The Leaning Tower of Pisa The good citizens of Pisa staunchly believe that the leaning tower will never fall. Originally built on poor foundations, the tower has withstood several mild earthquakes and extensive bombing in World War II. The Tuscan sun pouring daily onto the Piazza del Miracoli makes the stonework continually expand and contract, and still it stands.
In 1174, Bonnano Pisano, an Italian engineer, began to work on a bell tower for the cathedral in Pisa, Italy. When Pisano started, he had no idea the bell tower would become a famous tourist attraction and one of the most famous structures in the world. Nor did he guess it would be famous because of a mistake.
The tower was to be 56 metres high. The construction started and three stories were built. Then the tower began to lean. The soil beneath the tower was soft and the foundation was not strong enough to support its weight.
Pisano tried to correct this by making the new stories a bit taller on the short side, but the extra building materials caused the tower to lean still further. The construction was stopped for almost one hundred years.
In 1275, the construction began again. This time two stories were built out of the line with the others to alter the center of gravity. The tower was finally finished in the 14th century, but each year it leans about 2 millimeters. The bells were installed in the top in 1350, but they are no longer rung, for fear the vibrations might rattle the tower.
In World War II, when it was a Nazi observation post, the Allies considered knocking it out with an artillery strike. A US Army sergeant cancelled the strike, thus saving the tower for generations of tourists.
In 1934, the Italian government put concrete under the base to try to correct the leaning, but the leaning increased. Architects are still searching for a solution. They fear that one day their tower will lean too far and fall down. |