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KF5JRV > TODAY 15.12.18 13:34l 40 Lines 2048 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 27010_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Dec 15
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<SR1BSZ<LU4ECL<CT2KCK<VE2PKT<N9PMO<AB0AF<KF5JRV
Sent: 181215/1223Z 27010@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.17
On this day in 2001, Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after a team
of experts spent 11 years and $27 million to fortify the tower without
eliminating its famous lean.
In the 12th century, construction began on the bell tower for the
cathedral of Pisa, a busy trade center on the Arno River in western
Italy, some 50 miles from Florence. While construction was still in
progress, the tower’s foundation began to sink into the soft, marshy
ground, causing it to lean to one side. Its builders tried to compensate
for the lean by making the top stories slightly taller on one side, but
the extra masonry required only made the tower sink further. By the time
it was completed in 1360, modern-day engineers say it was a miracle it
didn’t fall down completely.
Though the cathedral itself and the adjoining baptistery also leaned
slightly, it was the Torre Pendente di Pisa, or Leaning Tower of Pisa,
that became the city’s most famous tourist attraction. By the 20th
century, the 190-foot-high white marble tower leaned a dramatic 15 feet
off the perpendicular. In the year before its closing in 1990, 1 million
people visited the old tower, climbing its 293 weathered steps to the
top and gazing out over the green Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles)
outside. Fearing it was about to collapse, officials appointed a group
of 14 archeologists, architects and soil experts to figure out how to
take some–but not all–of the famous tilt away.
Though an initial attempt in 1994 almost toppled the tower, engineers
were eventually able to reduce the lean by between 16 and 17 inches by
removing earth from underneath the foundations. When the tower reopened
on December 15, 2001, engineers predicted it would take 300 years to
return to its 1990 position. Though entrance to the tower is now limited
to guided tours, hordes of tourists can still be found outside, striking
the classic pose–standing next to the tower pretending to hold it up–as
cameras flash.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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