Monuments

In the 1840s, northern abolitionist Charles T. Torrey had had enough of intellectual debates and meetings, so he headed south and teamed up with Thomas Smallwood to free hundreds of slaves in the D.C. area. Following his arrest in 1844, Torrey was imprisoned in the Maryland Penitentiary where he would become a martyr for his cause.

Half a century after the Civil War, Southerners were trying to change what the country remembered about the rebellion, including the realities of slavery. One way that they did this was by putting up monuments all over the United States glorifying Confederate heroes and "faithful slaves." While dozens of memorials and statues were erected, one in Washington, D.C. fortunately never came to fruition.

The Washington Monument reopened in spring of 2014, after being closed for repairs needed to repair damage suffered during an earthquake three years ago. The latter included cracks that developed in the monument's marble panels and damage to the mortar that holds the approminately 555-foot-tall structure together.

But those problems aren't the first woes that have plagued the monument, which will mark the 130th anniverary of its completion in December. Back in 1911, for example, some believed that monument was afflicted with an even more peculiar problem, trumpeted in a December 1911 article in Popular Mechanics magazine by John S. Mosby, Jr., which bore the provocative title: Washington Monument Attacked by 'Geological Tuberculosis.'" Mosley wrote that the monument "is suffering from a disintegration that, while not immediately fatal, will materially shorten its life."