Steve Lundeberg

Like I previously stated a few weeks ago, something I really wanted to do during my September visit to Washington, D.C., was go to the top of the Washington Monument.

And as I said, a big part of the reason for that was because as a kid I’d read about turn-of-the-century Senators catcher Gabby Street catching a baseball dropped from the 555-foot top of the monument.

Here’s a pic of Gabby, btw, when he was a Cardinals announcer along with Harry Caray (I took this photo in the baseball section of the Museum of Westward Expansion, which is beneath the Gateway Arch in St. Louis):

And speaking of the 600-foot Arch, I’d love to try catching a ball dropped from it, as well as from the Monument. Here’s a mid-morning look at St. Louis’ signature feature, under which is a vast expanse of grass, perfect for fielding a ball:

Anyway, Monday, Sept. 14 — our final day in D.C. — ended up being the day for hitting the Monument, so I arrived there at 8 a.m. to get in line to pick up the free but time-assigned tickets we’d need to take the elevator to the top. Since I was about the 20th person in line, I was able to get the time we wanted, 2:30 p.m.

And after getting the tickets, I snapped this photo of the giant obelisk against the surprisingly clear metro area sky:

I then made my way, on foot, the mile and a half to the Capitol to meet my wife Roberta for our 9:30 tour. After the tour, we split up again so we could each do the sightseeing of our choosing prior to concluding our day at the Monument.

I made my way to the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum (free, like all Smithsonian facilities) and also dropped by the Newseum but opted against going in when I saw it cost $20 to do so. I then strolled past FBI headquarters on my way to Ford’s Theater before heading over to the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History.

Checking out a couple things I’d missed on my visit there a day earlier — an Easter Island head, a life-size whale replica, and the land mammals section — I suddenly realized I still hadn’t made it to the National Portrait Gallery, which was said to feature an impressive collection of sports portraits.

I looked at my watch, which read 1:40 p.m. The portrait gallery was probably at least a mile away, the monument probably a mile and a half from the gallery.

Figuring if I ran, and looked at the portraits with some haste, I’d still have time to do so. So I decided that’s what I’d do.

Sweating in the 83-degree afternoon, I arrived at the gallery to learn the portraits I wanted to see were absolutely as far away from the front door as possible, in a fairly huge building. Still, I soldiered on to find, among other things, these images of Jess Willard vs. Jack Dempsey, and Roger Maris:

Bidding my sports heroes farewell, I reached the street at 2:10 and started running hard, car and pedestrian traffic be damned, for the Monument. Even at 46, I figured I could make it in time, but I wasn’t leaving anything to chance. Unwilling to miss my one shot at getting up the Monument, I was pretty much telling myself I’d get there by 2:30 or perish in the attempt.

Well, I met my wife at the base of the monument at 2:25. I was breathing hard and soaking wet.

“You don’t smell very good,” she said.

And then I got some worse news, from the National Park Ranger in charge of the elevator line: “The elevator’s been broken down for about an hour, and it won’t be working for probably another hour.”

So in short, I’d run all that way for nothing.

Not to be denied, we waited until the elevator was running and secured a ride to the top. Here are some of the views it affords:

The Ellipse, foreground, and the White House.

The Mall and the Capitol.

Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial.

World War II Memorial, foreground, and Lincoln Memorial.

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