St. Michael's Eps. Church

By far, one of the coolest churches in Charleston (and the one with the best view!) is St. Michael's Episc. Church. We got a little tour of the bell tower, including the bells themselves, the balconies and the tippy tippy top of the spire (where the stairs stop and the graffitti is sometiems centuries old! This inside view of the sanctuary shows how the ceiling arches inward. I'll show you a picture of the other side of this ceiling in a minute.

This is the stair well leading to the antechamber of the bellfry. There wasn't much to see there...mostly like a plain room with a rug over the trap door. On to the attic!

This is a shot of us standing on the beams and rafters above the plaster ceiling I showed you a minute ago. I wish you could see the brick and timber work better from this angle...Pretty impressive.
Here is what I'm mostly interested in....These are the hand-hewn and joined trusses. The old joinery in this church is amazing!

Notice the wooden pegs along the back beam. These pegs hold some of the joints that keep the roof together.

Here is an interesting little thing...Remember that big chandelier we saw earlier in the ceiling shot? This winch is used to raise and lower it for maintenance.