Photo by John Sonderman

The final piece of scaffolding around the Washington Monument was installed yesterday, clearing the way for the real work to begin in patching up the obelisk from the damage it incurred in an earthquake nearly two years ago. And the view from the peak of the 555-foot landmark is quite stunning.

The National Park Service released video this morning of workers installing the last bits of steel piping and deck plates that form the protective cocoon around the monument. The video, taken by a camera mounted to one worker’s helmet, features sweeping—even harrowing—views of downtown Washington and the National Mall from the highest manmade point in the entire city.

The Washington Monument suffered cracks and fissures throughout its structure in the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that rattled the mid-Atlantic in August 2011. Perini Management Services, a Massachusetts-based firm, is in charge of the stonemasonry job that is expected to last through late 2014.

But just because the monument is now ensconced in a metallic sheath, it will still put on something of a show over the next year and a half as crews perform the $15 million repair job. Next month, the scaffolding will be covered in a giant cloth affixed with lights, giving the monument a glow that should remind many of the Michael Graves-designed scaffolding that protected it during the last major repair job in 2000.