Not On My Watch
But rust never sleeps. And neither does 14,700
metric tons of marble sitting atop a soft bed of dirt. Over the next 500 years
the tower sunk deeper and deeper into the soft support, the south side burying
itself over ten feet into the ground. By the time the effort was made in 1838
to excavate the ground floor of the structure, the inclination approached a hazardous
5 degrees. The excavation, designed to give visitors a full view of the entire
campanile in a way that the original plan had intended, caused more settling
and was promptly abandoned. The view would have to wait.
Mussolini, deciding that the wobbly edifice
didn't accurately reflect the lofty stature of his reign, mounted his own attack
on the project in the 1930's. His engineers dumped 80,000 pounds of concrete
onto the foundation, but rather than straighten the structure, the dictator's
directive only served to exacerbate the problem. The tower reacted by leaning
yet further to the south.
The Italians were now growing increasingly
anxious about their prize monument. As quaint as the tilt was, and as big as
the tourist draw was, it was clear that their precious tower was in imminent
danger of collapse. The public pressure was on, and over the next 50 years, sixteen
different committees were appointed to deal with Pisa's problem child. And, in
the end sixteen different committees did nothing about it. Though many wanted
the glory of successfully restoring the Pisa's pride, nobody was willing to take
the risk of inadvertently engineering its demise. Infighting, indecision, budgetary
constraints, competition between ministries, and lack of direction ground the
wheels of progress to a halt. On the back burner the tower simmered and quietly
settled.
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Lessons
Not Learned
