A team of engineer climbers from the engineering firm of Wiss, Janney, Estner Associates, Inc. have been rappelling down the 500-foot-high Washington Monument, an iconic American landmark on the National Mall in Washington D.C. during the past week and doing a top to bottom survey of earthquake damage.
After the 5.9 magnitude earthquake shook the Washington D.C. area in late August, the National Park Service, the federal agency that administers the Monument, has been assessing structural damage on both its inside and now its outside surface.
The Washington Monument has, however, been deemed structurally sound but cracks in its marble exterior as well as missing joint mortar between blocks and loose pieces of rock must be assessed and repaired before the popular landmark can reopen to visitors.
The engineers are part of a crack climbing team of eight called the Difficult Access Team that is certified to do this kind of high ropes work on buildings and other structures.
Emma Cardini, one of the climbing engineers, told "Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge that the work is "awesome." She said, "It's not entirely scary. You have an appreciation for the height that you're at, but it's, for me, it's not so much the fear as just an awesome experience."
Yep, climbing is an awesome experience and I'm sure that dangling off the side of the Washington Monument is more than just putting in an honest day's work. It's probably pretty darn fun.
Photograph above: Climbing engineers swarm around the sheer top of the Washington Monument to assess damage to the historic tower. Photograph © Mark Indy Kochte
Comments
This is in my backyard, Stewart. In fact it got me thinking about the climbing potential in Washington, DC that hadn’t occurred to me before. It’s on my blog at the link: http:suburbanmountaineer.com/
It does look like great fun!
In the industry this means of access is known as Industrial Rope Access, which is a bit more involved then just rappelling. For example, the supervisor (a level 3 tech.) at a minimum has to have 1000 hrs. of on-rope experience and 3 different rope access classes (ea. about 40 hrs.) and each worker is connected to a minimum of two ropes. This provides a much higher level of safety and to my knowledge, there has never been a fatality associated with the use of Rope Access (millions of on rope hours have been documented as well). For more info go to http://www.SPRAT.org or http://www.IRATA.org.