marblesteps

In the twists and turns of our ongoing visual conversation, this image felt right to play today. It’s a view looking down the staircase inside the original Washington Monument, located atop a hill near the center of Baltimore, Maryland. The monument is a smooth, decidedly phallic marble doric column whose construction was begun on Independence Day in 1815. The same architect, Robert Mills, designed the taller and more famous Washington Monument in the nation’s capital years later. Last Spring I was in Baltimore briefly and climbed the monument for the first time after having lived near it for many years of my life. I was visually surprised to discover the confining interior walls are made of brick with well worn marble steps spiraling to the top. On the way back down, I paused with a touch of vertigo. The descending pattern of the curved brick walls and marble steps seemed to vibrate and move.