(Photo by Jim Havard)

The city’s most beleaguered elevator is getting a lift. But visitors seeking one of D.C.’s most celebrated views are still getting the shaft until 2019.

David M. Rubenstein, a billionaire businessman who practices “patriotic giving”, has agreed to donate the funds to modernize the elevator in the Washington Monument, which has been closed since August. The National Park Service estimates that it will cost between $2 million and $3 million to correct mechanical, electrical, and computer issues.

“The monument has become a symbol of our country, and reminds everyone of the towering strengths of our first president,” Rubenstein said in a release. “I am honored to help make this symbol safely accessible again to all Americans as soon as practicable.”

The Washington Monument was closed to visitors for three years after the 2011 earthquake. Rubenstein provided half of the total $15 million cost to make those repairs, and it reopened to much fanfare in 2014. But the 555-foot obelisk has been plagued by ongoing elevator-related issues ever since.

Hundreds of visitors have had to head down the nearly 900 steps (including at least two pregnant women who had to be brought down by chair) in a series of incidents. The repeated closures prompted Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton to get involved on several occasions.

The monument has been closed since August 17, when the elevator’s compensating cable broke loose from the car, briefly trapping the NPS employee on board. No tourists were on the elevator, but 84 people had to walk down the monument steps.

At the time, NPS said that the Washington Monument would close for at least 10 days, but a month later the agency announced that it would be closed indefinitely as they worked to figure out the underlying issues and perform a full rehabilitation.

NPS said today that the donation would allow them “to replace the computer system that controls the elevator and to add a remote diagnostic system, which will permit technicians to more quickly determine the cause of problems when they occur. It will also provide funds to refurbish the existing elevator machine and gear; replace existing hardware, including door operators, hoist-way ropes, compensation cables, rollers, electrical conductors, breakers and power supplies, and the elevator cab ventilation system; install audio/visual screens in the elevator cab; and install code compliant landings every 30 feet in the elevator shaft.”

The agency said the work on the Washington Monument is expected to be completed in 2019. It has also requested funds in its budget request to build a permanent security screening facility for visitors.

Norton said that she will seek funding for the facility in a continuing resolution that is likely to fund the government into next spring. NPS is seeking to handle both projects in one federal project to save time and money, she said in a release thanking Rubenstein for his contribution.

The philanthropist most recently donated $1 million to fund repairs to the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument (formerly known as the Sewall-Belmont House, President Barack Obama designated it a national monument in April) and $18.5 million toward restoration efforts at the Lincoln Memorial.

This post has been updated with comments from Eleanor Holmes Norton.