- The official name of Washington National Cathedral is the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
- The Cathedral welcomes nearly 700,000 visitors and worshipers annually.
- The Cathedral was completed eighty-three (83) years to the day after it was begun (September 29, 1907–September 29, 1990).
- The first tract of land for the Cathedral site (thirty acres) was purchased in 1898 for $245,000. Two other parcels of land were
purchased later, bringing the total cost to $291,427 and the total area to
fifty-seven acres.
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The Cathedral nave, from the marble floor to the vaulting, is ten stories high. (Left Image: Rib Vaulting.)
- The Cathedral’s center tower is as tall as a thirty-story building.
- The central tower is 676 feet above sea level, making its top the highest point in the District of Columbia.
- The Cathedral weighs 150,000 tons.
- The average piece of stone weighs 300 pounds. The heaviest stone in the Cathedral is the
5.5-ton boss over the west balcony.
- There are 762 boss stones in the Cathedral, 640 located on the nave level. (A boss is a projecting stone at the intersection of ribs,
frequently elaborately carved. Left Image.)
- 288 angels, playing harps, flutes, guitars, etc., adorn the two west towers.
- The north rose window is the Cathedral’s largest stained glass window at 26 feet in
diameter.
- Washington National Cathedral is the sixth largest cathedral in the world and the second largest in the United States.
(St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is the largest church in the world and Saint John’s in New York City is the largest cathedral in the United States.)
- The Cathedral has a staff of 200, as well as more than 1,100 volunteers.
- The total cost of building the Cathedral was $65 million, all of which was raised through private donations. (Source: Dean Sayre, fund raising materials in the 1950s)
- There are two sets of bronze bells in the Cathedral’s central tower (one of only a few towers in the world to house both
church bells and a carillon) — a fifty-three bell carillon and a set of ten English peal bells.
- The largest of the fifty-three bells of the carillon weighs 24,000 pounds and measures eight feet, eight inches in diameter,
while the smallest weighs fifteen pounds and measures only seven inches.
- There are 110 gargoyles on the Cathedral. (A gargoyle is a pierced or tunneled stone projecting from a gutter and intended to carry rain
away from the wall and foundations. Usually carved into the image of a beast or ugly creature.)
- There are 215 stained glass windows in the Cathedral.
- The Space Window on the south aisle of the Cathedral contains a piece of lunar rock that was presented to the Cathedral by the astronauts
of Apollo XI.
- 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. You could remove the roof and roof beams and the Cathedral would still be standing.
- More than 10,500 pieces of stained glass make up the west rose window.
- There are more than 1,500 separate pieces of needlepoint in the Cathedral.
- There are 10,650 pipes in the great organ.
- The exterior of the Cathedral is almost the length of two football fields.
- The main exhibition case of the Rare Book Library occasionally displays the Cathedral’s first edition
of the King James Bible, printed in London in 1611. This Bible belonged to Henry, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James.
- On March 31, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., preached his
last Sunday sermon at the Cathedral. A memorial service for
King was held in the Cathedral five days later.
- More than 150 people are interred in the Cathedral, including Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller.
- The principal building material of the cathedral is Indiana limestone, chosen because it is superior for
both construction and carving.
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