Knute Berger: New York's sacred meadow

7/25/2019 Knute Berger: New York's sacred meadow

1/7

New York's sacred meadowThe vital legacy of the Westinghouse time capsules

by Knute Berger

"Love unto the uttermost generation is higher than love of one's neighbor."-Friedrich Nietzche

Flushing Meadow is not a dazzling world's fair legacy site. Indeed, some days itseems more like a place of retreat rather than the former home of two bustlingexpositions that gathered the world's greatest minds and talents and let themloose to create a ision of the future. !ut while many billions of dollars were

spent transforming this former "ueens ash dump into a park, it should be notedthat the two New #ork $orld's Fairs held here did hae an impact belied bytoday's setting. %ne is the indelible impression they made on the public mind.&he $orld of &omorrowthe world of freeways, planned communities, &(,intelligent machines, and modern coneniences brought to you by beneolentcorporationslargely shaped our expectations of what the late )*th century andearly )+st centuries would bring. Indeed, those promises hae largely come topass though not without controersy and discontent-. econd is a less obiouslegacyone hidden by intention. For Flushing Meadow is a sacred precinct of akind, a place where the seeds of the past hae been buried for the benefit of afar future none of us will know.

!uried /* feet underground, and indicated by a modest inscribed granite

capstone, are two of the world's most ambitious time capsules. 0ach was placedthere by the $estinghouse 0lectric 1orporation, which built exhibits around themfor their pailions at both the +2324* and +254/ fairs. &he +232 capsuleactually buried at the $estinghouse pailion site in +236, prior to the fair'sopeningwas the world's ery first time capsule. &he term was coined for thepro7ect an alternatie was 8time bomb8-, and newsreel and newspaper coeragemade it a household word. &ime 1apsule II, as the +25/ update was called, wasa copycat pro7ect designed to bring the historic record up to date, including ma7ordeelopments that had occurred during 8the rush of eents,8 as $estinghousephrased it, following +236. &hese included $orld $ar II, atomic power, the!eatles, and manned space flight, among other things. &ogether, these twocapsules hold a compact record of human accomplishment as it stood at midcentury. If they are recoered and opened on schedule, they could make another

series of headlines or their e9uialent- in /,*** years, in the year 5232 :; to be


2/7

precise.

&he $estinghouse time capsules bred a phenomenon that is highly popular tothis day. &housands each year, and perhaps tens of thousands during the last 5*

years, hae been buried, hidden, or stowed away to commemorate occasions ofall kinds, from ma7or anniersaries such as the apan, site of another significant

world's fair time capsule pro7ect.

&he symbolism connecting the future with building, inherited from the!abylonians, is reflected in $estern 1iilization through stories of theconstruction of olomon's &emple in the !ible and the symbolic language of theNew &estament which refers to 1hrist as the 8cornerstone8 of 1hristianity. &histradition was reiedor kept alieby ancient and Medieal masons. ;uring theMiddle :ges, the laying of altars and the setting of cathedral and churchcornerstones was often attended by elaborate ceremony. &his no doubtresonated with older, pagan traditions of burying otie ob7ects at sacred sites,such as tonehenge.

In the +Cth century, during what has been called the =osicrucian =enaissance,there was a widespread interest in the recoery of ancient wisdom. &his periodsaw the rediscoery and publication of the works of Dlato and the NeoDlatonic


3/7

Aermetic 1orpus, both of which fueled a fascination with alchemy, esoteric ideas,and secret societies. In some respects, a kind of prototime capsule is describedin early =osicrucian literature, where ancient knowledge is said to be kept hiddenin the tomb of 1hristian =osenkreutz, the =osicrucian order's founder, and thatthis knowledge was rediscoered at precisely the time specified on a brasspla9ue on the tomb's door.

