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Show Early Building World Famous 'If we are to build up the Kingdom of God, or establish Ziofl upon the earth we have to labor with our hands, plan with our minds, and devise ways and means to accomplish accom-plish that object". ..Brigham Young. Another building on Temple Square of worldwide world-wide distinction is the dome-shaped dome-shaped Tabernacle. One tradition handed down by the pioneers says Brig-ham Brig-ham Young got the idea for the Tabernacle's design from an umbrella, Others say the design was inspired by the shape of a hand boiled egg cracked length-wise. Still others say Brigham Young designed the Tabernacle in the shape of the best sounding board in the world, the human mouth. "Mormons" believe, however, how-ever, the Inspiration came from God, and the fact remains re-mains that the Tabernacle's design was unique in architecture archi-tecture in that day. To build such a structure on the desert wilderness required re-quired engineering genius and craftsmanship. Giant 12 foot rafters were steamed and bent, thenjoined by wooden dowels, homemade home-made glue and rawhide bands. These original roof supports, as well as ceiling plaster, are still intact, although al-though the outside roof has In recent years been covered with aluminum. Work on the Tabernacle began in 1863 and it was ready for use in four years, replacing re-placing a temporary adobe tabernacle which had been built shortly after the pioneers pio-neers arrived in the valley. The Tabernacle will seat in excess of 6,000 people, and so to this day is used for the semi-annual conferences confer-ences of the Church. Because of its shape, the Tabernacle has some unique acoustical qualities. A pin dropped at one end of the building can be heard at the other end more than 200 feet away. Another impressive feature fea-ture of the Tabernacle is the 11,000 pipe -organ, a marvel of ingenuity. The original organ was built by Joseph Ridges, an Austrian convert. Part of it was fashioned out of native pine from Southern Utah some 300 miles away. About $900 worth of equipment equip-ment was purchased in the east and shopped by stage coach to Salt Lake City. The organ has since been enlarged, rebuilt and renovated reno-vated several times. |