Cologne Cathedral took over 600 years from start to finish

Builders started work on this massive German church in the year 1248. They wanted it to be the grandest house of worship in Europe. But by the late 1400s, the city ran out of money and lost interest. They stopped building entirely in 1473. For nearly 400 years, a giant wooden crane sat on top of a half-finished tower. It became a famous, messy part of the city skyline. Finally, in 1842, workers went back to work. They used the original medieval plans but added modern iron beams to help hold it up. They finished the church in 1880. That is a total of 632 years.