I have been interested in Coral Castle for 20 years, and am one of those that believe a long forgotten aspect of our physical world was used to aid in the construction of the place. The quarrying and movement of the stones could be accomplished by one man over a long period of time using simple tools. The real mystery is how such a slightly built man managed to manhandle those tools, and to what end. The place was essentially built in less than 4 years. Most of it in a year and a half.
Regarding the tools. What tools have survived will be the items he needed for everyday work, and that no one decided to steal since he died. It is quite possible that he sold some heavier duty equipment as scrap during the war, as by that time he was finished quarrying and erecting. As he may have sold a lot of timber. Dade County pine was premium wood.
His cutting the coral out of the ground would have required some sort of pile driver, which could be made very easily with a tripod and pulley. There is no way a man his size, or twice his size, would have cut as deep as he did without one. It is my guess he used a similar setup as used at the Windley Key quarry to cut the rock. He would not need to dead lift the blocks out. He could lift one end up at a time, and place them on logs, then drag the logs with the block on it. Using long logs as a travois, and one of those derricks as the anchor, when he lifted the end of the logs from the ground, he reduced the friction required to move the blocks. If it wasn't for the friction, a child could push a 20 ton stone. The ends of the logs would wear, but they would present a lot less resistance to any pulling. Those logs were around 30-40 feet long.
Those logs could also be used in the erecting. Placing the blocks on one end, you would get a 3-4 to 1 mechanical advantage on lifting it upright. A great use for those tripods again. Those tripods were what gave him the leverage he needed.
But as said earlier, how could a man his size keep up that pace and move such heavy equipment? Those logs would weigh over 300 pounds each. Those hoists and chains would weigh as much or more than him. He had to cut those logs. He had to sharpen tools. He built a wooden house in that period of time also, which no one has inventoried the tools that were in it. There were quite a few in 1982 still lying in there. A lot of work for one little guy.
If Ed used the Dade County pine on his property for those logs, they weighed considerably more than your average telephone pole. Very dense, very hard, and very sappy. I have seen 5 foot sections a guy couldn't pick up. BTW, they were much sought after during WWII. Brought a very high price. Bet Ed made some money off of his.
The mystery is why he built it the way he did. I have a strong suspicion that it was intended to be a macro-sized EM generator, using the telluric currents of the earth and piezoelectric properties of coral. I also believe almost all old megalithic structures were built for a similar purpose.
Look for how Ed Leedskalnin got the energy to do all of that moving and rigging. Picture a very petite wife lugging chains and logs and felling trees and what not to cut, move, and erect 1100 tons of rock. In 4 years or less. That is a fact re the time. Makes it even a little more amazing, doesn't it?
Ed moved from his original location starting in 1936. He had finished the present place around 1940-41. His old location did not have the walls or near the size the present location is. Pretty much the carvings and a tower made of smaller stones. During that time between, he had built a wooden house on the new property, dug a well, moved most of the carvings, and quarried and erected the walls and other items. Much of that time was spent in relocating and erecting the carvings. I believe it was in 1939 when he actually began on the walls and tower, so you are looking at a construction period for those items of 1-2 years.
Moving and erecting those carvings is the same almost as quarrying and erecting at the first location. So you may understand that the 1100 tons there was done within a span of 4 or 5 years. BTW, it is remarkable that he moved those carvings without any major breakage. Coral is brittle stuff.
Perhaps remember the cedar like tree growing just inside the south wall at that time. It was in the middle of the length of the wall, and actually on the N-S axis, being on the line between the large metal rod stuck in the ground just south of the quarry pit, and the Polaris obelisk. You may remember how its branches starting growing ONLY on the E-W axis, parallel to the wall, starting at the top of the wall. It looked like a candlelabra or menorah. I checked the tree for signs of pruning and shaping, and there were none. From a picture I have seen taken recently, there appears to be another tree in a different location exhibiting the same phenomenon. It is one of those umbrella type trees.
1982 was when the swinging gate was broken. I was there a day or so after he had broken. I was told someone left a tire in the passageway, blocking it from turning. At that time, there was also a section of the west wall, where it joined with the diagonal wall following US1, that had just blown out from the wall. Some largish pieces of rock had just popped out, as if steam inside had blown it apart.
Those things, and the layout of the place suggests to me it channelled some sort of energy. It was designed to channel the telluric currents, coiling the natural magnetic flow, and creating some sort of EM generator.
The 28 ton block with the arch on top is a key point to figuring out what the place is about. If I remember right, looking into the hole in it from the outside would focus on the repentance booth, which I believe to be a resonance chamber of some sort. One of the members of the Coral Castle forums visited there recently and enlarged on something I noticed years ago, which was how some rocks would resonate when struck. He found many more, and said they resonated at the same frequency, except for one. Look for a post by BIJ at that site.
I have some electrical background. I see a mass, the walls, used as a conductor for a magnetic and electrical flow. Coral has a lot of quartz in it, so pressure and vibration will cause some electrical generation. The Saturn obelisk strikes me as an oscillator for that circuit, perhaps vibrating some when certain celestial alignments occurred. The swinging gate was a switch, or perhaps a motor, or both.
I think if you enlisted a good electrical/electronic engineer, and get them to accept the idea that natural material can be used for the generation and conduction of EM, then make a schematic of the place, a lot will be revealed. Throw in the vibratory/gravitational effects of celestial bodies. This is a technology that is very, very old.
