The Tip Top-Part One

Ever seen the top of the Washington Monument? That's it in the picture above. It's a really, really tight crop of a close-up picture with about a 450mm (35mm equivalent) lens. You can see the multiple lighting rods surrounding the aluminum pyramid. If you want to see what it would look like without the lightning rods, and before it lost almost an inch of height from getting hit by lightning for many years before the rods, have a look at the replica below. This is housed in a small display in the room just below the observation platform in the Monument. At the time of the Monument's completion, aluminum was a precious metal, worth quite a bit more than it is today.