Interest in the recoered secrets of the =osicrucians coincided with the eolutionof speculatie Freemasonry, fraternal societies founded on philosophicalprinciples rather than on one's skill with bricks and mortar. In the +6th century,the Masons deeloped of a number of increasingly elaborate symbolic rituals.%ne of the most popular, and widely performed in public, was the cornerstonelaying ceremony, which inoled the ritual blessing of building cornerstones and,often, the placement inside of a container, such as a small copper or lead box,holding documents, books, coins, and other items to be recoered presumablywhen the building was razed or remodeled. &hese ceremonies were widelypracticed in :merica. For nearly )** years, irtually eery ma7or public building in

$ashington, ;1 began with a Masonic cornerstone ritual. &he first and mostfamous of these was performed by Beorge $ashington who, in full Masonicregalia, helped lay the first cornerstone of the aris, a librarian at $ashington tate


4/7

temperance literature, signatures of fair attendees, een a pen presented by thepoet Aenry $adsworth ongfellow. :fter the fair, the safe was sealed andshipped to $ashington, ;1 where it was to be prominently displayed in tatuaryAall. Instructions were left that the safe was to be opened by :merica's 8chiefmagistrate8 i.e. the president- on >uly 4, +2C5. &he keepers of the 1apitol,howeer, were reluctant guardians of the safe, regarding it as something of awhite elephant. It was shuffled off to arious corners and largely forgotten formost of the next century. Neertheless, it was recoered and, on >uly +, +2C5,opened by Dresident Berald Ford as part of the acobs, the president of %glethorpe acobs' 1rypt, Dendray decided to do something similar, but with a twist.$estinghouse would create a miniature cryptciilization stuffed into a sleek,stateoftheart seenandahalffootlong metal tube, a kind of streamlinedtorpedo, that would be buried for posterity. &he pro7ect would gie $estinghousea chance to show off a new copper alloy they had deeloped1upaloyand theingenuity of its engineers. &he time capsule, as Dendray brilliantly dubbed it,would be forwardthinking all right. It's destination would be /,*** years in thefuture.

&he pro7ect proed to hae enormous appeal, and the newspapers andnewsreels ate it up. Dartly, the pro7ect appealed to the public's growing interest intechnology and futurism, after all, this was the Bolden :ge of popular scienceand science fiction. In addition, the trouble brewing in 0urope and the threat ofworld war scared many people. 0en scholars like &hornwell >acobs were keenly


5/7

aware from the study of history that all ciilizations rise and fall, many of themdisastrously. 1reating a kind of Noah's :rk of knowledge wasn't necessarily sucha farfetched ideain fact, it might proe to be a practical necessity. Many smallertime capsules inspired by the $estinghouse pro7ect and buried for /* years or soon the ee of $orld $ar II hae been found to contain messages indicating thatmany people did not take :merica's surial for granted.

&he time capsule proed to be such a publicity success, that before a singlefairgoer had set foot in the $orld's Fair, eeryone had heard of the$estinghouse time capsule. %f course, the real challenge wasn't publicizing thetime capsule in +232, it was keeping alie the memory of the capsule so that itwould be recoered in 5232 :;. &o that end, $estinghouse went to great lengthsto ensure that the time capsule could be located and comprehended by itsfinders. :n ambitious !ook of =ecord was written, detailing the pro7ect andcontaining information about its exact location. Maps and coordinates wereincluded, as well as estimates as to how far it may migrate oer timeunderground. : key to the 0nglish language, assumed to be long dead, was

included. More than 3,*** copies in two ersionshard and softboundon acidfree paper were sent to libraries, uniersities, museums, and monasteries theworld oer in the hope that at least some would surie and point the way.

&hough no current inentory has been taken as far as I am aware, the success of&he !ook of =ecord seems mixed, based strictly on anecdotal eidence. omelibraries hae their copies, often kept in rare book rooms or aults. %thers copiesseem to be missing. $hen I isited the ibrary of 1ongress to do research for anarticle on time capsules in +262, none of the library's copies could be located.Not all copies were sent to museums? some people inoled in the pro7ect weregien copies. I talked to the daughter of a man who worked on the pro7ect for the


6/7

were missing. Dlus, there was no way of distributing the tipins to people whoobtained priate copies as gifts or on the collector's market. In short, the recordfor the +25/ capsule is likely ery incomplete.

