Leaning Tower of Pisa Secure For 300 More Years

Ponca City, We Love You writes "The tower of Pisa began to lean five years after its construction began, in 1178, and by 1990 it had tilted more than four meters off its true vertical. Conservationists estimated that the entire 14,500-ton structure would collapse 'some time between 2030 and 2040.' Now the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been stabilized and declared safe for at least another three centuries. The stabilization, which cost $30M, was accomplished by anchoring it to cables and lead counterweights, while 70 tons of soil were removed from the side away from the lean, and cement was injected into the ground to relieve the pressure. The tilt has now returned to where it was in the early 19th century. Nicholas Shrady, author of Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa, says that the tower was destined to lean from the outset because it was built on 'what is essentially a former bog.' Shrady adds that the tower previously came close to collapsing in 1838, 1934, and 1995. (The commission convened in 1990 to study the tower's stability was the 17th such.) Although Galileo Galilei is said to have dropped cannon balls from the tower in a gravity experiment, Shrady says the myth is the result of 'the overripe imagination of Galileo's secretary and first biographer, Vincenzo Viviani.'"

Comments

Please proofread summary just a little bit

[MichaelSmith]

...tower of Pis began...

...buildt on...

The first of those is pretty obvious.

Re:Please proofread summary just a little bit

[aeSentinel]

You sure are a douche. Please kill yourself. Anybody that can't spell a word as simple as "after" should be shoot.

Well, there's a downside to all this

[Haoie]

Another 300 years of putting up with Leaning Tower of Pizza jokes.

Re:Safe for 300 years

[Alpha Whisky]

Are you saying there are icebergs in Pisa?

Re:Aye, the Europeans be fit

[FrYGuY101]

Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a tower on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest tower in these lands.

Re:Tower of Pis?

[sessamoid]

Tower of Pis? Is that something like this?

       333333333
      .........
      111111111
     444444444
     111111111
    555555555
    999999999
   222222222
   666666666
  555555555
  333333333
666666666666