Spire spires were an astounding architectural innovation, beginning with the early fourteenth-century spire at Freiburg Minster, in which the pierced stonework was held together by iron cramps. The openwork spire, according to Robert Bork, represents a "radical but logical extension of the Gothic tendency towards skeletal structure." The organic skeleton of Antoni Gaudi's phenomenal spires at the Sagrada Família in Barcelona represent an outgrowth of this Gothic tendency. Designed and begun by Gaudi in 1884, they were not completed until the 20th century. In England, "spire" immediately brings to mind Salisbury Cathedral. Its 403-foot (123-m) spire, built between 1320 and 1380,
St. Matthew's Cathedral (Laramie, Wyoming) Memorial Cross. New York City architect William Halsey Wood designed St. Matthew's Cathedral in the Gothic Revival style. The structure is built of native sandstone that was quarried nine miles northeast of Laramie. The church building is cruciform is shape with the bell tower and spire above the main entrance. The cross at the top of the spire is feet above the ground and feet above sea level, which makes St. Matthew's the highest cathedral in the United States. There are 11 bells in the tower that were cast by Meneely & Co., of Watervliet, New York. The clock on