$hich may matter not. $hoeer digs and finds the +232 capsule is likely tobump into its stainless steel twin in a shaft only +* feet away. $hich brings upanother interesting issue about recoery of the time capsules. $hile &he !ook of=ecord dutifully attempts to create a trail of bread crumbs that will lead to theeentual discoery of the time capsule, a bigger problem may be what willhappen if the capsule is found prematurely.

ince the time capsule was 8inented8 in the +23*s, many thousands hae beenburied but not all hae reached their 8destination.8 ost time capsules hae beenmisplaced, poorly marked, or located where recoery is not an option. : timecapsule by the cast of the &( series MH:HHA, location unknown, may well beburied under a new Marriott Aotel. : +232 time capsule at MI& was placed underthe uniersity's new cyclotronbut it was not opened on schedule in +262

because no one wanted to lift the +6ton magnet on top of it.

!ut another problem is human fiddling. &ime capsules hae been stolen,tampered with, and opened ahead of schedule. &he official uly 4, +2C5 byDresident Berald Ford, presumably fresh from his duty opening the 1entennialafe 7ust a few days before. !ut, the time capsule was stolen before theceremony at (alley Forge and has neer been recoered. In fall )***, a +242GM airline time capsule in


7/7

weather-. &he builders of the $estinghouse capsules anticipated a waterproblem. &ime 1apsule I is made of 1upaloy, an alloy of copper, chromium andsiler. It was chosen for its corrosionresistant properties. $hile stateoftheart in+236, the art had apparently changed by +25/. &ime 1apsule II was made ofGromarc, a kind of stainless steel, also corrosion resistant. In +25/,$estinghouse chemists also studied the soil of the Flushing Meadow burial siteand determined that it was lacking in chloride ions which cause corrosion. &heyexpressed confidence that the time capsules would stand the test of time.

:nother potential hazard is manmade, and an example is not far from "ueens. :number of the buildings at the $orld &rade 1enter complex in lower Manhattancontained cornerstone time capsules. %ne forensic architect I talked to who hadworked at the $&1 estimated there may hae been as many as half a dozen. Ihae not been able to obtain any information about the status of these capsulesin the wake of the eptember ++, )**+ terrorist attack, but certainly manydocuments and aluables were destroyed in aults and safety deposit boxes atthe $orld &rade 1enter. It is likely the contents of at least some of these

capsules, if not all, were lost.

=egardless of their status, the remains of the $orld &rade 1enter time capsulesare comparatiely unimportant in the grand scheme of things, though recoeringand reburying them would make a potent statement about the resilience of:merica, and indeed, humanity. &hey are, howeer, a part of a site that is indeedconsidered sacred to many because of the tragedy that took place there. &heyare part of our loss.

!ut Flushing Meadow offers the potential for us to continue to deelop analternatie sacred site, one not sanctified in blood and misery, but rather one thatretains in its soil the optimism of the )*th century. Aere is a place where we haecelebrated our achieements, where we hae looked both forward andbackward, like >anus, to see the best of what is, and the best of things to come. Iwas struck by a comment by >ohn :ndrews, writing in the March )**) issue ofFair News. :fter a recent isit to Flushing Meadow, he wrote that he was relieedthat a new pro7ect did not infringe on the site's integrity. 8&he basic layout of thesite remains intact,8 he wrote. 8&his is important to those of us who consider thegrounds somewhat akin to sacred grounds that should be retained in its originalstate insofar as is possible.8 $hile Mr. :ndrews was undoubtedly speaking froma historical perspectie, I beliee his sense of sacredness is right on the mark. :slong as the $estinghouse time capsules remain in its soil, carrying out their/,***year mission to the future, Flushing Meadow is a place that deseres ourcare and protection, and our passionate stewardship. It is alie not only with theghosts of the past, but more importantly with essels carrying our collectiememory to the 8uttermost generations.8

:s it says on the dedication page of &he !ook of =ecord?

"+ll the das of m appointed time will wait, till m change come. hou shaltcall, and will answer thee.">ob I(? +4+/

Knute Berger: New York's sacred meadow

Documents

Transcript of Knute Berger: New York's sacred meadow