Grandma's House

The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor is sinking.

Portions of the shoreside building and plaza commemorating the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor have settled as much as 30 inches and are still slowly sinking, and the concrete structure is cracking.

This is apparently because the crowds coming to visit the memorial have increased dramatically, and it just can't bear the traffic.

The one-story, open-air visitors center building was constructed on fill material that was dredged from Pearl Harbor decades earlier and was expected to settle 18 inches. Its architects even designed in the ability to raise the building using concrete shims. But it already has been raised four times, causing cracks in the concrete walls that have exposed steel reinforcing rods to moisture.

They are currently working on a solution, but they are running out of time. The engineers say they only have five to ten more years before it will have to be closed down.