Gusty winds topple Ben Franklin statue in Boston

Old Ben got a bump on the head the other day.

A bronze statue of founding father Benjamin Franklin was toppled from its stone pedestal on Boston’s Freedom Trail over the weekend as a cold front and gusty winds swooped in on the city.

The statue, created in 1856, is believed to have fallen around 1 p.m. on Sunday, cracking the pavement below, the Boston Globe reported.

High winds reportedly pushed a tent into the statue before it fell.

The statue will be shipped to a nearby studio, Daedalus Inc. in Watertown, for repairs before it is reinstalled, which could take up to a month, according to the Globe.

Franklin, a Boston native, is best known as a resident of Philadelphia, where he moved at age 17 to find work as a printer, after his older brother, a successful printer in Boston, refused to give him a job and also did him the favor of blacklisting him so he couldn’t get a job with other printers.

In Philadelphia, Franklin was immortalized as founder of the Free Library, the scientist who discovered electricity, and as one of the authors of the U.S. Constitution and founding fathers of the nation.

The statue was designed byRichard Saltonstall Greenough.