Washington National Cathedral

==Architecture==
[[File:National Cathedral Center.jpg|thumb|right|Looking east, looking up to the choir of the cathedral]]
[[File:Ceiling of Washington National Cathedral.JPG|thumb|right|Nave vaulting facing east]]
[[File:Nationalcathedral08.jpg|thumb|upright=0.5|Side view]]
The cathedral's final design shows a mix of influences from the various [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] architectural styles of the [[Middle Ages]], identifiable in its pointed [[arch]]es, [[flying buttress]]es, a variety of ceiling [[vault (architecture)|vaulting]], [[stained glass|stained-glass]] windows and carved decorations in stone, and by its three similar towers, two on the west front and one surmounting the [[crossing (architecture)|crossing]].

The structure consists of a long, narrow rectangular mass formed by a nine-[[Bay (architecture)|bay]] [[nave]] with wide side aisles and a five-bay [[chancel]], intersected by a six-bay [[transept]]. Above the crossing, rising {{cvt|301|ft}} above the ground, is the Gloria in Excelsis Tower; its top, at {{cvt|676|ft}} above [[sea level]], is the highest point in Washington.<ref name="facts" /> The Pilgrim Observation Gallery—which occupies a space about 3/4ths of the way up in the west-end towers—provides sweeping views of the city. Unique in North America, the central tower has two full sets of bells—a 53-bell [[carillon]] and a 10-bell peal for [[change ringing]]; the change bells are rung by members of the Washington Ringing Society.<ref name="facts" /> The cathedral sits on a landscaped {{convert|57|acre|adj=on}} plot on Mount Saint Alban.<ref name="facts" /> The one-story porch projecting from the south transept has a large portal with a carved [[tympanum (architecture)|tympanum]]. This portal is approached by the Pilgrim Steps, a long flight of steps {{convert|40|ft}} wide.

Most of the building is constructed using a buff-colored [[Indiana limestone]] over a traditional masonry core. Structural, load-bearing steel is limited to the roof's trusses (traditionally built of timber); concrete is used significantly in the support structures for bells of the central tower, and the floors in the west towers.

The [[pulpit]] was carved out of stones from [[Canterbury Cathedral]]; [[Glastonbury Abbey]] provided stone for the bishop's formal seat, the [[cathedra]]. The high altar, the Jerusalem Altar, is made from stones quarried at [[Solomon's Quarry]] near [[Jerusalem]], reputedly where the stones for [[Solomon's Temple]] were quarried. In the floor directly in front of that altar are set ten stones from the Chapel of Moses on [[Mount Sinai]], representing the Ten Commandments as a foundation for the Jerusalem Altar.

There are many other works of art including over two hundred stained glass windows,<ref name="facts" /> the most familiar of which may be the Space Window, honoring mankind's [[Project Apollo|landing on the Moon]], which includes a fragment of [[lunar rock]] at its center;<ref name="facts" /> the rock was presented at the dedication service on July 21, 1974, the fifth anniversary of the [[Apollo 11]] mission.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 12, 2012 |title=The Space Window at the U.S. National Cathedral |url=http://www.space.com/17575-space-window-national-cathedral-pictures.html |access-date=September 16, 2012 |website=Space.com}}</ref> Extensive wrought iron adorns the building, much of it the work of [[Samuel Yellin]]. A substantial gate of forged iron and carbon steel by [[Albert Paley]] was installed on the north side of the crypt level in 2008. Intricate woodcarving, wall-sized murals and mosaics, and monumental cast bronze gates can also be found. Most of the interior decorative elements have Christian symbolism, in reference to the church's Episcopal roots, but the cathedral is filled with memorials to persons or events of national significance: statues of [[George Washington|Washington]] and [[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln]], state seals embedded in the marble floor of the [[narthex]], state flags that hang along the nave, stained glass commemorating events like the [[Corps of Discovery|Lewis and Clark expedition]] and the raising of the [[Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima|American flag at Iwo Jima]].

The cathedral was built with several intentional "flaws" in keeping with an apocryphal medieval custom that sought to illustrate that only God can be perfect.{{dubious|date=December 2012}} Artistically speaking, these flaws (which often come in the form of intentional asymmetries) draw the observer's focus to the [[sacred geometry]] as well as compensate for visual distortions, a practice that has been used since the [[Egyptian pyramids|Pyramids]] and the [[Parthenon]].{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} The architects designed the crypt chapels in Norman, Romanesque, and Transitional styles predating the Gothic, as though the cathedral had been built as a successor to earlier churches, a common occurrence in European cathedrals.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}}

Numerous [[grotesque]]s and [[gargoyle]]s adorn the exterior, most of them designed by the carvers; one of the more famous of these is a caricature of then-master carver [[Roger Morigi]] on the north exterior of the nave. There were also two competitions held for the public to provide designs to supplement those of the carvers. The second of these produced the famous [[Darth Vader grotesque]] which is high on the northwest tower, sculpted by Jay Hall Carpenter and carved by Patrick J. Plunkett.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cathedral.org/what-to-see/exterior/vader/ |title=Darth Vader 'Gargoyle' |website=Washington National Cathedral}}</ref>

