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Supposedly, just one man built the Coral castle. Jilted by the woman who would be his wife, and miraculously recovering from a terminal case of tuberculosis, Edward Leedskanlin built the structure in Florida City, Florida sometime around 1923.

He is said to have worked at night, by lamplight when he could not be seen, moving and carving stones which weighed up to several tons each.

It remained until around 1936, when he decided to move.

He then packed the whole structure (approximately 1,100 tons) up and took it with him.

Using material from a nearby quarry, he would continue to work on it at his new location until he died of advanced stomach cancer in 1951. At no point was he witnessed using modern machinery.

The coral castle remains standing at this location in Homestead, Florida where it can be viewed today.

In addition to the claims Leedskanlin himself made regarding various phenomena as "magnetic currents" there have been numerous supernatural claims made as to how this structure would have to have been built.

picture of the 30 ton stone from wikipedia

Is there any way one man, working alone, mostly at night, could have made this structure without using modern equipment? Its website is here.

Monkey Tuesday
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  • The coral "castle" is not actually particularly large. Compare e.g. to the cars shown in [this Google Map satellite image](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Coral+Castle/@25.5006987,-80.4445982,93m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x88d9dd7a7af13825:0xdc5ca71d8d580f99!2sCoral+Castle!8m2!3d25.500633!4d-80.4444723!3m4!1s0x88d9dd7a7af13825:0xdc5ca71d8d580f99!8m2!3d25.500633!4d-80.4444723). I saw it from a drone once and it seemed a bit underwhelming. I think there's just a bunch of marketing involved here and the total effort required to build it during some years is not something extraordinary. –  Aug 16 '21 at 18:52

2 Answers2

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Yes, it is possible. A guy called Wally Wallington moves huge concrete blocks by himself using pieces of wood.

I don't know about how reasonable his claims to have figured out "how they did it" are, but it's a lot of clever moving of really big stones, done by one or a few people. So yes, it's possible, given enough time and a long enough lever. :-)

He is basically using a "walking" technique where he is putting something the block can rotate on close to the center of gravity, so that he doesn't have to lift the blocks completely, he just lifts a bit and then use the rotating point as a hinge.

To lift he uses levers and lifts the blocks just a small bit at a time, and them moves in a piece of wood to act as a new hinge to lift the other side of the block.

Wertilq
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Lennart Regebro
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  • Whilst this may technically answer the question, [it would be preferable](http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/8259) to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Blockquotes are [an excellent way to do this](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/164/315#315). – Borror0 Apr 04 '11 at 12:01
  • Couldn't find any good quotes, so I added a short explanation. – Lennart Regebro Apr 04 '11 at 12:18
  • Although Wally Wallington demonstrates that it is possible to move huge blocks of stone with little to no effort, this does not demonstrate that Leedstalking himself eventually built the Coral Castle, as he claimed. – Auron Apr 04 '11 at 12:37
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    @Auron: No, but the question was if it is *possible*. Proving that he did it without help is asking to prove a negative fact, and impossible to prove, it can only be disproven. – Lennart Regebro Apr 04 '11 at 12:58
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    Therefore, Mikes answer is better. People should give him some more votes. :) – Lennart Regebro Apr 08 '11 at 10:25
  • @Lennart it's been a long time since I revisited this question. I honestly had a very hard time deciding between the two answers, but decided to go with Mike's because only it was more directly related. In retrospect, I probably should have worded the question more carefully. – Monkey Tuesday May 03 '11 at 02:52
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Ed Leedlaskin likely used fairly simple techniques in constructing Coral Castle, a process that took him somewhere around 30 years.

This site features some images of Mr. Leedalskin working on the castle using block and tackle, as well as using a electronic lift, and some examples of the chains he used which are still there on site.

Peter Thomson - Coral Castle

Wertilq
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Mike
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