BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Washington Natl Cathedral -- Event: Quake work

DC -- Washington Natl Cathedral -- Event: Quake work:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. NCATHQ_170907_008.JPG: Earthquake Update The Earthquake: On August 23, 2011, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake shook the East Coast, causing over $34 million in damage to Washington National Cathedral. While the Cathedral withstood the quake largely intact, buttresses cracked, large limestone pinnacles twisted and hand-carved finials fell. Work Completed: Through private donations only, the Cathedral was able to raise $10 in the two years following the earthquake to complete the Phase 1 repairs to restore the interior and provide seismic reinforcements and repairs to six flying buttresses on the east end. This work was completed in June 2015. Not Done Yet: While the Cathedral's interior earthquake damage has been fully repaired, nearly 87% of the exterior still needs restoration and reinforcement. In March 2016, we began the first part of Phase 2 earthquake efforts, but we have $22 million left to go. The remaining work can only be completed as gifts are given by donors, foundations and everyday people who join us in reviewing this house of prayer for all people.
2. NCATHQ_170907_012.JPG: It's Our Anniversary! Six years ago, on August 23, 2011, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake shook the east coast -- and the Cathedral. Today is the anniversary of that event. Since then, preservation work -- and fundraising efforts -- have continued nonstop. Learn more about the ongoing earthquake restoration at cathedral.org/earthquake
3. NCATHQ_170907_024.JPG: The Damage
4. NCATHQ_170907_077.JPG: The Choice of the Gothic Style: In 1907, when Washington DC's first Episcopal bishop, Henry Yates Satterlee, and the Cathedral's governing body embarked on building soaring, 300-foot-high, elegantly carved structure on this site, should they have opened for a different architectural design or chosen a building material other than Indian limestone, in light of a once-a-century risk of earthquake damage? No. As Cathedral Mason Foreman Joe Alonso will attest, Indiana limestone was the best choice for building an English Gothic cathedral of the size, and its use here did not increase the structure's vulnerability to earthquake damage. Tall stone Gothic cathedrals are in fact ideally structured to balance normal dynamic loads (such as wind) and static loads (such as the heavy weight of the stone piers) by their characteristic features: pointed arches, vaulted ceilings, and flying buttresses. These features are purposely placed to maximize stone's capacity to support the building. As such, Gothic structures represent an ingenious innovation in architectural engineering. Well before Gothic architecture was developed in twelfth-century France, iconic stone buildings like the Parthenon in Greece masked their means of support with stone decorative panels. At least once during Washington National Cathedral's 83-year construction period, the Cathedral withstood a magnitude 4.3 earthquake without being damaged. The years was 1969 and the earthquake's source was nearby West Virginia. By contrast, the power of the 2011 earthquake released hundreds of times more energy than the 1969 earthquake, producing significant forces throughout the building and rotating some of the topmost Cathedral stones: pinnacles, on the towers and buttress piers.
5. NCATHQ_170907_092.JPG: August 2017 Update The Damage You Can Help
6. NCATHQ_170910_05.JPG: Why Are These Stones Here? The limestone pinnacles were damaged in the August 23, 2011, earthquake here. The ground shook for less than a minute but caused the 301-foot central tower of Washington National Cathedral to whip back and forth. Some of the 50-ton pinnacles (decorative points on the tower) spun like tops and others fell onto the roof. Stone masons Joe Alonso and Andy Uhl relocated the stones to the ground level with the help of a multi-ton crane (above). The larger stones weigh two tons and are from the central tower's southwest grand pinnacle. The smaller stones are from the buttress pinnacle at the south transept's southeast corner. Months of carving will be required to repair and replace these pinnacle stones. As an example, the larger stones from the central tower's southwest grand pinnacle displayed here, will require a stone carver 32 weeks to re-carve, at an estimated cost of $60,000. To learn more, please visit the earthquake exhibition, Though the Earth Be Moved, located in the Cathedral. For the latest information on earthquake repairs and ways to contribute to the restoration fund, visit www.nationalcathedral.org
7. NCATHQ_171217_01.JPG: Earthquake Update
8. NCATHQ_171217_04.JPG: August 2017 Update
9. NCATHQ_171217_53.JPG: This finial was set atop the southwest pinnacle of the Central Tower in the fall of 1963. During the August 23, 2011 earthquake, the top four courses of stone, including the finial, fell from the pinnacle and landed on the roof of the tower, breaking into three pieces. Cathedral masons stabilized it and placed it in this Finial Garden. All Hallows Guild was pleased to incorporate this historic sculpture into its 2013 revitalization of the Bishop's Garden.
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- Washington Natl Cathedral -- Event: Quake work) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2022_DC_NCath_Quake: DC -- Washington Natl Cathedral -- Event: Quake work (4 photos from 2022)
- 2021_DC_NCath_Quake: DC -- Washington Natl Cathedral -- Event: Quake work (2 photos from 2021)
- 2014_DC_NCath_Quake: DC -- Washington Natl Cathedral -- Event: Quake work (59 photos from 2014)
- 2011_DC_NCath_Quake: DC -- Washington Natl Cathedral -- Event: Quake results (80 photos from 2011)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Religious] [Washington National Cathedral] [Display ALL Washington National Cathedral photos]
2017 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Trips this year: Civil War Trust conferences in Pensacola, FL, Chattanooga, TN (via sites in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) and Fredericksburg, VA, a family reunion in The Dells, Wisconsin (via sites in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin), New York City, and my 12th consecutive San Diego Comic Con trip (including sites in Arizona). For some reason, several of my photos have been published in physical books this year which is pretty cool. Ones that I know about: "Tarzan, Jungle King of Popular Culture" (David Lemmo), "The Great Crusade: A Guide to World War I American Expeditionary Forces Battlefields and Sites" (Stephen T. Powers and Kevin Dennehy), "The American Spirit" (David McCullough), "Civil War Battlefields: Walking the Trails of History" (David T. Gilbert), "The Year I Was Peter the Great: 1956 — Khrushchev, Stalin's Ghost, and a Young American in Russia" (Marvin Kalb), and "The Judge: 26 Machiavellian Lessons" (Ron Collins and David Skover). Number of photos taken this year: just below 560,000.
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