When my five-year-old granddaughter first saw the Washington Monument in the U.S. Capital, she called it a “big post.” At 555 feet tall, the obelisk looked enormous to her, and she came up with a funny phrase that we, as a family, used during the three days of our August 2026 visit.
We managed to get tickets to ride an elevator to the 490-foot level observation area at the top. It had rained hard in Washington, and we were soaked through and through when it was finally our turn to ride up. Lots of other folks were also wet from the rain, but a large crowd gathered when the weather broke so that officials could resume elevator rides.
The Washington Monument took a long time to build and has been closed at least three times, maybe more. I’ve taken high school groups to Washington over the years and only remember one time I could actually take students to the top. We told the students not to bring backpacks, but one brought his backpack and had to leave it unattended on the ground during our trip. His backpack was waiting for him a half hour later.
I took my telephoto lens and DSLR camera to the top of the Monument. I got great photos of the city. In the line waiting for the elevator ride down, my wife pointed out a saying of George Washington on the wall: “My first wish… is to see the whole world in peace, and the inhabitants of it as one band of brothers, striving who should contribute most to the happiness of mankind.”
I hunted for Washington’s letter to Armand-Charles Tuffin in 1785 and found it online.1 What a great wish expressed by our first president. By 1785, Washington and others knew the Articles of Confederation desperately needed revision. And after his military career, in which Washington led the revolutionaries to victory over the British, Washington wrote that he never expected to draw the sword again.
Washington’s 1785 letter is an expression of the better angels of our nature. He had seen and experienced war, but he wrote that his first wish is to see the whole world in peace. Our August 2026 trip was probably my third time to ride an elevator to the top of the Monument. Finding the Washington quote about desiring to see the whole world in peace makes me want to take more of my grandchildren to see the “big post” in Washington, D.C. And I will show them the quote from our first president about his hopes for peace among the world’s people. It is also my hope.
