Laser scanning to produce accurate Washington likeness

A 216-year-old sculpture – the most accurate and detailed rendering of George Washington in existence – will undergo a laser scan this year to produce a precise, three-dimensional depiction of the first US president.

The caretakers at Washington’s Mount Vernon estate plan to use the digital map to build life-like models of Washington that will be part of a new €74.4m museum and visitor centre.

A legislative committee has approved a plan to have experts from Arizona State University scan the statue in Virginia’s Capitol rotunda.

Mount Vernon wants to build models of Washington at the age of 19, as a young surveyor and frontiersman at 45, when he commanded the Continental Army at 57, and when he became president.