Potomac Hospital, in conjunction with Bovis Lend Lease and Twin Contracting Corporation, held a "Topping Out" Ceremony at Potomac Hospital on Friday, November 5, 2004.
Construction on the New Potomac Hospital began in November 2003. The new, state-of-the-art, four-story building will replace Potomac Hospital's patient care units that date back to the hospital's founding in 1972.
While there inevitably remains a great deal of work to be done to complete the structure, topping-out represents the safe and successful attainment of the highest point. The "Topping Out" beam for the New Potomac Hospital has been painted white and Potomac Hospital employees, volunteers, physicians and others involved in the construction project were invited to sign the beam before the ceremony.
During the ceremony, the beam was raised by a crane and put in its proper place on the New Potomac Hospital. The New Potomac Hospital will be completed in 2006.
Sean Connaughton, Chairman of the Prince William County Board
of Supervisors, and Co-Chairman of the Campaign for
Your New Potomac Hospital, signs the final steel beam before it's raised.
How the "Topping Out" Tradition Evolved
Immigrants who became the country's contractors and steelworkers brought the practice of topping-out a structure to America. Today, it is a celebration by workers and their guests of the placement of the topmost beam of a structure, whether it is a bridge, an office tower or a hospital.
The ritual of "topping out" a structure is one whose roots reach back for centuries, though there is apparently no definitive proof of origin.
According to legend, the ancient Chinese smeared chicken blood on the highest timber of a new temple, while the pre-Christian Romans preferred human sacrifices.
Potomac’s “Topping Out” Ceremony marked the safe and successful attainment of the highest point of our new patient care building. Employees, physicians and volunteers signed the final beam.
Fortunately, those practices have been replaced today by the hoisting of a steel beam or an evergreen tree to the top of the newly completed structure, a tradition that can be traced back to the Scandinavians who venerated evergreens.
Customarily, neighbors helped one another with building homes and other structures, and the placement of a tree on the topmost point was a signal that a celebration was about to begin. Viking chieftains, upon returning from a successful raid, often constructed huge mead halls in which the celebration commenced with the hoisting of an evergreen to the ridge pole.
Other experts attribute the tradition to the Teutonic tribes of Europe who placed fir trees on their structures in an attempt to appease the spirits for the destruction of the timber used in the building.
In some cases, a sheaf of corn was attached to the tree both to serve as food for the horse of the Norse god Odin and as a charm against lightning (some experts contend that this is the origin of lightning rods). Even today in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, a sapling decorated with flowers and foodstuffs often is put aloft to seek the benevolent care of the spirits.
