When the work is done, they will dismantle the buildings and haul them to a site above the Potomac River across from Harpers Ferry. There, the interlocking pieces will be reassembled, like a child s toy. The only thing easy about this is thinking about it, says project leader Frank Turk, laughing. It looks neat, but it s an awful lot of work. A lot of people get disillusioned.
Daily progress is measured one log at a time.
The timber is trucked in as 20-foot loblolly pine tree trunks. Workers peel away the bark and prepare the wood for the more-skilled volunteers with chain saws, who cut the notches in each end that will mesh with the log laid on top of it. Fine-tuning each notch is done by hand chisel. It can take hours to get two logs to fit snugly together. Volunteers grunt and strain each time they have to lift the pieces for more chiseling.