Washington Monument to remain closed until next year

The Washington Monument will probably remain closed until well into next year as workers repair earthquake damage, officials said Thursday.

The repairs on the shuttered monument are unlikely to start until late summer at the earliest, the National Park Service said.

The work is expected to take up to a year, and the monument will likely be closed most of that time. The structure, which was entered by about 1,700 visitors a day, has been closed since Aug. 23, when it was damaged by a 5.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the Washington area.

Details of the repair plans were announced at a Thursday news conference called to mark the donation of $7.5 million to the $15 million repair project by David M. Rubenstein, a billionaire Bethesda philanthropist.

The gift confirmed Rubenstein’s status as a generous repeat benefactor for Washington’s endangered national icons....