Leaning Tower Of Pisa To Get Support Cables

First Pisa’s Leaning Tower was girdled in steel. Now the monument is getting a pair of skinny steel suspenders to help it stand straighter.

Engineers hope to begin attaching two, 340-foot-long cables running from underground counterweights to the tower in the spring, a Milan newspaper reported Sunday.

The 2.4-inch-thick cables would connect to the tower’s north side at a height of 72 feet and then run to the roofs of nearby buildings.

The 12th-century, 180-foot-high tower was closed to tourists in 1990 for fear it might topple over. The tower leans about 13 feet off the perpendicular to its south side.

The cable project will take about four months and cost about $7 million, said Michele Jamiolkowski, head of the international committee of experts charged with caring for the tower.

There was no estimate of when the monument might open again to the public.