The west facade follows an iconographic program of Creation rather than that of the [[Last Judgement]] as was traditional in medieval churches. All of the sculptural work was designed by [[Frederick Hart (sculptor)|Frederick Hart]] and features tympanum carvings of the creation of the Sun and Moon over the outer doors and the creation of man over the center. Hart also sculpted the three statues of Adam and Saints Peter and Paul. The west doors are cast bronze rather than wrought iron. The west rose window, often used as a trademark of the cathedral, was designed by Rowan LeCompte and is an abstract depiction of the creation of light. LeCompte, who also designed the clerestory windows and the mosaics in the Resurrection Chapel, chose a nonrepresentational design because he feared that a figural window could fail to be seen adequately from the great distance to the nave.

The cathedral contains a basement, which was intentionally flooded during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] to provide emergency drinking water in the event of a [[nuclear war]].<ref name="RavenRock">{{Cite book |title=Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself – While the Rest of Us Die |last=Graff |first=Garrett M. |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=2017}}</ref>

===Architects===
[[File:Washington National Cathedral ironwork.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.5|Detail of cast bronze gate]]
The cathedral's master plan was designed by [[George Frederick Bodley]] (founder of [[Watts & Co.]]), a highly regarded British Gothic Revival architect of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, and was influenced by Canterbury. Landscape architect [[Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.]] contributed a landscaping plan for the cathedral close and [[Nellie B. Allen]] designed a knot garden for the Bishop's Garden. After Bodley died in 1907, his partner [[Henry Vaughan (Architect)|Henry Vaughan]] revised the original design, but work stopped during [[World War I]] and Vaughan died in 1917.

When work resumed after [[World War I|the war]], the chapter hired Boston architecture firm Frohman, Robb and Little to execute the building. [[Philip Hubert Frohman]], who had designed his first fully functional home at age&nbsp;14 and received his architectural degree at age&nbsp;16, and his partners worked to perfect Bodley's vision, adding the carillon section of the central tower, enlarging the west [[façade]], and making numerous smaller changes. [[Ralph Adams Cram]] was hired to supervise Frohman, because of his experience with the [[Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York|Cathedral of St.&nbsp;John the Divine]], [[New York City|New York]], but Cram insisted on so many major changes to the original design that Frohman convinced the cathedral chapter to fire him. By Frohman's death in 1972, the final plans had been completed and the building was finished accordingly.

===Images of architectural details===
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Donation thanks engraving The Washington National Cathedral.jpg|Donation Thanks Engraving
File:Narthex vaulting in Washington National Cathedral.jpg|Vaulting in northwest cloister
File:Pilgrim Observation Gallery Washington National Cathedral.jpg|Pilgrim Observation Gallery
File:Buttresses The Washington National Cathedral.jpg|[[Flying buttress]]es
File:The Washington National Cathedral at Sunset.JPG|Side view of The Washington National Cathedral, with earthquake construction
File:Ohio placard in entrance hall of the Washington National Cathedral.JPG|There is a [[placard]] for every state from the United States
File:Lee lawrie washington.jpg|Statue of [[George Washington]] (by [[Lee Lawrie]])
File:SpaceWindow.jpg|The Space Window
File:GITMO Washington National Cathedral.jpg|GITMO stone inscribed in 1964 as a gift to the cathedral from those at [[Guantanamo Bay Naval Base]]
File:Mount Sinai stone at The Washington National Cathedral.jpg|Mount Sinai stone
File:Womens Stone Washington National Cathedral.jpg|Women's porch
File:Tympanum Washington National Cathedral.jpg|South transept [[Tympanum (architecture)|tympanum]]
File:South portal sculpture Washington National Cathedral.jpg|Detail of figures flanking south doors
File:Painting of Jesus' burial at Washington National Cathedral.JPG|Encaustic mural of the burial of Jesus in the Chapel of St. [[Joseph of Arimathea]]
File:Robert E Lee Stain Glass.JPG|Stained glass window depicting major events of the life of Confederate General [[Robert E. Lee]]; removed in 2017
File:Stonewall Jackson Stain Glass.JPG|Stained glass window depicting the life of [[Stonewall Jackson]]; removed in 2017
File:Charles Warren Stain Glass.JPG|Stained glass depicting [[Charles Warren (U.S. author)|Charles Warren]]
File:Stain Glass Andrew Mellon.JPG|Stained glass dedicated to [[Andrew Carnegie]]
File:Darth vader grotesque.jpg|[[Darth Vader Grotesque]]
File:Washington National Cathedral crucifix above main altar.JPG|The [[rood]] in the chancel arch, high above the screen separating the [[nave]] from the [[Choir (architecture)|choir]]
</gallery>