Easter Sunday at the National Cathedral

This is called the Smithsonian Castle which was built in 1855. It's beside the National Mall and use to be THE Smithsonian - now there are 18 museums that make up the Smithsonians.

You may be wondering why this photo is here when the title of this post says 'National Cathedral.' Maybe you're not wondering. If not, just skip this paragraph. MetroMan (who was not actually "MetroMan" YET) and I were trying to figure out distances. I had looked and studied my guidebook and everything seemed to be walking distance for us. Yet, different people kept saying "OH NO, you don't want to walk that far." So we were checking it all out. We were heading towards the National Cathedral, but we had some time. The flowers were beautiful ... tulips, and tulip trees. It was picture time:Now, I have no idea who this car belonged to, but MetroMan and I both realized that we had NEVER seen a Washington DC license plate. So, of course, I took a photo of it. Don't report this person... they did nothing wrong except park their car in the place where I realized I had never noticed a plate like this.

It took us awhile after roaming around the mall to figure out the Metro (the subway system). Once we did, we hopped on and rode to what we had been told was CLOSE TO the National Cathedral, but in fact, was at least 1/2 - 3/4 mile away. That was OK, we love to walk.

We could see the spires up ahead... way up ahead. Here's what we walked up to:We were there for an Easter Evensong service. It was beautiful. What I didn't realize, is that this cathedral was started in 1907. Actually that's when Pres. Theodore Roosevelt laid the foundation stone. Services started in 1912, but only in the Bethlehem Chapel. Services have been held here ever since... but it wasn't completely finished until 1990! THAT surprised me.
These two photos above, are the West Rose Window. The afternoon sun was coming through in the first one. This photo doesn't do it justice...it was absolutely beautiful! There are 10,500 pieces of glass in this one window! I read that there are actually over 200 stained glass windows. This is the "High Altar". Standing in front of it, I turned around and took this photo looking toward the front, down the nave. On either side where you see people sitting, I think this is normally for the choir... but I'm not positive. We were here - after the Evensong service - to hear a tremendous organ concert. If you look all the way down the nave, you can see the West Rose Window with the pinkish light coming through. I was in awe. I also read that this is the sixth largest cathedral in the world ... and the second largest in the USA. Impressive.

Back outside, the late afternoon sun was shining on it. The color looked totally different. The stone used is grey Indiana limestone. See this gargoyle? There are 112 of them around the cathedral. They actually spout water away from the cathedral during storms! I wish we had had a pair of binoculars to see all the different faces and expressions ... oh well. The side of the cathedral...equally impressive!And I'll end this post with MetroMan in front of the Cathedral's front doors.