STOP
2
Basement Museum
Washington during the Civil War
Was Washington, D.C., the same shape and
size during the Civil War as it is today?
Can you find the Capitol Building and the
White House on the above map or the map
in the exhibit?
Did you know?
The Washington Monument is not the same
color from top to bottom. Construction
on the Washington Monument stopped in
1854 because there was not enough money
or political will to continue. After the Civil
War, construction resumed in 1879, but the
quarry where the builders had gotten the
original stone no longer existed, and they had to find another
source. The new stone was a slightly different color from the old
stone. Today, you can see which part of the Monument was built
before the war, and which after!
Map image courtesy of Library of Congress Geography and Map Division G3850 CT000155.
Historic soldiers photo courtesty of Library of Congress, LC-DIG-CWPB-04269.