The Washington Monument stands, appropriately, in the center of the Mall, Looking toward the Capitol, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial, as well as over the Potomac toward the Virginia countryside. Washington was, in the words of one biogrpher, the “indispensable man,” a judgment shared by most historians. Three times he answered his country's call, and each time his contribution was critical: winning the war (and holding the revolution together for seven years); presiding over the contentious Constitutional Convention (and thereby being the first signer of that document); and setting the tone as America's first president under the Constitution.