Before we get the the story, I have a question for you.
Would you like to see the tower held in place or do you think it should be allowed to fall when it is ready to?
Pisa (Italy) (AFP) – “It’s still straightening,” said engineer Roberto Cela, gazing at the Leaning Tower of Pisa gleaming in the autumn sunshine of northern Italy. “And many years will have to pass before it stops.”
The gravitationally-challenged landmark is leaning less after years of ambitious engineering work. Fortunately for the millions of tourists who come here every year, the 57-metre (186-feet) tower remains beautifully askance.
The medieval bell tower, a symbol of the power of the maritime republic of Pisa in the Middle Ages, has leaned to one side ever since building started in 1173 on ground that proved a little too soft.
The tower was closed to the public in January 1990 for 11 years over safety fears, as its tilt reached 4.5 meters (15 feet) from the vertical, threatening to turn it into a pile of rubble.
“We installed a number of tubes underground, on the side that the Tower leans away from,” said Cela, technical director at the OPA, which looks after Pisa’s main monuments.
“We removed soil by drilling very carefully. Thanks to this system, we recovered half a degree of lean,” he said. MORE
Held in place.
The left wants to change everything, some things need to be left as they are. This is one of them.
The new name the will be the “New Erect Tower Of Pisa”
In the spirit of the season . . .
Let it Lean
Let it Lean
Let it Lean
That Tower is straight. Everything else is Screwed up.
What would I like to see happen? I’d like to see it stay up and leaning, but what to do with the tower is a decision properly left up to the owners. I’m doubt they care what I think.
Just add a little bit of yeast to the low side.
Do your damndest, puny humans.
Gravity will prevail.
What’s all this fuss about the Weaning Power of Lisa? If Lisa no longer wishes to suckle her young, who am I to judge?
What’s that?
Oh.
Never mind.
The Leaning Tower of Pizza leans.
That’s what it is supposed to do? That’s, in fact, what it does… it leans.
If it was the Straight Tower of Pizza no one would give a tinker’s cuss about it.
1) There probably would be little else for people to flock to Pisa to see if it did fall over, so arresting the lean is probably a good idea.
2) If I am not mistaken, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is on the list of disappointing famous tourist attractions in the world.
One fact that has been kept secret from the public is exactly how the system of underground tubes they installed are able to correct the lean.
Turns out they packed them full of Viagra.
😉
If they decide to let it continue to lean, they should start a gambling game on when it will finally fall – they’ll make $$$$ enough to build another one.
When they took 199 years to build an eight story tower you’d think they could get it right.
Or maybe the tourists bureau wanted it built that way to pull tourists spending for over 500 years.
And apparently it’s presence kept the area off limits for bombing during WW2 despite it being known that German soldiers were using it for a lookout tower. An added benefit. Let it stand till it either falls or goes perpendicular.
Worth seeing? Absolutely! Worth traveling all the way to Pisa to see it? Debatable. The fact that the engineers were able to keep it from falling is a great accomplishment. Bravo! This isn’t the only bell tower in Italy that is tilting. There’s another one in Venice that is out of plumb, but it’s not nearly as famous, because it isn’t nearly as attractive.
I hope it tips over and takes out all the pan-handling Somali thieves while it happens.
I’ve been there.
Fix it and fix every other architectural eff up as part of a Correcting the Mistakes of Our Past initiative.
Next, take that poem off the Statue of Liberty. It’s false advertising.
Just send Melania over there and watch it straighten right up!
Beautiful tower.
Arrest the lean but don’t straighten it.
Funny that it’s a port town – and it ain’t on the Sea.
But the morons can’t figure out that the weather changes over time.
Globaloney something must be involved – everyone should send Al Gore money!
izlamo delenda est …
@Marco, there are actually several towers in Venice that are leaning. The whole place is really nothing more than a swamp. Take a look a Venice on Google maps from a high altitude and you’ll see what I mean.
Buster Brown: Yes things are all akimbo in Venice. There are large numbers of buildings that are uninhabited on the far side of the island because of the water in the basements. It’s certainly a crowded, expensive place during the tourist season, and a cold, wet one during the winter.