It's like a giant finger, five hundred and fifty-five feet high.It seemed a mile high, but it is really only about a tenth of a mile high—not even as high as a low mountain.No man has ever been able to build as high as God.Though there is an elevator, I used to run up the stairs, two steps at a time, to the top of the monument—just for fun—to see how quickly I could do it, and whether I could beat the elevator.Boys are like that.They will run a race with anything.I could beat the elevator down by jumping half a dozen steps at a time, but not up.My heart did the beating going up.

There is a long pool of water at the foot of the Washington Monument in which you can see the monument as in a mirror.At the other end of this pool is a marble building with columns all around the four sides.It was built in honor of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President after Washington.It is probably the most thrilling memorial ever built to a human being.There is a picture of Lincoln on the 5 bill and on the other side a picture of his Memorial.Lincoln was born in a tiny house made of logs, so small that the whole house could be put in one room of your home.No boy was ever poorer, or had less money or less chance, and yet he became President of the United States.While he was President two parts of the United States fought a terrible war with each other and almost became un-United, but Lincoln kept the States together.That's why this beautiful building was built in his honor.The only thing in the building is a statue of Lincoln sitting in a chair.He looks down on the crowds of people who visithim, as if his spirit were inside that figure of stone.