A climb atop the Washington Monument

In a city filled with landmarks, the Washington Monument is a destination that many try to encounter on a visit to the American capital. My recent visit was my fourth time in DC but the first that I was able to finally take the loosely guided tour and take the lift to the observation deck for some of the best views of the district.

The 555-foot tall obelisk is the tallest publicly accessible building in Washington (the only taller buildings are telecommunications towers for local television stations) and it costs a pretty bit of patience to get in. The most painless way to do so is by visiting the National Park Service's website a month before your planned visit at 10am ET and playing a version of Ticketmaster war to claim access to a time slot. If that doesn't work, you can walk up to the Washington Monument Lodge (on 15th Street between Madison and Jefferson drives) daily at 8:45am for same-day walk up tickets. The tickets are free but online reservations charge a $1 reservation service charge.

Nevertheless, I persisted and made my way across town on a gloomy Sunday morning. After about half a hour of waiting at the base and a security checkpoint that makes TSA look like amateur hour, it was a tight squeeze on the elevator ride to the top.

Obviously, the views are the star of the show but it was really interesting to see cracks in the Monument from a 2011 earthquake. It really moved me as a symbol of this nation's persistence despite whatever challenges it faces.

A Perfect Grid

Atop the observation deck, you look out with 360 degree views over the DMV. It's quite a sight to take in Pierre Charles L'Enfant's engineered plan for Washington from on high with a carefully laid core street grid giving way to the comparative bustle towards the Wharf and looking beyond into Virginia and Maryland.

I really dig the moody look I happened to capture compared to the alternative of harsh midday sun even though it did peek out a bit.

I did take clean straight on shots looking at the Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin but I adore this perspective that shows off what I was actually seeing.

It's kinda hard to talk about what I did with these photos, because you can only do so much with a zoom lens standing in one spot. I see this as a challenge though to look beyond the wide view and use my pseudo telephoto lens range (my 18-135mm crop sensor lens gets to a full frame equivalent of about 160mm) to pick off subjects and create compositions that I think are interesting at least.

I'm not sure if it's a trek I'd need to make again photography wise (though I think it would be interesting to see what the Tidal Basin looks like when the cherry blossoms are on bloom), but I'm pretty satisfied with what I was able to see and for the experience to begin with.