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Planning for the George Washington Monument began shortly after the former president’s death in 1799. But construction began much later, in 1848. It took approximately 30 years to complete, resulting in delays due to lack of funds. Civil war. When completed in 1884, it was the tallest man-made building in the world. And it remained that way for five years, until the completion of the Eiffel Tower. The monument, and it is very important, to the extent that I have begun to write these lines to talk about it, is crowned by a small metal pyramid. That pyramid was a controversial decision and undoubtedly made the work extremely expensive. It is a structure made from a mineral then recently discovered, called aluminium. Although it is the third most common element that can be found in the Earth’s crust, it was first isolated in 1825 by the Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, who obtained some of the first, expensive and poor samples. At the 1855 World’s Fair in Paris, an ingot of new and expensive aluminum was displayed along with the royal jewels of France, to create the impression that it was just another royal jewel. That same year, Napoleon III made public his intention to purchase cutlery for large official banquets made entirely of aluminum. It was believed that this was a display of excessive wealth and bad taste. And, indeed, platinum cutlery, or diamond-encrusted cutlery, would have been cheaper. In any case, there was no material similar to aluminum. It was flexible, lightweight, stainless, innovative, modern. And very expensive, no better than anything else in the whole world. The decision to finish the Washington Monument in aluminum, as an expensive tribute to Washington, was influenced by the idea of ​​doing it with the world’s most expensive and precious material. But another thing and message was also added. Being stable and immutable to water, oxygen and temperature fluctuations, that aluminum pyramid was considered eternal. And, indeed, although it is not eternal, since eternal does not exist, while even the word eternal is not eternal, it is calculated that, even today, he would be the last human relic to disappear from the pyramid face of the world. Earth, in a state where humans and their civilizations have become extinct. If this happened, within millions of years, the swamp that had dried up would once again occupy what is now the city of Washington. Of course, water and bad weather will soon damage and demolish the monolith. But somewhere in that water, submerged, algae-covered, unchanged, the aluminum pyramid will be the last remnant of the human species when all others on the entire planet disappear. And that last relic, everything eternal in the eternal word, will continue to honor, and although no one knew it beforehand, the figure of George Washington.

But in 1886, just two years after the monument’s inauguration, the Frenchman Paul Hérault and the American Charles Hall patented a process for obtaining aluminum called Hall-Hérault, which massively increased its production, and which dramatically Lowered its price until it fell through the floor. If in 1882 less than two tons of aluminum were produced worldwide, in 1900 about 7,000 were produced. Today there are more than 33 million tons. Aluminum is useless. As in the 19th century, aluminum cutlery in the 21st century remains, for other reasons, in somewhat poor taste. The pyramid, which was programmed as the final work, the last remnant of extinct humans, remains the object that is destined to overtake us and become our last and only work. But it is no longer a treasure, but basically a completely useless thing. Hardware. Scraps, as eternal as eternal words can be, and for which no one can remember when there is no one left.

Planning for the George Washington Monument began shortly after the former president’s death in 1799. But construction began much later, in 1848. It took approximately 30 years to complete, resulting in delays due to lack of funds. Civil war. once completed,…