Evening star., 1923-12-20
National Cathedral Viewed
As Dominating the Centuries
Being Built to Contrast All Similar Struc-
tures of Present Day--Superior Mate
rial and Superior Work Employed.

The National Cathedral OF Wash
ington is being built to outlast all
The cathedrals OF Europe for many
hundreds OF years. 1t will also
dominate the horizon in Washington
long after many other monumental
buildings in Washington have
Crumbled to dust
This is not an idle prediction. it is
matter of science, says Thomas w.
Mcknew, superintendent of construc-
tion for the George A. Fuller Com
pany. who was choir boy in the
first cathedral choir years ago. En-
Eineering methods are today so far
ahead of the engineering methods of
one hundred years ago, that as a
matter of history. the National
Cathedral will be that much better
built.
The average building. either COM
IEercial or public, under erection to-
day, with few exceptions, such
the Lincoln Memorial. is not erected
primarily with the idea Of lasting
through the ages. FQr example. in
most structures today reinforced con-
crete is used in the important parts
"i the foundation. But as a matter
"f fact, reinforced concrete as a
method Of building construction is
scarcely out Of its infancy. and no
engineer is able to foretell the action
of steel in tension for such a long
period as the cathedral is expected
10 last. In the building OF the
Washington Cathedral therefore, no
chances are being taken with ex-
periments of this kind in the founda-
r1on where nothing but solid concrete
which is as enduring as stone is
used. OF course engineers cannot. or
DO not. say that reinforced concrete
may not last hundreds Of years but
IN building like the National
Cathedral they are taking no chances
and are proceeding only with proved
ehGineering and architectural formulae
ana facts.
l.: What Comparison shows.
Comparing the construction being
used in the Washington Cathedral
with that employed by the builders
Of the middle ages in such well
known structures as Canterbury
cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, Peter
borough or Winchester CathedraIs
1t might be Well to note that while
these well known and much visited
works of architecture are still stand
ing after five or six hundred years
IT is not because they were sub
stantially constructed In the case
of the Peterborough Cathedral, rec
ords show that the central tower has
construction methods and because Of
the lack OF the skilled engineering
knowledge that the modern engineers
erecting the National Cathedral have.
The Lincoln Cathedral is now said
10 he in very dangerous condition
where cracks appear in various i'm
portant places in the walls and
towers. The south wing has re-
GENTLY been braced by a system of
buttresses to prevent its total col
l1rcp The r2tba6raIG ~ W ellis
Salisbury ought 20 be internally
buttressed in order to prevent the
collapse of the central towers If
these cathedrals still stand with
such construction we can expect the
Washington Cathedral to stand much
longer.
False Tradition Cited.
There is a. false tradition about
cathedral building that exists through
out the world, and it is repeated
with great conviction by individuals
of more than average intelligence
This tradition is to the effect that it
is wrong to build a cathedral in any
thing less than one to two hundred
years because say these individuals.
the European cathedrals were hun
dreds of years in building. OF course
they might add that many of them
remain today unfinished.
There is, as a matter OF fact, no
reason why a cathedral should not be
built as we'll in rev years as IN a
hundred years. The difficulty with
most of the European cathedrals was
that money was not forthcoming to
complete them and sometimes they
stood for a hundred years is uncom-
pleted as the National Cathedral
stands today. The actual building,
when under way, covered period of
no more than ten to twenty-five years
in any instance.
Just how this tradition of cathe-
dral building developed is illustrated
from time to time in the fact that SO
many of the European cathedrals
have had to be rebuilt. Canterbury
Cathedral, for instance, has been re-
built in part about ten times because
the towers. walls or floors had be-
come dangerous. These rebuilding
periods occurred twice in the elev-
enth century, twice in the twelfth
century, once in the fourteenth, fif-
teenth and sixteenth centuries. and
there have been three distinct re-
building operations in the nineteenth
century. Even now some of the ca
thedrals of England would be con-
demned as unsafe by the building in
Spector of any modern American city.
To build the National Cathedral in
five years instead of spreading the