Lessons Not Learned
Finally, in 1272 the project was reinitiated.
Again engineers and officials did a careful examination of the existing structure,
but this time found to their surprise, that over the course of the previous century,
the ground had compacted and now, rather than lean to the north, the tower had
developed a strong lean to the south.
This was good news! If the preceding generation
of builders had been effective in countering the northern lean by building taller
columns on that side, then this generation could do the same on the south side.
No need to work out a new construction plan. No need to tear down and build a
solid foundation and start over. No need for trenching or digging or filling.
The old plan worked just fine once, it would work again. So, off they went with
enthusiasm and funding, this time constructing higher columns on the south side
of the building to make up for the uneven floors on that side. By 1278 they had
completed floors four, five, six and seven. Then again, the project stalled.
Another hundred years of indecision and indifference
followed, and then in 1360 civic leaders initiated a mini-project to finish off
the top of the tower and take credit for closing the project. Workers added a
belfry, which they angled jauntily to the north to counter the sinking southern
side, and two tiers of extra stairs inside the south side to compensate for the
now perilous inclination. With that, the Tower of Pisa, the intended monument
to all that was great about the city-state of Pisa, was declared completed.
Sure it leaned one way, then the other. Sure
you couldn't really navigate the stairs without feeling perilously close to plummeting
over the edge like one of Galileo's lead weights. Sure it wasn't exactly the
icon of structural wonder its initiators had conceived, but by golly, the project
was finished. Almost 200 years late, millions of lira over budget, and not at
all to specifications, the Tower of Pisa Project could be stamped complete and
put to bed.
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Indecision
Leads to Inaction
