Coral Castle is an truly Engineering Masterpiece

Coral Castle is an truly Engineering Masterpiece

The Rock Gate Park might surprise you for its incredible sculptures but the history behind its construction is surely more fascinating.

The world-famous structure of Coral Castle is located near Miami in Homestead, Florida. Despite its name, it is neither made up of coral nor is it built in form of a castle. However, it is simply an outstanding view which will impress one and all. It symbolizes the love of Edward Leedskalnin for Agnes Scuffs, who quitted him just a day before their wedding, as he quarried and sculpted 1,100 tons of limestone into different shapes including a water fountain, a crescent moon, and a sundial. He did all that single-handedly over a period of 28 years until his death in 1951. It is an incredibly difficult task in any circumstances but considering his physical characteristics (weight of 100 pounds and 5 feet tall), this is nothing less than a miracle.

Leedskalnin was born to a family of stonemasons in 1887. He didn’t get any formal education after grade 4 but he was extremely keen on science and history. He was fascinated by the creation of the Egyptian pyramids and it surely helped him to develop the coral castle. He got engaged to Scuffs at the age of 26. Agnes was merely 16 years old at the time of their engagement. She canceled all the arrangements of their wedding ceremony one day before the marriage.

According to her, the age difference between her and Leedskalnin and his financial instability led to this decision. It was a devastating news for Leedskalnin who was totally in love with her ‘Sweet Sixteen’. It is a common belief that he started hearing a voice, after this incident, which urged him to express his love by recreating it through tons of virtually immovable stones. This resulted in Coral Castle which is a very popular spot these days.

This place has a long history when it comes to shock the world particularly scientists, scholars, and engineers. The fact that it has appeared several times in various magazines, books, and T.V shows clearly indicates the significance of this park. It is a part of the National Register of Historic Places and Billy Idol, a famous rock singer, wrote a song called ‘Sweet Sixteen’ about this place which became very popular among general masses of the public.

A perfectly balanced stone gate that would swing open easily with the push of a finger, in spite of its massive size and insane weight, amazed people for years. It suddenly stopped moving in 1986 which solved the mystery as the gate was removed. It was found that the gate rotated on a metal shaft which was resting on the bearing of a truck. The official website of the park welcomes you by saying,

You are about to see an engineering marvel that has been compared with Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

Leedskalnin started working in mines and logging camps of California, Texas, and Canada after separation with Scuffs. During that phase, he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. He traveled to Florida City in 1918 as he considered that the atmosphere there was an ideal one to recover from such a disease. Magnets were used to treat him and they seemed to have given him way too much of energy as he built the entire ‘Rock Gate Park’ on his own in less than 30 years. He showed great skills of artistry as he developed dozens of masterpieces of varying shapes and sizes. The most popular of his sculptures include a monolith that is 40-foot high. It is larger than all the structures found at the Stonehenge.

The general perception about him was that he prefers to stay alone but he did open the park in 1923. A lot of tourists visited him and he would welcome them personally in order to show them his handiwork. In addition to his sculpting skills, he had some philosophical views as well that he described in a series of pamphlets. One of those booklets was called ‘A Book in Every Home’ in which he criticized the role of schools and churches in the following words:

The schools and the churches are cheapening the girls! They are arranging picnics — are coupling up the girls with the fresh boys — and then they send them out to the woods, parks, beaches, and other places so that they can practice in first-degree lovemaking.”        

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