WASHINGTON -- "It looks better like this" has become a cliche uttered by tourists who visit the Washington Monument that's covered -- all 555 feet, 5 1/8 inches of it -- in scaffolding and blue fabric for its restoration.
Other visitors hope the $9.6 million repair job will be finished quickly so the scaffolding can be removed and the obelisk, which symbolizes the nation's capital for Americans, can stand tall, unadorned again on the city skyline.Under repair or not, visitors still trek to the monument at the normal pace -- as many as 2,200 a day.
From afar, people can spot the solemn gray shaft behind the sheer fabric, which is laid over an aluminum framework. The wrapped effect is equally dramatic under lights at night.
"The comments span the gamut," said David Barna, chief spokesman for the National Park Service. "Some people actually think it looks better, especially at night. At night, it's a gem."
Darryl D. Mehaffie, a retired teacher from Greenville, Ohio, isn't one of them.
"It's more beautiful without the scaffolding, but I suppose it's necessary," Mehaffie said.
His wife, Mary Ann, who teaches first grade, was equally firm, but she likes it with the scaffolding.
Toria Banks, a perky 11-year-old fifth-grader from Columbia, Md., found it "really nice," but she was thoughtful about it. "Well, I think it's good for this time," she said. "But I think it needs to come down."
Yanni Poulakis, a retired engineering officer from the Greek navy, is glad the monument is being restored. "I like to see old things preserved, like the Acropolis at home," he said through an interpreter.
The blue fabric spares people from having to "stare at disfiguring scaffolding for a couple of years," said J. Carter Brown, chairman of the capital's Fine Arts Commission.
The scaffolding exactly follows the shape of the monument, making the monument 8 feet thicker on each of its four sides. The frame rests gently against the stone.
"It could stand on its own -- the scaffolding supports itself," says architect Michael Graves.
American architects rarely play games with scaffolding. But in Paris the restoration of the Madeleine, an 18th century church that looks like a Greek temple, took place behind huge paintings that fooled some visitors into thinking they saw the actual facade.
The last time the Washington Monument got such a thorough working-over was at the start of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal 65 years ago. Then the scaffolding was made of ordinary lumber.
Guards said the scaffolding hasn't discouraged visitors, though it makes it harder for those with cameras to snap the tremendous views from the top -- the Capitol, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and the Potomac River -- down toward George Washington's own Mount Vernon, across the Potomac.