Consider a few dusty details about Baltimore's lasting stone tribute to George Washington.
On Tuesday, July 4, 1815, at high noon, a crowd estimated at between 25,000 and 30,000 persons, including all the city's top worthies, assembled at the top of a leafy but undeveloped Charles Street hill.
Architect Robert Mills was a leader in the day's events, along with William Steuart and Thomas Towson, stone cutters for the same Cockeysville (Beaver Dam) marble that shows up in so many Baltimore front steps.
This was the official start of Baltimore's monument to the first president.
Because there wasn't much to show, the group improvised with a fancy display concocted by Hugh Findlay, the city's fanciest cabinet and chair maker.
Artist Rembrandt Peale had a portrait of George Washington on display.
And architect Mills had a drawing of his elaborate column, which would ultimately be finished off in a more simple style than initially envisioned.
The stone-laying ceremony began with a 39-gun salute, one shot for each of the years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
There were speeches heavily referenced with religion and patriotism. Vessels containing corn, wine and oil were presented in a Masonic ritual. The dignitaries prayed that the "Almighty power preserve this city from ruin and decay to the latest posterity."
At the conclusion of the events, and the first stone set, 100 guns fired and a band played "Yankee Doodle."
The grand day wasn't over.
Come nightfall fireworks, "The evening sky was beautifully bespangled by rockets thrown from Fort McHenry and the Columbian Gardens. They rose in a brilliant line of fire, and forming a graceful arch, broke into stars as they descended. Divine Providence seemed to smile on the occasion -- the air was delightfully cool and the firmament serene," noted a publication called Niles Weekly Register.
Work on the Washington Monument progressed until the board of managers ran out of money (the initial funds came from lotteries) and the state assumed the job of financing the Doric column.
By 1820, the monument was 140 feet in the air -- some 20 feet away from completion.
Architect Mills postponed selection of a suitable ornament for the top until the very end.
Eventually hired was an Italian sculptor, Henrico Causici, who worked two years on a 16-foot-high statue made in three separate sections from a gigantic chunk of limestone donated by a Mrs. F.T.D. Taylor on York Road in Baltimore County.
It's reported that all the while, the sculptor worried about how his three separate sections of George would be lifted to the top of the tall shaft -- whining "160 feet high!" as he chiseled.
Mills sought help from sea captain James D. Woodside.
The mariner improvised a long spar, tackle and capstan mounted on the shaft's top deck, 228 steps above Charles Street.
It worked, but not before curious spectators came to watch George Washington be topped off on Nov. 25, 1829.
Another 30,000 persons assembled, many of them dubious as to whether the statue's final part would actually make it to the top in one piece.
From the top of the president's head to the ground is 176.62 feet.
The monument was an immediate success and began attracting international acclaim.
Author Herman Melville wrote of it: "Great Washington stands high aloft on his towering main-mast in Baltimore, and like one of Hercules' pillars, his column makes that point of human grandeur beyond which few mortals will go."
The four squares around the shaft were dressed up with parks and the base of the monument itself encircled by a very fancy iron fence adorned with a motif of battle axes and stars designed by Mills.
Until it was screened off some 50 years ago, the monument's observation platform was a favorite location for suicide jumpers.
The Presidents' Day holiday celebrated today honors both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
It is an interesting note that Lincoln spent one night in Baltimore.
It was in 1864, in a Cathedral Street house overlooking Mount Vernon Place and its monument to the first president.
The city's toasting George Washington continues on the date of his actual birthday.
Come Wednesday, there is a free evening of Colonial and Federal period music from Baltimore and Annapolis, accompanied by birthday cake, at the Walters Art Gallery, 600 N. Charles St.
It begins at 7:30.