If they're Chinese fireworks, then the irony will achieve perfection. Heh, wonder then how much China got for them?

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http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIJZCM3R2C.html

Dec 28, 1999 - 01:23 AM

Washington Monument as a Fiery Millennium 'waterfall' By Deb Riechmann Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - At midnight Dec. 31, the Washington Monument will turn into a giant sparkler. Brilliant white sparkles will cascade down the face of the obelisk, like a series of waterfalls that begin at the bottom and rise higher and higher as a new 55-foot segment is lit each second of a countdown ticking of the final seconds to the new century.

After 10 seconds, the entire 550-foot height will be shimmering.

It's sure to draw oooh's and aaah's from the big crowd expected to celebrate the millennium on the National Mall with President Clinton and a host of celebrities. But not everyone is excited about using the monument for the glitzy, century's-end finale.

One congressman said it's a "desecration" to use it for such a production. The National Park Service, charged with preserving the monument, initially protested the idea but acquiesced after the White House urged officials to find a way to make it happen.

The 114-year-old monument to the first president is encased by scaffolding for workers carrying out a $10 million restoration project.

"We just cleaned the monument and there was concern about putting fireworks up there that could cause black powder burns or whatever," said Dave Barna, chief spokesman for the Park Service. "We also have some concerns about whether that's the appropriate use for this monument."

The Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, said the pyrotechnic waterfalls affixed to the scaffolding point outward and will be about 6 feet from the face of the monument, far enough away to prevent damage.

"As far as we're concerned, it's a go," Barna said.

But he added that tests still were being conducted Monday to reassure officials that the structure would not be scarred. "They are not testing them on the monument. They're essentially wiring them up and seeing what happens behind them," Barna said. "They are replicating the conditions and the wind as best they can."

Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, isn't convinced.

In a Dec. 17 letter to President Clinton, Regula, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on Interior and related agencies, wrote: "A fireworks display attached to the monument is a desecration of the values inherent in our designation of such monuments."

Don't call them fireworks, said Philip Butler, chief pyrotechnician at Fireworks by Grucci Inc. of Long Island, N.Y., which is handling the show. They're "special effects," he said.

"It does not fire anything. This particular device is what we call a waterfall special effect," Butler said in a telephone interview.

"When it's lit, it doesn't fire, it drips," he said. "And as it falls, it looks like a waterfall. I describe it as thousands of diamonds falling."

The same "special effects" have been used at the Lincoln Center in New York and on the rooftop of the Smithsonian Institution in 1996 to celebrate its 150th anniversary, he said. They've even been used indoors at stage productions and hockey and basketball games.

"I assume you played with sparklers when you were a kid," Butler said. "It's very similar to a sparkler, but the material that makes that spark is steel; so it creates a yellow or gold effect. This effect is made out of aluminum; so it makes an electric-white effect. It will be spectacular."

AP-ES-12-28-99 0120EST ) Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Brought to you by the Tampa Bay Online Network

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 28, 1999

Answers

I agree...it's a desecration...but what do you expect from the people we have in D.C.? Like they give-A-crap?

-- Satanta (EventHoriz@n.com), December 28, 1999.