The central tower on the Washington National Cathedral””the highest point in Washington, D.C.””suffered serious damage from the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the East Coast Tuesday. No one was injured.
The earthquake knocked off the cross-shaped finial stones on three of the four pinnacles that jut out from the top of the tower. The top of one pinnacle is leaning inward. Yellow police tape was roped across trees in front of the Cathedral and a steady trickle of gawkers stared up at the damaged 300-foot tower.
“At first I thought it felt something like a big wind,” Samuel Lloyd, dean of the cathedral, said in an interview. “Then I realized that nothing was blowing, but there was a rattling and a shaking everywhere.”
What’s there to say?
Crazy as this sounds, I had a dream about this six years ago, in June of 2005, and though you’re going to think I’m nuts, I’ll relate it to you.
In my dream, I dreamed that an Episcopal church tower identical to WC central tower was being repaired/rebuilt, with attention being paid specifically the tops of the pinnacles.
ECUSA was asking for donations to cover the repairs, and they were planning to make the pinnacles even taller and grander than they had been before, and add statuary,carvings, etc, but (and here’s where the dream gets weird/symbolic/just-plain-crazy) the donations that were being given were from sources that seemed, in my dream, to be soiled or nasty somehow – in the dream, all of the materials and building stone collected for the pinnacles consisted of salvaged construction materials leftover from building outhouses (privies).
That’s my dream… (..and if I see men in white coats coming to take me away soo, I honestly won’t blame you.)
Did a voice from Heaven say, “Goldndog, repair my church?”
Thank you for sharing that Goldndog. Sounds like a prophetic dream to me.
Does it strike anyone with holy fear that it is the crosses that were knocked off the tower? “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” Gal 6:7
Anclicanum, LOL!
No, nothing like that, but in the dream, I sent them some leftover masonry from my garden shed (only in the dream, it was an outhouse), and I woke up with an awful feeling…
Well, I’m with episcoanglican: sounds prophetic. Though the garden shed as an outhouse … yeah, that might concern your doctor. :+)
Hey now…
I live in a college town – if I didn’t keep my backyard gate locked, ANYTHING could be happening in that shed in the wee hours of the AM, and I’d never be the wiser! :+)
It makes sense that the tops of the pinnacles would be damaged because that is where there is the most sway with the least buttressing as everything moves back and forth. Also stones underneath are more-or-less kept in place by the mortar and weight of stones above them.
I went to school at the National Cathedral. Watched it being built as I grew up. Played hide and seek in the “grave yard” where they kept the stones before lifting them in place. It is an amazing place.
Unfortunately the cathedral was deliberately built using mediaeval building methods instead of using a modern steel infrastructure.
Thus, it was built before the usual earthquake standards came in (and continued to be built according to mediaval standards after the standards came in – it took almost a hundred years to build).
Architectural purists felt that medieval building methods, though unbelievably expensive, (and trust me – freezing cold in the winter) was the best way to honor God. However most engineers feel that an all stone structure is prone to heavy damage when earthquakes hit without a steel skeleton.
I remember that whenever anybody referred to the appropriateness of using mediaval building techniques, it was noted that the real foundation was Jesus Christ, and that no firmer foundation was needed.
[blockquote] ….it was noted that the real foundation was Jesus Christ, and that no firmer foundation was needed.[/blockquote]
And in light of that, how ironic is it that nothing HAS damaged it, until now….