Big-Rig Driver Crashes Truck Into Washington Monument

A man drove an 18-wheel tractor-trailer truck up a grassy hill, plowed through fences and over park benches and crashed into the Washington Monument today. There were no injuries.

Garrow Brigham, 36, of Savage, Md., was “under an influence of some kind,” perhaps drugs or alcohol, police said. The incident, which occurred at 8:54 a.m., apparently was not an accident.

Brigham was taken into custody at about 9:30 a.m., and police said he would be charged with destruction of government property and traffic violations.

Brigham’s rig scraped against the obelisk, denting his cab and leaving a streak of green paint about four feet long across the northwest side of the structure. Two rows of the wooden plank and concrete benches at the base of the monument were destroyed. Damage was estimated at $3,500 by the National Park Service.

Park Service spokesman Earle Kittelman said that aside from the paint streak, the monument was not damaged. “It’s pretty solid,” he said.

U.S. Park Police on the scene said the driver initially refused to step down from the cab of the truck and would not talk to officers.

The huge truck drove off busy 17th Street at 55 m.p.h., up a grassy slope, over storm fences and park benches and hit the side of the century-old, 550-foot marble monument at 40 m.p.h., a witness said.

Park Police Maj. Richard Cusick said a bomb squad was called to the monument grounds, which were cordoned off, and the trailer was found to be empty. The truck was later driven from the monument.

Today’s incident recalled a December, 1982, siege when an anti-nuclear activist was killed by U.S. Park Police sharp shooters after a 10-hour standoff that brought the heart of the federal city to a virtual standstill.