Step 310, Washington Monument

 
In 1854 on his last visit to Okinawa before returning to the United States, Commodore Perry was presented a stone for the "monument which is rising at Washington...."  The Washington Monument was then it's first phase of construction (1848-58) which would take it to an elevation of 152 feet. Memorial stones from the states and various countries were being placed in the interior stairwell of the monument. Currently there are 193 interior commemorative stones in the stairwell of the Monument. Perry also received stones for the Monument in June of 1854 from officials at Hakodate and Simoda. Unfortunately, the Lew Chew stone presented to Perry in 1854 never was encorporated into the monument. In 1989 the Prefecture of Okinawa provided a replacement stone (pictured above) for the Monument and it was placed at step 310 (310 of 897 steps).