Norton Statement on Closure of Washington Monument Elevator

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released the following statement after the National Park Service (NPS) announced that the Washington Monument’s main elevator will be closed until early next week until a damaged elevator control box is repaired.

“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.”