The Washington Monument is a large, tall, white-colored obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It is a United States Presidential Memorial constructed to commemorate George Washington. The monument is the world’s tallest stone structure, and is the world’s tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 5â…› inches (169.294 m) in height[1] and made of marble, granite, and sandstone. It was designed by Robert Mills, an architect of the 1840s. The actual construction of the monument began in 1848 but was not completed until 1884, almost 30 years after the architect’s death. This hiatus in construction was because of a lack of funds and the intervention of the American Civil War. A difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet (45 m) up, clearly delineates the initial construction from its resumption in 1876.