After 83 Years, D.C. Cathedral Is Completed : Religion: Bush is at the finish of what Theodore Roosevelt helped to start. President says huge project ‘combines the permanence of stone and of God.’

WASHINGTON —  The Washington National Cathedral, begun at the dawn of the century, was formally completed Saturday with President Bush overseeing the laying of the final stone atop what he called “this symbol of our nation’s spiritual life.”

“The fabric of this Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is completed,” Richard T. Feller, canon of the clerk of the works, announced to Bush and the thousands of people who gathered at the cathedral.

Bush told the crowd: “We have constructed here this symbol of our nation’s spiritual life, overlooking the center of our nation’s secular life. A symbol which combines the permanence of stone and of God, both of which will outlast men and memories.”

The visitors crowded the grounds atop Mt. St. Alban--the capital city’s highest point--to witness the end of a project that was started in 1907.

Theodore Roosevelt was President when construction began on what is now the world’s sixth-largest cathedral.

Roosevelt watched the laying of the foundation stone, along with 10,000 people who braved chilly damp weather to join him.

Saturday’s celebrants gathered under sunny, warm skies on a day that highlighted the grandeur of the Gothic-style cathedral’s newly visible facade. For years, the front, flanked by twin towers, was obscured from passers-by on Wisconsin Avenue by massive construction equipment and scaffolding.

Today, the huge limestone church is set back impressively from the broad avenue on 57 acres of landscaped grounds that also house three schools, a college, the offices of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and St. Alban’s Parish Church.

Bush told those at the gathering that the nation has come to the cathedral to grieve, to understand, to celebrate and to express concern.

He noted that the funerals of Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey were held there.

President Woodrow Wilson is buried there. So is Helen Keller, whose memorial is in Braille.

The final ceremonial stone was a carved, 1,000-pound chunk of Indiana limestone.

It was lifted into place atop the southwest pinnacle of the cathedral’s St. Paul Tower.

Feller directed the delicate crane operation in a voice broadcast over a loudspeaker. The crowd below erupted in cheers when one of the two workers exclaimed “bull’s eye” as the stone was positioned over a mortar bed.

Work on the cathedral was halted during World War I and World War II and stopped again in 1977 because of a shortage of funds. It was resumed in 1980.