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 Washington Monument was originally intended to be located at the point at which a line running directly south from the center of the White House crossed a line running directly west from the center of the Capitol. Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's 1791 "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States ..." designated this point as the location of the equestrian statue of George Washington that the Continental Congress had voted for in 1783. The ground at the intended location proved to be too unstable to support a structure as heavy as the planned obelisk, so the monument's location was moved east-southeast. At that originally intended site there now stands a small monolith called the Jefferson Pier. This offset caused the McMillan Plan to specify that the Lincoln Memorial should be "placed on the main axis of the Capitol and the Monument", about 1° south of due west of the Capitol or the monument, not due west of the Capitol or the monument.