WASHINGTON — It was lights out again for the Washington Monument for nearly two hours Monday night.
The lights went out at about 5:30 p.m. and came back on after 7 p.m.
Mike Litterst with the National Park Service said a ground fault led to the power getting shut down at the site.
“In the coming days we will work to identify and repair what the cause of that ground fault was,” Litterst said.
This outage comes six days after an out-of sync timer clock turned off the monument’s lights prematurely during the evening hours
During last week’s outage ,the red aviation beacon atop the monument stayed on, this time it went dark with the loss of power.
It’s been a tough couple years for the monument which began with frequent elevator issues that resulted in trips to the top being stopped. Work is now underway to rebuild the elevator and install a permanent screening area. The improvements are expected to keep the monument closed until 2019.
“Once that work is done, hopefully smooth sailing for the foreseeable future,” Litterst said.
