RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
National Cathedral here in Washington, D.C., often hosts big, important ceremonies, like the funeral of President George H.W. Bush last month. It's also the workplace of some of the most skilled stonemasons in the country, and those masons are in the midst of a massive renovation project. Here's Mikaela Lefrak from our member station WAMU.
JOE ALONSO: All right. Let's see, Mikaela. Step on these planks.
MIKAELA LEFRAK, BYLINE: All right.
ALONSO: You good?
LEFRAK: I think I'm good.
ALONSO: Welcome to the top of the world.
LEFRAK: This is what it sounds like to be on scaffolding 300 feet above the nation's capital. The cathedral's head stonemason, Joe Alonso, is showing me around its central tower.
ALONSO: We're probably 60-some feet higher in elevation right now than the top of the Washington Monument. This is probably going to be the biggest stone restoration job in this country, not a doubt.
LEFRAK: Seven years ago, a rare earthquake hit Washington. The cathedral remained open, but it sustained more than $30 million in damage to its Gothic pinnacles, finials, buttresses and spires.
ALONSO: Every one of these pinnacles that you see have rotated and moved and have snapped. So they're all loose.
LEFRAK: The cathedral's construction took most of the 20th century. It's the sixth-largest cathedral in the world. Stone workers, many from Italy, carved its Gothic details, like gargoyles and angels, by hand. Inside a dusty masonry shop around the corner, stonemason Andy Uhl carves a hunk of limestone with a steel chisel and mallet. It will eventually form part of a pinnacle, replacing one that fell off during the earthquake.
ANDY UHL: And this whole building was done this way, one chip at a time.
LEFRAK: Nearby, carver Sean Callahan is drawing up designs for the top of the pinnacle with a stubby pencil.
SEAN CALLAHAN: And once I have that all plotted out, then I can start carving.
LEFRAK: Uhl and Callahan say there's lots of work for them here in Washington thanks to all the federal government buildings and monuments. They've carved everything from delicate flowers on the White House to eyebrows on angels atop the cathedral.
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LEFRAK: But their trade is a dying art. Callahan says his biggest job competitors these days are robots.
CALLAHAN: They can't do everything a person can do, but robots are getting better every day at reproducing this type of work.
LEFRAK: At National Cathedral, the human crew has great job security. The cathedral still has to raise about 20 million more dollars to complete the earthquake repairs. Alonso says there are at least five more years of work to do. But to him, every chip in the stone is worth it.
ALONSO: And it's just incredible. I still - as a stone mason, you look at this thing, and it just - it still amazes me.
LEFRAK: From the top of the tower, he points out local and national landmarks. And with the wind whipping around us, it really does feel like the top of the world.
For NPR News, I'm Mikaela Lefrak in Washington.