WASHINGTON – Two days after the Washington Monument reopened to the public, elevator problems forced tour delays and frustrated hundreds of visitors.
With tickets in hand, Kathy Nadherney, of Arlington, says she wanted to take advantage of the monument being open and bring her friend and her 4-year-old son Jacob to see the views.
But almost as soon as her tour began, problems with the elevators put a stop to it.
“We were let in the bottom and we were getting ready to get in the elevator when the first elevator stopped. And there were people stuck at the top so we waited an hour and a half at the bottom of the monument,” Nadherney says.
There was also a delay going back down, as Nadherney says the elevator was stuck for a few minutes. She debated taking the stairs since the whole thing seemed to take a long time.
“Do you want to stick around? How long do you wait with a 4 year old?” Nadherney asks.
Danielle Coutieri’s family, visiting from Hicksville, New York, decided to wait for their tour that was pushed back at least an hour, though she wasn’t sure how long that would be.
“They weren’t really saying anything and we were going to go and then they said to stay,” Courtieri says about the National Park service staff.
In a news release, the NPS said that elevators were put back into service at 12:25 p.m. and that tours weren’t suspended.
Later, shortly after 5 p.m., National Mall PIO Carol B. Johnson tweeted that an elevator contractor needed to make adjustments for about 30 minutes. Johnson also said that tours would continue as normal until 9 p.m.
The Park Service has not returned multiple requests for information.
This story has been modified to indicate that tours were not suspended Wednesday afternoon.
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