Duke Chapel Climb

In addition to winning national basketball championships and admitting rich undergrads, Duke has a tradition of letting graduating graduate and professional students climb the Duke Chapel tower. As a graduate and professional student who is graduating, I thought I should take advantage of this apparently once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (the tower is not open to the general public).

I had to wait in line for quite some time. They only let about 20 students in at a time, and each group took about 20-25 minutes to climb up, take photos, and climb down. Here are a few shots I took while waiting:

They call this a “climb” for a reason—you access the top of the tower by means of a narrow, steep, poorly lit spiral stairway. Not a good place for those who tend to get claustrophobic. Here’s a shot of the stairway (taken during my descent):

Imagine about 10 minutes of this. As you can see, I was appropriately decked out in flip-flops and baggy jeans.

Because they were trying to shuttle people in and out as quickly as possible, I only had about 5 minutes to snap photos from the top of the tower. I must admit that I went for quantity rather than quality—I just took as many photos as possible before being ushered back down the stairs. Fortunately, I walked away with a few photos that (with some editing) were halfway presentable. Here’s a handful:

Looking north, toward the Perkins/Bostock libraries and the medical buildings.

The roof of the divinity school and part of Perkins.

Divinity school, Perkins, etc.

Looking east, toward the entrance to the university (with downtown Durham off in the distance).

  As you can see, there was quite a line.

Here’s a nice vertical panoramic for ya.

And another panoramic (click to enlarge).

Facing south.

Some girl with the Duke statue.

The backside (i.e., the chapel itself).