Photo by Navin Sarma.

Photo by Navin Sarma.

Update 2: The Washington Monument will also remain closed on Friday for “continued maintenance” to the elevator, according to NPS Spokesperson Michael Litterst.

D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is not happy.

Update 1: The Washington Monument will remain closed on Thursday for repairs to the elevator.

The National Park Service explained the malfunction that caused the monument’s elevator to stop around 11:30 a.m. this morning, prompting the attraction’s closure for the day: the elevator’s compensating cable “broke loose from the car,” according to NPS Spokesperson Michael Litterst.

“The compensating cable is connected to the bottom of the car and the bottom of the counterweight and helps control the car while it is in motion by compensating for the differing weight of cable between the hoist and cab,” Litterst said in a statement. He added that the cable repair is unrelated to power issues that prompted closures last weekend.

Original: D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has called it the “most important elevator in the nation’s capital,” but the lift at the Washington Monument may also be among the city’s most dysfunctional.

A service interruption at 11:30 a.m. today caused the elevator to stop between the 500’ and 490’ levels, according to National Park Service Spokesperson Michael Litterst. One NPS employee was on board when the elevator stopped, though the person has since been extricated. While no visitors were on the elevator, 84 people were walked down the monument steps “without incident,” Litterst said.

The Washington Monument will remain closed until service technicians inspect it.

This comes less than a month after NPS repaired the elevator following a mechanical failure. On July 28, Litterst announced that technicians “replaced two sheave bearings, including both the one that failed and a second that was originally installed at the same time as the first.”

NPS has also “initiated the design process to modernize and upgrade the control system, as well as associated equipment and components, for the Washington Monument elevator,” said Litterst.

It’s the latest closure in a series of them.

“These breakdowns appear as if on cue, when they can do the greatest damage to visitors and the economy of this city and the region,” Norton said in a statement back in April. “The elevator shutdowns must now be classified as chronic, and must become a top priority for the National Park Service.”

Filed Under: eleanor holmes norton, elevator, national park service, nps, washington monument,