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When the monuments construction resumed after the war in 1876, engineers found that the rope used to haul supplies to the top of the monument from the inside had been pulled down. Experts were faced with the need to run a rope through the inside of the 555-foot structure and out of the top, but had no workable solution.
Appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to complete the Washington Monument, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey found the solution. A small thread was tied to the leg of a pigeon, which was then let loose in the monument. The bird, frightened by a gunshot, flew to the top of the monument, then outside where he was shot down by a waiting construction worker.
Wires of increasing strength were then tied to the thread as it was pulled through the center of the tower and out of the top.
Eventually, the wire was strong enough to pull through the rope needed to haul supplies to the top of the monument and a pigeon became a key part of the Washington Monuments history.
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