This is part 2 of the Coral Castle post. Today, you will see more of the strange genius of Ed. I will start off with this.
To me, this is the most amazing thing Ed built. This is a gate. A revolving door, made of solid limestone. The door part weighs 9 tons, and it fits to within 1/4 of the walls on all sides. It measures 80 inches wide by 92 inches tall and 21 inches thick. Ed managed to perfectly balance this gate so that a small child could swing it open. It is said that an adult could swing the gate open with the touch of one finger, as if the thing did not weigh 9 pounds let alone 9 tons.
Ed built his gate sometime in the 1940s. In 1986, the gate stopped working. A team of engineers was brought in. It took 6 men and a 50 ton crane to take the gate apart. It was then discovered that Ed had drilled an almost perfect hole through the block using only hand tools. Today, a high speed computer controled drill would be used for the same task. The gate was balanced on a set of old truck wheel bearings. Limestone is not of uniform density (it is very porus rock). Finding the center of gravity for a 9 ton block of limestone is not an easy task. Ed had to find the perfect block, realize it was the perfect block, find the balance point, then drill a hole along this point. And this is exactly what he did.
The engineers made new bearings, designed to handle the weight of the block. They used stainless steel - Ed used old truck parts. Ed's gate worked for close to 50 years, the modern engineers gate lasted about 12 years. Today, the gate is once again frozen. The fancy stainless steel bearings are dead. The original bearings are on display inside the Castle gift shop, next to a crystal radio set Ed built with junk parts. Ed had a formal education lasting to the 6th grade in his native Latvia - then he went to work as a stone mason. The engineers all had graduate degrees and access to all the technology available in 1986.
Ed liked to take a bath. So, he built himself a bathtub. He used his favorite building material - solid limestone. He had to line the rock with concrete, to prevent the water from leaking out. He would fill the tub every morning using his well, and let the heat of the sun warm the water. By the afternoon, the bath was ready. The tub is tiny - Ed built it for himself. Remember, Ed was only 5 feet tall and weighed only 100 pounds. The tub did not have to be very large. There are two rings in the tub. The first ring is the level he would fill the tub to. The second ring was the water level after he got in. The rings are carved into the block.
Did I mention that Ed liked to use truck parts in odd ways? This is Ed's BBQ grill. It is actually a pressure cooker. It is made from the housing for a rear differential for an old Ford truck. You can seperate the two parts with a little effort (the things are made from solid steel and are not light). You place the food inside. The weight of the two parts of the housing do a farily good job self sealing. Build a small fire under the housing, and you have a decent pressure cooker. Ed would use this grill when children came to visit his castle. He would cook hot dogs in it.
This is Ed's Moon Fountain. He was very proud of this thing. Back in the day, it was a fish pond. He expected all visitors to marvel at his Moon Fountain, and look at his fish. The cresent moons represent the first and last quarter of the lunar cycle. The fountain represents the full moon. The quarter moons weigh 18 tons each, the fountain weighs 23 tons. The star island in the center of the fointain is the Latvian Star.
This is another amazing accomplishment for Ed, and speaks of his intelligence. This is a sundial. A very accurate sundial. The loops allow one to adjust for the seasons of the year as the sun angle changes. In this photo, you can see by the loops that the summer solstice is close. When the pointer reaches the bottom of the loop, that means summer solstice is happening. At the top of the loop the sun is lower in the sky. The left side of the loop is for the spring, the right side of the loop is for fall. Each loop represents 1/2 hour of standard time. In this photo, it is 12:30 PM. It is accurate to within a few minutes. Ed would have been a great boss, his clock only works from 9 AM - 4 PM. These are the hours when he believed a man should work. Ed kept bank hours. There is talk that the reason for this is that after 4PM and before 9 AM, the clock does not work because the sun is blocked - so Ed just decided his work hours around this fact. Whatever the reasons, I wish my boss would tell me to keep Ed hours!
This is one of the ways Ed was able to make his clock so accurate. This is Ed's Polaris Telescope. Polaris is also known as The North Star. It never moves in the night sky because it is located directly over the Earth's North Pole. Measure the distance from the horizion to the North Star and you know how many degrees north of the Equator you are. Ed's Castle happens to be at 25 degrees north. The crosshairs in the circle would be centered directly on Polaris. It is hard to see, but there is a small pointer stone in the shape of a triangle in front of the scope tower. You can line the tip of the pointer stone to the center of the crosshairs (the hole for the crosshairs is angled down slightly) - and somehow this allowed Ed to make his sundial. The sundial is in a line with the pointer stone and the telescope.
What is a castle without a throne room? This is Ed's throne room. There are three chairs. One chair for him, a slightly smaller chair next to his chair for Ed's "Sweet 16", and a terrible chair behind his chair for his mother-in-law. The mother-in-law's chair is very crude, as in it is not very smooth. Ed was strange.
Today, this guy owns the throne room. I have no idea what kind of lizard this is, but he is neat looking. There are a few lizards of this type living on the castle grounds.
This is one of two known photographs of Ed working. He is lifting a block from his quarry in this one. That tripod is made from telephone poles, the pulley featured in the previous post, the "mystery box" at the top of the tripod, and chains. The block being lifted probably weighs at least 10 tons.
This is an example of what Ed would move. This is just a stack of heavy blocks, one on top of another. The winds of Hurricane Andrew, which leveled all other buildings around the Castle, did not budge any part of Ed's Castle. The blocks in this stack are not attached to the other blocks, except by gravity and weight.
This is Ed's living quarters (upstairs) and his workshop (downstairs). Each block weighs at least 10 tons. As a comparison, the average block size for the Great Pyramid Of Giza is only 5 - 8 tons. The pyramids of Egypt are much larger, but they were not built by one man.
To finish this post, I will include this photo. It is a view of the castle from the air (duh!). You can not see much detail, but you can see how everything fits together. To the right of the outer wall you can see one of the rock pit mines. You can also see the living quarters.
There are two other things of the castle that I did not post photos of. One is Ed's upright obelisk. It is taller than any upright stone in Stonehenge. It is over 25 feet tall and weighs about 28 tons. But why not include it in the post, so here it is.
The last thing, which I have no good phots of, is Ed's well. Ed dug it through solid limestone, all the way to the water table. Ed's land was "high", meaning that the water table is 8 or so feet underground. One side of the well is for drinking water, but there is alother side of the well. There are carved steps going down into the water. Ed used this section of the well as a natural fridge. Ground water is about 55 degrees, so he could put his food in glass jars, seal them, and toss em in the water. Pretty smart huh? There are also stories that Ed would skinny dip in his fridge when it got too hot. The drinking water side is totally seperated from the fridge side.
In December 1951 Ed became ill. He put a sign on the door of his Castle saying “Going to the Hospital”. He took a bus to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. Three days later he died in his sleep at the age of 64. Ed had stomach cancer. His "Sweet 16", also known as Agnes Scruffs, never came to see the castle he built for her. She was aware of the place, as Ed had written her many letters. Ed never married, and had no children.
So there you go. Now you know a little about South Dade County's own Coral Castle. Not very many people visit this place, I have lived within 20 - 30 minutes of the Coral Castle for close to 32 years and have only been there once. It is pretty far south, but it is located right off US1 so it is not hard to find. If you ever get to Miami, it is worth the drive to see the castle. It is a very unique place. Noplace else on Earth will you see anything like the Coral Castle. Ed was one of a kind.
For more information, visit
http://www.coralcastle.com/. The castle is located at 28655 South Dixie Highway, Miami Florida, 33033. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for kids. Ed charged 10 cents for personal tours, and 25 cents for special tours.
