it would appear that NPS waited for the control system to become non-functional before replacing it. Norton said she was particularly mindful that a priority of visitors coming to Washington is going to the top of the Monument for the best view of the nation’s capital. Therefore, she told Deputy Superintendent Cucurullo that even if the control system is not at fault, it is so old, that it clearly needs to be replaced—and that she certainly hopes that NPS will wait until the dead of winter to do so. NPS has assured Norton that it was taking steps to redesign and replace the system, and that NPS has applied for and secured internal grant funding for a redesign.