Vietnam War Memorial March 12, Mary M. Mary C. Rosa Parks. Barack Obama. Hiram R. Kamala Harris. Frederick Douglass. Paul L. Phillis Wheatly. Martin L. King, Jr. Carter G. Most Popular! Washington, MD tourguidedc gmail. Site Links:. All Tours:. Built with private funds and receiving no money from the federal government nor the National Episcopal Church itself, construction had to be completed in phases over the past 83 years. The first part of the cathedral that was built was the Bethlehem Chapel, which still offers services to this day.
It was placed atop the foundation stone at what is now considered the crypt level of the building. Additionally, seven-story vaulted ceilings are a significant feature of the structure. Designed to transmit the weight of the roof and walls into the stone piers, the ceiling arches are capped by over boss stones throughout the structure.
The work would eventually be completed in , exactly 83 years after the date that the work first begun. Then-President George H. Bush attended the ceremony that saw the final finial placed on the west towers of the cathedral. After its completion, the National Cathedral has hosted a variety of events and remembrances. In the wake of the September 11, terrorist attacks, the cathedral held a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance Service on September 14, In after the death of former President Ronald Reagan, the cathedral was the site of his state funeral.
In and , the church held the respective national prayer services for then-President Barack Obama. It has since hosted the national prayer service for President Donald Trump in The day was August 23, , when a rare 5. With an epicenter within the Piedmont area of Virginia, the quake is tied as the largest of its kind within the United States East of the Rocky Mountains. It caused several aftershocks of up to a 4. Thankfully, only minor injuries and no deaths occurred as a result of the earthquake, but major damage was done to several buildings in the metropolitan area.
Unfortunately, the cathedral was one of those buildings. Several witnesses reported seeing elements of the structure shaking, twisting, and falling, according to Joe Alonso. He estimates that had the earthquake gone even seconds longer than the less-than-a-minute time it did, the damage could have been absolutely catastrophic both for the structure and those in and around the cathedral. Immediately following the earthquake, the cathedral shut down from the Tuesday of the Earthquake to the Saturday of that weekend.
Additionally, the in-house team, led by Joe Alonso, was brought in to assess the damage. Immediately after the earthquake, the team primarily focused on securing the building and planning for future repairs. An added challenge was that the cathedral would remain open during the repair process. Crews first installed 65 feet of scaffolding above the nave floor. This allowed crews to examine the vaulted ceilings and boss stones and provide any necessary cleaning.
Falling debris would be caught through the installation of netting. Outside the cathedral, the flying buttresses were the first place teams went. As the original buttresses did not have suitable reinforcement, teams drilled into them and installed steel rods around 25 feet in length. They were placed diagonally along the buttresses to provide stability in the event of another seismic event.
Any pieces that fell or were shaken loose from the rooftops were secured, and many still sit in the same spot to this day.
The interior of the building looks like it never has before, with boss stones resembling what their original form. The carvers assess each stone. With hammer and chisels, the carvers cut out damaged sections to create a clean, flat surface. The trick is to get a perfect match. He experiments with different tools, seeking to replicate the texture of the old piece. It seems to fit. Callahan and Uhl have deep respect and admiration for the work of the original craftsmen. He left it very choppy and very loose.
It looks like it was a lot more freehand. Alonso speaks with excitement about the opportunity the earthquake scaffolding has given them to view the craftsmanship on the oldest parts of the cathedral at close range. Andy and Sean love to be up there with all that old carving. They left the edges rough. It seems so coarse, but when you stand back, it really reads well.
When asked if they can tell there were different carvers working up on the central tower, their response is immediate. Some have a more delicate touch. Everyone has their own personal style, their own little idiosyncrasies.
For craftspeople in the building arts, restoration work expands their knowledge and skills, exposing them to different styles, materials, and methods, teaching them new techniques, giving them new challenges in their field.
That helps keep you interested in the work, when you still find things that are new each day. In order to speed up the work and reduce costs, the carvers combine age-old techniques with cutting-edge advances in 3-D scanning and robotics. Using damaged stones as templates, offsite engineers make 3-D digital scans of the stone elements.
A computer-guided robotic carving device then roughs out a replica from a block of Indiana limestone, creating a piece that is 75 percent complete. The roughed-out stone then goes to Callahan and Uhl in the shop to carve the fine details and finishing touches by hand. We can work together. Although using robotically roughed out stones saves time and money, there is a downside to this new technology.
The process of roughing out is one of the major ways that apprentices learn the craft. It takes months to get the feel of it. In carving workshops and on job sites, the fine detail work would never be undertaken by a novice carver. Mastering the craft requires years of hands-on experience, working with the tools and materials, developing dexterity and control, a steady hand and trained eye.
Alonso agrees.
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