American Scientist

The earthquake that shook the East Coast in August 2011 left its mark on some remarkable structures in Washington, D.C. At National Cathedral, spire sections shifted, finials toppled, and the grounds were littered with fallen stone angels; repairs were expected to cost millions and take years to complete. The late-19th-century pension building, now the National Building Museum, was closed until the enormous brick structure with its spectacular interior space could be inspected. It was declared safe, but models of the Empire State Building and the world’s latest tallest, Burj Khalifa, part of the museum’s exhibit of Lego architecture, suffered the collapse of some of their topmost plastic brickwork. The Washington Monument developed several cracks in its stone facing, but these are just the latest insult to a structure whose realization was as rocky as it was prolonged.