Twelve years ago, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in Louisa County, Virginia, rattled D.C., causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to the National Cathedral and rocking the Washington Monument.
Today, the cathedral remains wrapped in scaffolding and still needs at least another $14 million to complete the repairs.
"I've been here since 1985," said Joe Alonso, the head stone mason at the cathedral. "When they hired me on back then, it was seasonal work for a stone mason, and I knew I had guaranteed nine months of work."
Alonso, who had the honor of laying the final stone on the top of the southwest tower, marking the completion of the cathedral in 1990, was at the cathedral 12 years ago when the earthquake hit.
"I heard what I thought were explosions, but it was a sound of falling stone hitting the roof. And that's when I looked up and saw the top of the central tower just twisted and spun, the big top section missing from one of the pinnacles," Alonso said.
Wednesday, Alonso helped reinstall the head of a gargoyle -- "Mr. D. Capitated" -- that was destroyed by falling stones during the quake.
Alonso hopes to have the south side of the cathedral completed by the end of next year.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
"But then the big, big one is what everyone all over the city sees is this giant tower with this ring of steel around the top, stabilizing everything. But the central tower is going to be the biggest challenge, and that's probably four years of work. So, we've probably got five, six years of work still ahead of us if the funding continues," Alonso said.
The cathedral was not designed to sustain an earthquake. As Alonso and his team have been repairing the towers, they have been doing what they call seismic reengineering, inserting metal rods down the center of the spires to prevent them from falling if there’s another earthquake.
Alonso assures that he will remain as head stone mason of the National Cathedral when the repairs are finally complete.
"I got to see it through. I got to set that final stone again up on top of this tower," Alonso said.
News4 sends breaking news stories by email. Go here to sign up to get breaking news alerts in your inbox.
