Phallic architecture
The Washington Monument in Washington D.C. is often seen as a prime example of phallic architecture and American masculinity. The towering monument, made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss, it is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing according to the National Park Service. Construction of the monument began in 1848, was halted from 1854 to 1877, and was completed in 1884. In a "Journal" review, dated 17 October 1911, Arnold Bennett said of the monument, "Saw Washington monument. Phallic. Appalling. A national catastrophe – only equalled by the Albert Memorial. Tiny doll-like people waiting to go into it." Dan Burstein says of it, "Speaking of sex symbols, there is no more phallic symbol in existence than the Washington Monument, and the Capitol dome can be viewed as breastlike." James Webb used a metaphor to praise the "uplift[ing]" power of the Washington Monument as a white phallus, "piercing the air like a bayonet". In the futuristic film "Hardwired", set in the United States where everything noteworthy is commercialized, the Washington Monument is used as a giant Trojan condoms billboard.
Washington Monument
The aluminum apex, at the time a rare metal as valuable as silver, was cast by William Frishmuth of Philadelphia. At the time of casting, it was the largest piece of aluminum in the world. Before the installation it was put on public display at Tiffany's in New York City and stepped over by visitors who could say they had "stepped over the top of the Washington Monument". It was tall before was vaporized from its tip by lightning strikes during 1885–1934, when it was protected from further damage by tall lightning rods surrounding it. Its base is square. The angle between opposite sides at its tip is 34°48'. It weighed before lightning strikes removed a small amount of aluminum from its tip and sides. Spectral analysis in 1934 showed that it was composed of 97.87% aluminum with the rest impurities. It has a shallow depression in its base to match a slightly raised area atop the small upper surface of the marble capstone, which aligns the sides of the apex with those of the capstone, and the downward protruding lip around that area prevents water from entering the joint. It has a large hole in the center of its base to receive a threaded diameter copper rod which attaches it to the monument and used to form part of the lightning protection system. In 2015 the National Geodetic Survey reported the coordinates of the 1 mm dimple atop the aluminum apex as (WGS 84).