View From the Top

The stairs are closed to the public now; once people could bypass the elevator line and climb to the observatory more than 700 steps up the Washington Monument. But the elevator line is well worth the wait.

What you see here is not what you see with the naked eye, of course; my 300 mm lens is the equivalent of a nice pair of binoculars.

Looking to the north you see the South Lawn of the White House looking much as it has for decades now. Looking west you could see the Lincoln Memorial if you looked outward, but looking sharply down you see the far newer World War II Memorial located nearly at the foot of the obelisk. It is quite impressive, as we will see in an upcoming post.