Washington Monument closed indefinitely after quake

WASHINGTON - August 23, 2011

That excludes the Washington Monument that will be closed indefinitely after engineers found cracks near the top.

The park service says all monuments and memorials were initially evacuated and closed, including the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.

But the King memorial and several others that don't include large buildings were reopened within an hour of the 5.8-magnitude earthquake, which struck at 1:51 p.m. Visitors continued streaming through the King memorial Tuesday afternoon.

The Lincoln and Jefferson memorials were closed for several hours but reopened Tuesday evening. The Old Post Office tower will reopen Wednesday morning.

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