Alex Brandon / AP

Scaffolding surrounds the Washington Monument in Washington. The monument has been closed since a 2011 earthquake.

Alex Brandon / AP

A missing corner of a stone is seen in the Washington Monument at the 491-foot level. Half of the needed repairs have been funded by a $7.5 million donation from philanthropist David Rubenstein.

Most birds don't fly high enough to see the top of the Washington Monument, though that didn't stop a group of government officials and philanthropists from clipping themselves into harnesses and climbing to the tip to see the obelisk's cracked stones.

Some gashes in the monument are deep, while other stones had their corners chipped off in a 2011 earthquake that closed the monument. Some stones have hairline cracks. Others are missing mortar between stones because it broke apart due to the strongest vibrations near the top. At least one massive stone shifted a thumb's length out of line with the stone below it during the quake.

Stone by stone, engineers are reviewing cracks, missing pieces and broken mortar now that huge scaffolding has been built around the towering symbol of the nation's capital. Once each trouble spot is identified, repairs can begin. Read the full story.

Alex Brandon / AP

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, center, speaks after climbing a ladder to the top of the monument's pyramid.

Alex Brandon / AP

Repairs have begun on a crack at the 231-foot level. Once each trouble spot is identified, repairs can begin.

Alex Brandon / AP

The shadow of the Washington Monument and surrounding scaffolding is seen from the 231-foot level looking toward the World War II Memorial and Lincoln Memorial.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Images taken on on June 2, 2013 and made available to NBC News today.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

The Washington Monument is reflected as a couple walk hand-in-hand beneath cherry trees along the Tidal Basin in Washington on April 8, 2013. The National Cherry Blossom Festival is in full swing, with peak bloom occurring early this week.

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From the National Cherry Blossom Festival website:

The beautiful and delicate cherry blossoms cultivated in the National Mall and Memorial Parks have inspired generations of viewers since 1912. A gift from Japan, the flowering trees symbolize friendship between nations, the renewal of spring, and the ephemeral nature of life.

Click to view live video from EarthCam’s Cherry Blossoms Cam

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Same-sex marriage supporters demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court on March 27, in Washington, D.C.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

A demonstrator holds a Bible while marching outside the Supreme Court in Washington, on March 26, as the court heard arguments on California's voter approved ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8.

Pete Marovich / Zuma Press

Pro same-sex marriage activist Ryan Toney, 18, of Washington, D.C. stands in front of the Supreme Court in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images

Opponents of same-sex marriage participate in the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C. on March 26.

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

Same-sex marriage supporters and same-sex marriage opponents argue their points in front of the US Supreme Court on March 26, in Washington, D.C.

Demonstrators for and against same-sex marriage rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court with signs on Tuesday and Wednesday, as the court heard cases on California's Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act.

Related content:

• PhotoBlog: Same-sex marriage supporters gather outside US Supreme Court for hearings
• Court hears case for same-sex benefits
• First Read: The culture wars return — and this time the left is leading the fight

Win McNamee / Getty Images

A llama seeks shelter next to an abandoned school bus at Cox Farms on March 6, 2013, in Centreville, Va. A winter storm hit the Washington, D.C., area, with areas west of the city receiving significant snowfall but the city itself seeing minimal snow.

Slideshow: Snow blankets Midwest, heads east

Jim Mone / AP

A storm system stretching from the Dakotas to the Florida Panhandle is bringing snow to the mid-Atlantic states.

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NBC News reports:

A swirling, sloppy winter storm brought the nation’s capital to a crawl Wednesday, forcing federal offices to close and threatening to dump the heaviest snow in Washington in two years.

The snow was much heavier over West Virginia and Virginia. Linden, Va., had almost 11 inches on the ground Wednesday morning, according to The Weather Channel. Warrenton, Va., had 7 inches, according to NBC Washington.

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Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, left to right, President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner attend the unveiling of a statue of Rosa Parks at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 27, 2013. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in segregated Montgomery, Ala., on Dec. 1, 1955. Parks' act of defiance and the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern civil rights movement.

NBC News reports:

More than half a century after she refused to give up her seat on an Alabama city bus, Rosa Parks has an immovable place in the U.S. Capitol — the first black woman to be honored with a statue there.

President Barack Obama and congressional leaders from both parties said at an unveiling Wednesday that the depiction was fitting.

“Rosa Parks’ singular act of disobedience launched a movement,” Obama said. “The tired feet of those who walked the dusty roads of Montgomery helped a nation see that to which it had once been blind.”

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Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA

On her last day as US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton bids farewell to staff members in the lobby of the State Department in Washington DC, on Feb. 1, 2013.

By Michael O'Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton formally resigned her post at the State Department on Friday, saying she is "confident about the direction that we have set."

In remarks at the diplomatic agency's Foggy Bottom headquarters, Clinton waxed about the familiar atmosphere at the State Department during her four years as secretary, an environment she said would extend to incoming Secretary John Kerry.

