WASHINGTON (Amazing America TV) — Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., is the second-largest cathedral in the United States, behind the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. It is also the sixth-largest Gothic cathedral in the world.

From the nation’s earliest days, there was a vision for a spiritual home in the new capital. In 1791, President George Washington selected Pierre Charles L’Enfant to design Washington, D.C. His original plan included a “great church,” but the idea was not approved until more than a century later, in 1893.

Construction on the cathedral — dedicated to religion, education, and charity — began in 1907 and wrapped up in 1990, 83 years later. Amazing America’s Hunter Hulbert takes us inside America’s cathedral and into the crypt below.

With more than 200 stained-glass windows, over 100 gargoyles, and carved angels, the cathedral sits on the highest natural point in Washington, D.C. Although it is an Episcopal cathedral, it is widely known as a “house of prayer for all people.”

And while the cathedral is sacred ground, there’s also a touch of fun built into its design. Look up high on one of the towers, and you’ll find a carving of Darth Vader. It came from a children’s design contest in the 1980s and is technically a grotesque, not a gargoyle. You’ll need binoculars to spot it.

Gargoyles are decorative figures that incorporate water spouts and also serve as rain gutters. Grotesques, by contrast, are decorative sculptures created purely for visual effect.

Did you know?

The cathedral’s official name is the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul.

Author and disability rights activist Helen Keller is buried there.

The cathedral’s Space Window contains a real moon rock collected during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

No structural steel was used to build the cathedral; old-world techniques using stone walls and flying buttresses hold it up.

Washington National Cathedral is the only place in North America with both a full peal of bells for English-style change ringing and a carillon played from a keyboard.

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