Consider the Washington Monuments roots.

Obelisks come to us from Egypt; they were used as representations of power. This particular image is of an obelisk commissioned by Ramses II. Obelisks were commissioned to place in front of temple entrances. They were representations of a petrified sun ray that was tribute to the sun god Amon. Obelisks were ordained with a multitude of hieroglyphs that told tales of victories of the Pharaoh that commissioned the obelisk. Obelisks were created from a single slab of red granite. The tips of the obelisks were usually ordained in gold. These monolithic symbols carried great significance to the Pharaoh's people. While an obelisks main purpose was to function as a tribute to the Egyptian god Amon, the association created by the Pharaoh when he records his great victories on the obelisk is also of great significance. The association the Pharaoh is making when recording his victories on an obelisk it that he is a pawn of Amon. The Pharaohs subjects now associate him with the highest of their gods, Amon. This association gives the Pharaoh the ability to lead his people and to have the godly association they demand from him. Obelisks after being discovered by the Greeks soon went on to be used for many reasons. Since the Greeks invasion of Egypt and the pillaging of these great monoliths, obelisks have been used throughout history for many reasons.

The Washington monument is great example of how the monolithic obelisk has gone on to live throughout history.
How many times have you stopped to think about this correlation? There are many reasons why this type of monument is significant to the person to which it stands for. Washington, a great figure of his time was someone we wanted to look up just like how the Pharaohs look to Amon for leadership. Even with the extreme differences of the purpose of an Egyptian obelisk to the Washington obelisk, we in a sense still look up to Washington. Washington was the first leader and creator of our country, just as Amon was for the Egyptians. Washington may not have been a god as Amon was but he was a founder of the country like Amon. Therefore why not create such a monolithic tribute to a founding father? This strong structure supports how strong of an influence Washington had and will have on the country. The fact that Washington was depicted by such a powerful monolithic structure supports this claim even more. If we think of this was a petrified sun ray to the Egyptians, we can see it in a different light of Washington himself being a beam of light and coming down to permanently touch his country. Obelisks may not have the same meanings as they did when they were used in Egyptian times but they still hold very true to their powerful presence. There is no wonder why we chose such a powerful symbol for such an influential man.

Yet by using the Obelisk we almost seem to elevate Washington to a God like status in an underlying way. The Obelisk stands very evident but we don't often stop to think about where it originated and what it had stood in its time of glory. In a sense we could say Washington has a God-like presence as he was considered a founding father of America. Just as pharaohs were considered to be founded vessels for the Egyptian god Amon. Whether or not the monument was meant to have implications about Washington being god-like is really an individuals perspective. We see in different visual perspectives with a multitude of images all around us but how do we tell when we have pulled to much information from the image? This question seems to be one of a great many answers.