On Tuesday, a crane hoisted massive oak trusses from a barge in Paris onto Notre Dame Cathedral in a spectacular move in a bid to rebuild the fire-damaged monument and bring it back to life by December 2024
Jul 11, 2023 2:03pm ET
• 2 min reading
PARIS — A crane on Tuesday hoisted massive oak trusses from a barge onto Notre Dame Cathedral in a spectacular operation to rebuild the fire-damaged monument and bring it back to life by December 2024.
With traverses weighing between 7 and 7.5 tons, the delicate operation attracted crowds along a bridge over the Seine and on its banks.
“I think it’s a magical moment for a lot of Parisians this morning,” said Transport Minister Clement Beaune, noting that the Seine will be the focus of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who was commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron to oversee the reconstruction of Notre Dame, said even the heavy traffic expected during the Summer Games will not stop work on the world-famous cathedral.
“We will work for the cathedral during the Olympics to be ready in December 2024,” he said. “That is our goal.”
Notre Dame, which overlooks the historic core of Paris from an island in the Seine, was destroyed by fire in 2019. It was decided to rebuild the monument using the methods of earlier times.
Skilled carpenters used medieval techniques to construct the trusses, which are 14 to 16 meters (46 to 52 ft) wide and 12 to 13 meters (39 to 43 ft) high.
The cable-guided girders were attached to the roof around the area of the iconic tower that crumbled to ash during the fire and around the two arms of the transept, Notre Dame’s wooden skeleton. A statement said the silhouette of the cathedral, now surrounded by scaffolding, should appear on the skyline as the work progresses.
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Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed to this story.