National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark Plaque
The San Jacinto Memorial Monument is not just tall; it is groundbreakingly tall. In 1992, the American Society of Civil Engineers named it a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in recognition of the many innovations required to build it.
When the project was conceived in 1935, no one had ever built a structure quite like the San Jacinto Monument. Not only was it the world's tallest free-standing masonry tower, but it was also built on expansive soil, which means that the ground beneath the Monument grows and shrinks as it gets wet and then dries. Additionally, its location on the Gulf Coast meant that the tall, slender Monument had to be able to withstand hurricane winds. As a result, traditional construction methods were either impractical or prohibitively expensive, and the contractor, W.S. Bellows, had to think outside the box.
The construction techniques used to pour the foundation, the use of stone facing as the formwork for the structural concrete, and the development of the tower’s scaffolding system were unique to this project, and the pioneering spread footing foundation developed to support the Monument despite the movement of the soil laid the groundwork for future high-rise buildings along the Gulf Coast.