You Chose: Stop at 156 Feet
This is a reasonable choice. After all, for the past 20 years the monument has stood safely on its current foundation. Leaving it at its present height (156 feet) will almost certainly ensure that it will be ready for the nation's 100th birthday celebration in 1876. Some changes will be needed though. We can’t have the Washington Monument looking like a “hollow, over-sized chimney."
There were many ideas proposed for what to do with the existing monument structure, including this suggestion by C. Seymour Dutton that the marble blocks could serve as a base for a statue of George Washington. It would be hard for a person to view the statue if it was up so high, though.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
