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A few days after its reopening to the public, the elevator inside the Washington Monument temporarily broke down on Saturday, park officials said.
The monument – the tallest building in Washington, DC – was inaugurated Thursday after a three-year renovation during which its elevator and security systems were modernized.
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Saturday, however, "The elevator had been down for about an hour, but came back online," wrote the National Parks Service (NPS) on Twitter. "No evacuation by the stairs was necessary."
"We apologize to our visitors who have been embarrassed, normal activities have resumed and visits are going according to plan".
Mike Litterst, a spokesman for NPS, said staff members had solved the problem after about an hour and that visitors at the top of the memorial had been able to walk down the elevator.
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Before it reopened this week, the Washington Monument was closed for most of the past eight years. An earthquake in August 2011 left cracks in the stones near the top of the obelisk. It reopened in 2014, but Park Service officials were forced to close it two years later, after a series of malfunctions in the elevators.
The recently renovated elevator inside the Washington Monument briefly broke down on Saturday, park officials said.
(AP Photo / Patrick Semansky)
The construction of the monument began in 1848 and lasted nearly 40 years. The private organization that ran the project ran out of funding and construction was halted in 1854 at about 150 feet; this delay was exacerbated by the civil war.
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Construction resumed in 1879, but builders were forced to use stone from a different quarry, giving the obelisk its distinctive two-tone color. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest building in the world, but was quickly overtaken by the Eiffel Tower in 1889.
Frank Miles of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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