OBITUARY NOTICES. 
377 
struction of the new building for the State, War, and Navy 
Departments, then about one-quarter built, the care and main¬ 
tenance of the Washington aqueduct, and the Office of Pub¬ 
lic Buildings and Grounds in the city of Washington. The 
condition of affairs at that time called for a strong, fearless, 
tactful, active, judicious officer, qualifications that Colonel 
Casey was known to possess. In a very short time the busi¬ 
ness and operations that had become loose and uncertain 
were proceeding by simple, direct, and expeditious methods, 
doubts as to the outcome being dispelled and large sums of 
money saved in all directions. In this way the State, War, 
and Navy building was completed, as proposed a few years 
before, on March 1, 1888. Had the Washington Aqueduct 
remained in his charge, instead of being transferred to other 
hands when the extension of the conduit to the heights north 
of the city was undertaken, the misfortune of the so-called 
Lydecker tunnel would never have occurred. 
Hardly had Colonel Casey mastered the main questions 
involved in the management of the construction of the great 
department building and the other affairs referred to when 
he was ordered to add to his duties that of engineer to the 
joint commission created by Congress for the completion of 
the Washington monument. For nearly a quarter of a cen¬ 
tury a short but heavy section, 156 feet in height, of a pro¬ 
posed obelisk of some 600 feet for this purpose, had stood 
awaiting the provision of means for its continuance and com¬ 
pletion. Finally the Congress accepted the responsibility, 
and received the work from the hands of the society which 
had hitherto had control of it. Investigation proved that 
the foundation was entirely inadequate to carry the proposed 
shaft, and that the first requisite was to sufficiently strengthen 
it, if possible and practicable. No adequate plan for this had 
been proposed, and when Colonel Casey took charge, on June 
25, 1878, he found himself face to face with an entirely new 
and most difficult engineering problem. The sentiment 
against removing the old masonry, and building entirely 
anew, with a new foundation, the great weight of the existing 
