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WASHINGTON -- A crack has appeared in the Washington monument as a result of the magnitude 5.9 earthquake that rattled the East Coast Tuesday.
The crack was found near the top of the monument Wednesday as engineers looked it over for damage, and begins just where the marble obelisk begins to narrow. The monument will remain closed indefinitely as a result.
Other well-known Washington structures have been minimally damaged as well. Chunks of plaster were knocked loose from the Capitol building's rotunda and scattered across the floor.
The National Cathedral sustained probably the most damage - several pinnacles of the concrete building have tilted or rotated, and a full one-third of the southwest pinnacle fell off onto the roof of the building. There are also major cracks in the building's flying buttresses.
A dedication service for a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. has had to find a new venue as a result of the cathedral's current state.
The LDS temple in Washington was also shaken, with several spires losing their tops, and some minor damage to the marble façade as a result of the tumbling spires.
The White House and other major monuments and buildings, fared much better, with no reports of significant damage, though some still remain closed.
