... adrien and i visited "the cathedral church of saint peter and saint paul in the city and diocese of washington," more commonly referred to as the washington national cathedral ...
... this gothic style church, the sixth-largest in the world, is a "cathedral" because it is the seat for both the presiding episcopal bishop and the bishop of the diocese of washington d.c. ...
... the small black dot in the center of the large magenta circle is a slice of rock brought back from the moon by the apollo 11 astronauts ...
... the afternoon sun streams through the stained glass windows, bathing the stones in a constantly changing kaleidoscopic stream ...
... over 1/10th mile in length, the washington monument would fit within the cathedral's central aisle ...
... high in the rear balcony adrien pointed out to me this unusual perspective ...
... evidence that the building is also a workplace ...
... one of the major defining elements of gothic architecture, the "flying buttresses" transfer the tremendous weight of the roof sideways and then down to the earth, thus allowing the side walls, now freed from having to carry structural weight, to be opened up for the stained glass windows ...
... everywhere are fascinating details ...
... noah's ark as a decorative armrest ...
... and a knight, too, perhaps on crusade to "free" the holy land ...
... there are 215 stained glass windows in the cathedral ...
... adrien lit a candle for a friend ...
... as much as i appreciate the capabilities of my fuji x-t1's x-trans cmos II digital sensor, this is a building for which kodachrome color transparency film remains the gold standard ...
... each of the cathedral's thousands and thousands of component stones was hand carved ... although the building was completed years ago, this process has begun anew in order to repair the $25,000,000 worth of damage caused by the virginia earthquake of 2011 ... fortunately, mostly because of the dynamic nature of gothic architecture, there was no major structural damage ...
... unfortunately, during the 83 years of its construction no clear plan was implemented to provide it with continuing funding, so if you like really cool buildings and you've got $200,000,000 spare change lying around, i'm sure bishop mariann edgar would dearly love to hear from you ...
... if you haven't already done so, i highly recommend you make your own wanderabout within the national cathedral ... no matter your particular religious or theologic beliefs, this is a most fascinating place ...
The principle of the Gothic architecture
is infinity made imaginable.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE