1,001 Words: I'm On the Top of the World, Looking Down On Creation

Saturday, May 5, 2007 - 11:00am - National Cathedral, NW Washington DC

The Washington National Cathedral is an unassuming building, as cathedrals go. It's in a residential section of Northwest Washington. It's not near the Metro. It's not a tourist site, really, unless you go looking for it. Yet it is, elevation wise, the tallest building in Washington and a pretty impressive piece of cathedral architecture, if you ignore everything in Europe. A few times a year, the cathedral lets you climb up to the Bell Tower, which is the highest point open to the public. I got some tickets, and invited Meredith to go along with me. She's a lifelong Washingtonian, and I thought she'd enjoy the view (which she did).

The climb to the top is best described as dizzying. They start you off in the crypt, just so you get the thrill of climbing every inch to the bell tower. There are several narrow staircases - each one more narrow than the other. Most of the way up is a spiral stone staircase, which is like a giant concrete tomb in which to climb up. Good times, good times. Then you get into a few open areas - essentially the attic of the Cathedral - and you start climbing up a few metal spiral staircases. It was dizzying to look up, dizzying to look down, so it was just best to stare straight ahead. Like my younger days in climbing up and down Barnegat Light, going up was much easier than going down. There were some giant bells in the Bell Tower, oddly enough, and I'll just say they were big. The top room was the bell room itself, where people were ringing bells by pulling on these purple cords.

I really wasn't interested in that. I wanted to see the view. There were these precarious ledges you were allowed to climb out on (yes, that sentence just ended in two prepositions). The view, needless to say, was amazing. Sure, it was a cloudy day across the DC area. But you could see from the Cathedral all the way out to Sugarloaf Mountain in outer Montgomery County, Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County, and Old Town Alexandria. I think I could even see my house. The views were awesome, even if you did have to hold your breath to lean over the ledge. Yes, it would have been nice if the day were sunnier. And yes, because the Cathedral is near nothing and DC doesn't have that many tall buildings, you couldn't peer onto The Mall or into the Pentagon. Still, the view was incredible and a rare glimpse of the Nation's Capital from its highest point.

Below are some pictures I like from the day.

1) Meredith & I on the ledge outside the Bell Tower. Taken by some nice lady.

2) This is a great shot by Meredith of the huge stained glass window, framed incredibly well by some of the stone work in one of the Cathedral's balconies. I took about 20 shots like this, but Meredith's is head and shoulders above any I took. Way to go.

3) This is a close-up of a stained-glass window. I think it might be my favorite shot from the whole day, just because the colors are so bold. The Cathedral is worth checking out just for the stained-glass windows. I'm a fan of those. Even the crummy painted-on ones I grew up with at St. Andrew's.

4) This is what an out-of-focus Arlington looks like from the Cathedral. I live near the building with the pointy top.

5) Caught this piece in a stained glass window on the way up. It's some dude falling. Not exactly what you want to see while climbing 300 feet. I'm sure it's some Biblical story, but I have no clue what it is.