Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

The thread linked by Dr. Parcak is wonderful.

 

I’m guessing 20 years - due to the level of craftsmanship needed.

 

Yeah, there are certain things that just take a long time to build, no matter the technology available. They're still building Sagrada Familia. It's supposed to be complete in 2026.

 

"Tell the Notre Dame team they can come over to the White House for a great feast of McDonald's while their dorm is rebuilt!"

-Trump

 

The indirect brag or boast is one of Facebook's great contributions to society.

 

The 100-year old Catholic church in my hometown was struck by lightning last June, sparking a big fire. It's nothing remotely like Notre Dame, of course, but it's still one of those incredible buildings that always makes me think about how much the people 100 years ago must have cared to have prioritized building and funding it. It's all red brick and tall, the second tallest building in town behind the grain elevator. (That skyline pretty succinctly sums up the town.) I always think about how if the town had to start over, it wouldn't building anything like that, anything so beautiful. How could it afford to? They don't build churches like that anymore.

Anyway, lightning strikes and soon there are rip-roarin' flames up and down the building. It was pretty easy to assume it was a total loss.

Except, it wasn't. As it turned out, it was the same thing as Notre Dame. The fire caught in the attic, devoured old, dry timber (only 100 years old, not 800). Parts of the roof collapsed. But, sure enough, the rest of the building was more or less fine. Tons of water and smoke damage of course, but the community helped clean it out and a company came in to clean it up. It was back open within nine months, and without the awful green paint from the 1950s.

Obviously, Notre Dame was a few steps more worse. My town's church didn't have a roof-top spire to collapse (it did have a tall bell tower that survived just fine.) But, both seem to be at least somewhat similar stories. Those fires rip through the wood in the roof and while that can certainly threaten to destroy the whole building, it seems to look at least a little worse than it ends up being.

 

The story of how he got the shot:
Backstory: Lit cross above the ruins offers hope amid Notre-Dame debris - Reuters

 

Amazing how those flying buttresses survived. They look so fragile, but apparently not.