Photo by John J Young

Update: A couple of days later than planned, the National Park Service expects the Washington Monument to reopen on Friday. In addition replacing a damaged bearing on the elevator, “we are taking this opportunity to address some outstanding maintenance work on the system,” said Mike Litterst of NPS in a release. “While we recognize the extended closure poses an inconvenience to visitors, this additional work will increase the long-term reliability of the elevator,” he continued. NPS closed the building on Saturday because of the broken elevator.

Original: Out-of-towners and touristy D.C. residents won’t have access to the highest view in the city until at least Wednesday, according to the National Park Service. The Washington Monument closed over the weekend because of a mechanical failure in the building’s elevator, according to NPS spokesman Mike Litterst.

The building closed twice in April also because of an elevator interruption. That month, D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton announced that she had a conversation with National Park Service Superintendent Gay Vietzke. “Securing reliable elevator service for the most important elevator in the nation’s capital, and the only elevator in the Washington Monument, must be a top priority for NPS,” Norton in a release. Vietzke said that NPS was looking at the 20-year-old mechanical system that controls the elevator, which wasn’t upgraded during extensive maintenance following D.C.’s 2011 earthquake.

The second time the monument closed in April marked its sixth closure since reopening in 2014 after the repairs.

Workers will install new parts to the elevator tomorrow, and the monument is expected to reopen Wednesday.