Massive Lego National Cathedral built with Vader, droids, Harry Potter wands

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  The inside of the Bethlehem Chapel replica, which is a small chapel in the basement of the cathedral. It is nearly complete except for the vaulted ceilings.

WASHINGTON, DC-As millions of dollars in donations stacked up for the Notre-Dame Cathedral following the horrific fire last month, the Washington National Cathedral was quietly building its own restoration fund-brick by plastic brick.

Together with the Lego-building company Bright Bricks, officials at the cathedral have embarked on a project to build a massive replica of the cathedral out of Lego bricks. The project will raise money for much needed earthquake repairs. When complete, the towering yet detailed 1:40-scaled replica will be the largest Lego cathedral in the world. It will contain an estimated 500,000 bricks, weighing 612 kilograms, measuring nearly 4-meters long, 2.5-meters wide, and rising 3.35-meters from its elevated platform. It may also be the largest Lego structure ever built from instructions-officials at the cathedral are in talks with Guinness World Records.

Those instructions-created by the designers and professional Lego aficionados at Bright Bricks-are used by volunteers and kind donors who buy individual bricks and place them on the growing replica by hand. The bricks go for $2 each and all the money goes toward the $19 million needed to repair damage from a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in 2011.

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