The Washington Monument will be closed indefinitely until the Park Service can overhaul the popular tourist attraction’s elevator system, the service announced Monday.
“We have not been able to determine the causes of the ongoing reliability issues,” National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst said. “As a result, we have made the difficult decision not to reopen the Washington Monument until we can modernize the elevator control system.”
The monument underwent three years of repairs after the August 2011 earthquake damaged it. It reopened in 2014, but has had frequent problems with the elevator since then. The monument has been closed since Aug. 17 after the elevator broke again.
The Park Service said it will be able to be more specific about the duration of the closure in the coming weeks, Litterst said.
