CATHEDRALS OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLD 



81 



avoiding the constructive and decorative 

 exaggerations into which the architects 

 of those days were apt at times to stray. 



By a study of the table of comparative 

 dimensions, it will be seen that the main 

 body of the Washington cathedral, meas- 

 uring 500 feet from the western front to 

 the apse at the easterly end, will be equal 

 in length to any of the English cathedrals 

 except York, which exceeds it by a few 

 feet (see page 62). 



The length given for Canterbury, Win- 

 chester, Ely, and Westminster includes 

 certain subsidiary buildings, erected in 

 some cases centuries after the main struc- 

 ture and scarcely to be reckoned in an 

 estimate of the over-all length of the main 

 church. Such are the curious Becket 

 Chapel (40 feet) at Canterbury, the Gali- 

 lee porch (45 feet) at Ely, the Lady 

 Chapel (40 feet) at Winchester, and 

 Henry VIFs Chapel (120 feet) at West- 

 minster, where the length of the main 

 church is 410 feet. 



The Washington building will be 

 longer than any French cathedral, ex- 

 ceeding Amiens (page 83) by 25 feet and' 

 Notre Dame, Paris (page 88), by 58 feet. 



The widths of the naves are taken be- 

 tween the centers of the piers. The 

 Washington nave, 45 feet, exceeds Can- 

 terbury by 12, Ely by 8, Winchester by 

 5, and Westminster by 5 feet. Lincoln 

 is wider by 1 foot and York by 8 feet. 

 The French cathedrals given are wider, 

 as to their naves, by from 1 to 7 feet. 



In height the Washington nave (95 feet) 

 exceeds all of the English examples except 

 Westminster (page 6j), whose apex is 

 103 feet above the floor. It is outclassed 

 by the French cathedrals, with their vast 

 altitudes of no, 125, and 1 57^4 feet. 



COMPROMISE BETWEEN FRENCH AND ENG- 

 LISH PROPORTIONS 



In respect of its proportions, the Wash- 

 ington nave escapes the exaggerated 

 length of the English and the dispropor- 

 tionate height of the French cathedrals. 

 As a rule, the English cathedrals are too 

 long for their height, the French too high 

 for their length. 



The English monastical builders sought 

 to impress by far-reaching vistas of enor- 

 mous length, the French by carrying their 

 vaults to awe-inspiring heights. 



In the Washington cathedral, with 95 



feet of height to 500 feet of length, the 

 architect has found the happy mean of 

 proportional propriety. 



Majestic will be the long 500- foot 

 sweep of the nave, choir, and apse, lifting 

 the ridge of their roofs to a uniform 

 height of 134 feet above grade, and re- 

 lieved by the bold projection of the tran- 

 sept and by the suitably proportioned 

 masses of the two western towers and the 

 great central tower at the intersection of 

 nave and transept. 



That this majesty has been secured 

 without any sacrifice of grace and deli- 

 cate beauty will be evident from a study 

 of the photograph on page 60, showing 

 the already completed apse. 



THE CENTRAL TOWER TO BE CHIEE GLORY 



The detached buttress piers, sur- 

 mounted by pinnacles ; the flying but- 

 tresses between these piers and the clear- 

 story wall ; the finely traceried clearstory 

 windows ; the boldly battlemented para- 

 pet, broken by the pinnacled wall but- 

 tresses, with the steeply pitched roof 

 above — all of these will be repeated, with 

 modifications, throughout the walls of the 

 choir and transept. 



The nave, although designed in the 

 same Fourteenth Century English Gothic, 

 will be somewhat more sober in treatment 

 than the choir ; for we miss here, both on 

 the outer piers and on the wall buttresses, 

 the ornate pinnacles which enrich the 

 choir. 



The risk of monotony in a building of 

 this length, due to the repetition of simi- 

 lar forms, is further avoided by extend- 

 ing the side aisles of the choir only to 

 the fifth bay from the tower. Beyond 

 this the wall rises flush from base to para- 

 pet, with the buttress piers standing clear 

 of the wall and many feet distant there- 

 from — all with a most pleasing variety 

 of architectural effect. 



In any exterior view of the cathedral, 

 its crowning glory will be found in the 

 great Central tower, which rises 262 feet 

 above grade, or 33 feet higher than the 

 lovely Angel Tower at Canterbury, which 

 (in all justice be it said) may be sur- 

 passed in height, but in beauty never (see 

 illustration, page 63). 



The Washington tower, in spite of its 

 greater mass, possesses the charm which 

 is inherent in good architectural propor- 

 tioning. As at Canterbury, the vertical 



