🇺🇸 The largest church pipe organ on planet Earth is not in Rome, London, or Paris. It sits inside the Cadet Chapel at West Point. From the outside, the Cadet Chapel looks like a medieval fortress. Inside, it hides an absolute monster of acoustic engineering. When the building opened in 1911, the organ was fairly normal, with 2,406 pipes. Then a unique tradition took hold. Graduating classes, generals, and families of fallen soldiers started donating new sets of pipes as personal memorials. Decade after decade, whenever an alumnus wanted to leave a mark on the academy, they added more. Today, it holds 23,511 pipes. The smallest ones are the size of a pencil, producing high whistles. The largest are 32 foot tall hollow wooden pillars that pump out low vibrations. The system is so vast that West Point employs a full-time curator just to keep it running, complete with a subterranean workshop.