The Washington D.C. Temple (formerly the Washington Temple) is the 18th constructed and 16th operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It is located in Kensington, Maryland, United States, just north of Washington, D.C., near the Capital Beltway. The temple was dedicated in 1974 after an open house that attracted over 750,000 people, including several international dignitaries. The temple was the first temple built by the church east of the Mississippi River since 1846, when the original Nauvoo Temple was dedicated. Built at a cost of about $15 million in 1968, the temple is the church's tallest; its easternmost spire is tall. Its floor area of is the third-largest among church temples. Its design emulates the Salt Lake Temple with six spires, three on each end, and the building is encased in white Alabama marble. History Plans to build the temple were announced on November 15, 1968, with a groundbreaking ceremony held on December 7. Clearing of the land started May 28, 1971. The site chosen for the temple was a wooded hill purchased in 1962 just north of the Capital Beltway. Only of the site was cleared to give the area a more remote feeling. It was completed and dedicated in 1974. It was the LDS Church's first U.S. temple built east of the Mississippi River since 1846 and remained the church's only temple in eastern North America until the dedication of the Atlanta Georgia Temple in 1983. At the time of the temple's completion, it served all Latter-day Saint members in 31 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, seven Canadian provinces, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic. Original cost estimates for the temple were about $15 million. Members of the church within the temple's attendance district were asked to contribute at least $4.5 million. Eventually, local members donated around $6 million for the temple's construction. At a completion ceremony the church's First Presidency buried a metal box with historical items near a corner of the temple. During the first week of the temple open house, government officials and diplomats from around the world were taken on special tours through the building. The open house continued for seven weeks and over 750,000 people went through the temple. The high number of people that attended the open house was attributed to the large amount of coverage that the temple