Lights Go Out Again at Washington Monument

The monument lights were restored a short time later, park officials say

The lights surrounding the Washington Monument were out for a brief time Sunday night, marking the third time the monument has gone dark this year.

A spokesperson for the National Mall and Memorial Parks said about 7 p.m. the red aviation warning lights were functioning normally, but the lights that illuminate the monument did not come on Sunday night.

National Park Service electricians restored the lights a short time later, about 7:40 p.m., the spokesperson said.

Lights at the monument went out two separate times in January. An outage the night of Jan. 9 was traced to a ground fault, the National Park Service reported.

That problem was unrelated to another issue a week earlier, officials said.

On Jan. 3, the lights went off due to the clock in the Washington Monument's automated lighting system, officials said. Officials said the lighting system's clock was likely out of sync.

The lights aren't the only aspect of the monument that's been having trouble lately.

The 555-foot monument has been closed since August because the elevator has been plagued by mechanical, electrical and computer problems. Problems with the elevator trapped visitors several times and led to numerous temporary closures of the monument.

In December, officials announced they will spend $2 million to $3 million to fix the elevator. They plan to reopen the monument to visitors in 2019.

The trouble with the elevator began roughly after the reopening of the monument in 2014, following a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in 2011 that cracked and chipped the monument.

Contact Us