
It’s been almost four years since a 5.8-magnitude rocked our fair city, which left hundreds of thousands of confused Washingtonians saying “wait, is this an earthquake or what?”
But despite the seemingly minimal damage the 2011 quake had on D.C., several historic structures suffered serious structural damaged. The Washington Monument was closed for about two years to repairs damage caused by the quake, and the National Cathedral is still undergoing repairs stemming from quake damage.
Tomorrow, however, the first phase of the Cathedral’s $32 million restoration will be completed tomorrow. When the earthquake hit, it caused a “tremendous amount of damage”—$26 million, it was originally estimated. The damage was mostly structural—along with some exterior damage—which is why it’s taken so long to complete.
But the Cathedral isn’t done with repairs—far from it, in fact. The completion of Phase I of the Cathedral’s restoration merely “encompassed all interior repairs and one-eighth of the building’s exterior restoration work.” Phase II will handle the rest of the exterior repairs needed as a result of the earthquake. That’ll take more than a decade and an estimated $22 million to complete.