"Next week, I would expect that all of you will be as focused and dedicated for Secretary Kerry as you have been for me, and that you will continue to serve Presisdent Obama and our nation with the same level of professionalism and commitment that I have seen firsthand," she told throngs of department staff gathered for her remarks.  Continue Reading...

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Years before he was a senator, John Kerry, testified about the war in Vietnam before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington D.C., on April 22, 1971.

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

Forty two years later, John Kerry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations committee for the last time as a senator during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 24.

In John Kerry’s farewell speech on the Senate floor yesterday, the former democratic senator from Massachusetts alluded to the first time he spoke to the Senate in 1971.

During his speech, Kerry said he came “not with my vote, but with my voice — and that is why the end of my tenure here is in many ways a bookend.” He continued:

Forty-two years ago, I testified before Senator Fulbright’s Foreign Relations Committee about the realities of war in Vietnam.

It wasn't until last week that I would sit before that Committee again, this time testifying in my own confirmation hearing. It completed a circle, which I could never have imagined drawing, but one our founders surely did: that a citizen voicing his opinion about a matter of personal and national consequence could one day use that voice as a senator, as the Chairman of that same Committee before which he had once testified a private citizen.

And then as the President’s nominee for Secretary of State — that is a fitting representation of what we mean when we talk about a government of the people, for the people and by the people.

Several days before his Senate testimony in 1971, Kerry appeared on Meet the Press, telling NBC’s Robert Goralski:

We are down here to demand that those who call themselves the most committed of all in this country, namely the senators and congressmen who have been talking peace for the past few years, that these men exercise their responsibility, granted them by the constitution of this country, to end this war.

That is what we are here to demand, and we are here to demand it because we are the men who have seen what is happening in Southeast Asia. And we believe that there is no reason, and no excuse, and no justification, for the loss of one more American life there, or for the loss of more Vietnamese. This war can be ended, and should be ended now, and that is what we are here to say.

Watch Kerry’s full appearance on Meet the Press.

The Senate confirmed Kerry to be secretary of state on Tuesday.

Slideshow: 57 faces of the 57th inauguration

Benjamin Lowy / Getty Images Reportage for NBC News

As people attending the second inauguration of President Barack Obama trained their eyes on the historic event, photojournalist Benjamin Lowy trained his lens on them.

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“There is something about Americans glancing up,” said photojournalist Ben Lowy. “As Americans we’re always looking forward to the future. It doesn't matter if we’re black, white, yellow, or brown, we look the same when we look up.”

This concept is what attracted Lowy, represented by Getty Images Reportage, to the National Mall in Washington D.C. on a chilly morning in January. His personal mission was to capture as many individual faces “watching history go by” at the second inauguration of Barack Obama. It’s indirectly a continuation of a project he started while covering the political conventions in 2012, he said.

Lowy said when he looked closely at the faces of the convention attendees, “ I couldn't really tell the Republicans from the Democrats.”

“We’re all taking part in democracy,” he said. “Whether you were a member of the 47 percent who voted for Mitt Romney or you voted for Obama in 2012, we’re Americans no matter what.”

In total Lowy captured more than 2,000 portraits on Monday, and we present 57 of his photographs in the slideshow linked above to commemorate the 57^th Inauguration.

Related Links:

• Slideshow:  The second Inauguration of Barack Obama
  
• PhotoBlog: More images from the inauguration
• Obama takes ceremonial oath, tells nation 'our journey is not complete

Chris Usher / EPA

A group of people on the National Mall react as President Barack Obama is ceremonially sworn in for a second term as the 44th President of the United States in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21.

Mario Tama / Getty Images

Quinnette Ellis from Tampa Bay, Fla., stands with flags near the U.S. Capitol building on the National Mall after the Inauguration ceremony on Jan. 21 in Washington, D.C.

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

People cheer on the National Mall during the ceremonial swearing-in ceremonies on the West front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21.

Eric Thayer / Reuters

Spectators react on the National Mall during the 57th inauguration ceremony for President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on the West front of the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21.

Drew Angerer / EPA

Flags fly as the crowd on the National Mall cheers during inauguration ceremonies on Jan. 21.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Gustavo Cinfuentes, left, and Greg Josken listen as President Barack Obama speaks during his public swearing-in ceremony as they stand on the National Mall during the Inauguration ceremony on Jan. 21 in Washington, D.C.

Mario Tama / Getty Images

Revelers celebrate in front of the Washington Monument near the U.S. Capitol building on the National Mall while attending the public inauguration ceremony on Jan. 21 in Washington, D.C.

Mario Tama / Getty Images

People gather near the U.S. Capitol building on the National Mall while attending the public inauguration ceremony on Jan. 21 in Washington, D.C.

Pete Marovich / EPA

Spectators arrive for the inauguration ceremonies of President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C, on Jan. 21.

Related content:

• Obama takes ceremonial oath, tells nation 'our journey is not complete
• Inauguration social gallery: A real-time view of images around the Capitol and the U.S.
• Complete coverage at NBC News Politics
• View more inauguration photos on PhotoBlog

Slideshow:

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Festivities for President Barack Obama's second inauguration.

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