Construction of the Washington Monument resumes In 1876 after sitting uncompleted for almost twenty years Congress passed a joint resolution taking charge of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/196">completion of the monument</a>. Taking control of the land and monument back from the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/148">Washington National Monument Society</a> who had run out of funds shortly after construction began in 1854. In this image <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/502">workers</a> can be see fortifying the base of the monument. Now controlled by the federal government, the design of the monument became the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/455">more simple Egyptian style obelisk</a> which appears today. Internal Archive, National Park Service. 1870s <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>