Day 3.2 - Cathedral of St John the Divine Unfinished

The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine towers over Amsterdam Ave at 112th Street. It's big. It's really, really, really big. And like most really big, ambitious projects, it's still not quite done yet. Still to go are the towers (the south tower is slightly more 'done' than the non-existent north tower), the transepts (in their defense, the north transept was destroyed by fire in December 2001), the crossing and various other bits.

Unfortunately, the timing of their tours is such that I can't get to any of them, so my knowledge is gleaned from observation and the pamphlets I picked up there. All the photos were taken with a handheld camera, generally with no flash, so some of them are a little shaky.

Construction began in 1892, with the cornerstone laid on St John's Day, 27 December, 1892. The NY architectural firm of Heins and LaFarge won an international design competition with a Byzantine-Romanesque plan. The choir and East end of the cathedral were completed in this style.



It's got a very big organ. Which was in use with a rehearsal of the trumpet quintet.



A temporary shallow dome was constructed in 1909, in only fifteen weeks, to cover the Crossing. The Statue of Liberty, without her pedestal, would comfortably fit underneath it.



While the Romanesque style is beautiful and gracious, it is not really suited to really big buildings. Which is a problem if you're building the biggest Cathedral in the world.

In 1911, a new architect is appointed, Ralph Adams Cram, who changed the style to Gothic. The gothic arch transfers the weight of the roof and building out and down, which means that you only need internal pillars, and not weight-bearing internal walls. External buttresses help counteract the downward forces of the walls and roof.

Construction of the gothic nave began in 1925, and the 601 ft length was unveiled in 1941. Construction ceased as the US entered World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbour one week later.



More to come, including the Great Rose Window, and the Portal of Paradise.