Washington Monument elevator breaks down days after landmark reopens
A new elevator inside the Washington Monument briefly broke down Saturday afternoon, CBS Washington, D.C., affiliate WUSA-TV reports. The elevator experienced issues at around 1 p.m., though no one was inside of it during the malfunction.
Visitors were rescued a few at a time by D.C. Fire from a height of nearly 500 feet. The obelisk structure tops out at 555 feet.
No one was injured during the incident, authorities told WUSA. A spokesperson for the National Mall and Memorial Parks issued a statement confirming the outage, noting that "normal operations resumed after about an hour."
The Washington Monument was closed for three years for renovations to upgrade its security systems and replace its elevator. It reopened for the first time since September 2016 on Thursday.