Washington’s Bells

From high above the city (329 ft. at the pinnacle), the bells of The Knights' Tower at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception call the faithful to prayer and announce significant events in the life of the church. The tower is an impressive structure – taller than the campanile of the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice (at 325 ft.) and the Leaning Tower of Pisa (at 188 ft.), but shy of the 555-ft. Washington Monument (of course, given the elevation of terrain in northeast Washington, it is nearly the monument’s equal). 

A stone’s throw from the White House (the Secret Service recommends against that) rises one of Washington's few significant Romanesque Revival buildings on a monumental scale: the Old Post Office and Clock Tower. Long one of Washington's favorite landmarks, the Old Post Office was originally built from 1892 to 1899 to house the U.S. Post Office Department Headquarters and the city's post office. 

On a chilly morning in mid-April 1959, a crowd of 5,000 gathered just north of the U.S. Capitol in a shaded grove of stately willow oaks and fluttering Yoshino cherries. With President Dwight D. Eisenhower looking on, former President Herbert Hoover was delivering a poignant eulogy – remarking on a life well lived and a patriot untimely lost. Vice President Richard Nixon, in his role as President of the Senate, stood ready to accept a towering structure to the Capitol grounds.

Perched in front of the soaring, neoclassical Union Station just north of the U.S. Capitol, in a plaza it shares with the colossal fountain and monument to explorer Christopher Columbus, is a 2:1 scale replica of the Liberty Bell: the Freedom Bell. 

The first concept of a Lutheran church along the banks of the Potomac began in the early eighteenth century, when a group of Lutherans from Germany, having settled in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, migrated to the Potomac Valley. They were enticed by an offer of land from George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore. With them they brought their religion, and a sprinkling of itinerant pastors ministered to these settlers from as early as 1733.

Many exemplary structures rise from the skyline when surveying the cityscape of Washington, D.C., but dominating the hills of upper Northwest sits a neo-gothic masterpiece: The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, or more commonly known to you and me, Washington National Cathedral.