Washington National Cathedral

Thursday morning it was time to leave D.C. Our last stop in the city was at the Washington National Cathedral (home of the Episcopal Church). When we arrived we asked about tours and were told that a Methodist group would be coming through in a few minutes and we were welcome to join up with them. Our guide was great and led us around the Cathedral and I learned a lot.

For instance, I learned that the reason it’s called a cathedral is because it has a cathedra. I’d always thought that being a cathedral referred to the size of the church but actually it refers to a church into which a bishop's official cathedra is installed. Hence a small church could be a cathedral if it has a cathedra.

The architecture was beautiful. The Cathedral is a solid masonry structure. The limestone blocks are laid one on top of the other, with mortar between them. The flying buttresses are also solid stone, and they help hold up the walls by bracing them. The roof is held up by a steel beam structure, but does not help hold up the rest of the Cathedral. If you removed the roof and booms, the Cathedral would stay standing. Actual construction of the cathedral lasted 83 years!

There are over two hundred stained glass windows in the cathedral. One stained glass window had a very celestial look to it and we learned that it was put in around the time of the Space Race and there’s actually a piece of lunar rock in the center of the window.

Walking past the organ I learned that it has 10,647 pipes! Below is a picture of the choir room.

One thing I found really cool was the hand stitched kneelers. There is one for every president and others recognizing notable Americans. You can submit a sample of your work and if you are picked then you get to sew one!

The cathedral is the sixth largest in the world and the second largest in the United States. There was much more to it but alas, our tour only covered the main chapels.I was quite impressed with the Washington National Cathedral.