Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-11-19

A GOVERNMENT FoLLY.-Ihe New Orleans
bee, has long and minute description OF the
| Custom House now building in New Orleans.
1t says that it sis the largest structure of the
| kind under roof in the world" The corner
stone was laid by Henry Clay in 1S49. The
| building covers a whole square, measuring
on Canal street 344 feet on New Levee 81
on Custom House street 252 feet and on Old
Levee 296 feet. 1t covers an area of about 2
acres. The trenches which were dug for the
purpose of laying the foundation wore origi-
nslly eight feet in depth. The bottom Of
these trenches was first covered with layer of
three inch plank. On this flooring was then
laid sort of network made of twelve.inch
timber, strongly bolted together with iron.
The interstces of this net work were then
filled up with cement, shells. brick bats, &C.,
which, in process of time, will, it is thought,
form a solid floor as hard and durable as gran
lite itself. On the top of this was then placed
another layer exactly similar to that last des-
cribed. The underground platform therefore
on which the building rests is two feet three
inches in thickness. This foundation is gen.
orally Is feet in width for the outer walls,
though near the grand entrances and projec-
tions about the corners it is % feet The
width of the foundation of the inner walls Is
feet. The whole foundation covers about
two thirds of the area on which the building
stands. The weight Of the whole structure
when completed, will be something over &c.
600 tons, or l73, 2l9, 040 pounds. The walls,
which have now attained the height of 60
feet, vary in thickness from 4 to II feet, the
average thickness of the granite being IL
feet.
The granite used in the construction of the
walls will weigh about II, 900 tons, enough
says the Bee, if broken into paving stones six
inches thick, to pave street twenty feet wide
and three miles in length. The solid contents
of the building, are about eight million cubic
feet, so that if the whole were one solid mass
of granite it would form a monument twenty
feet square and nearly four miles high. The
estimated cost of the granite is 1915, 900, the
cost of the iron $800,000, the cost of the
marble $575, O0O-The cost of the entabla-
lures, columns, medallions, SC, will be i'm.
mense. The entire cost of the marble work
including, wesuppose, the cost in the collec.
tors's room-will be nearly $685. 900.
The cost of the building up to the first of
July was So, 1876, 900. including a considerable
quantity of materials on hand. The whole
cost, at completion (Which is supposed will
require live years yet) is estimated at about
So, 225,000. Ii it do not reach four millions,
we shall be surprised.
Inc CosJ Ol the OTuaIQ6nlaJlOO OF bllS DullQ-
ing is astonishing. For example, we have
stated that of the collectors room. The en-
tablatures which surround it will cost $l4S,-
900. 1t has fourteen Huted columns, each
forty one feet high, of marble. The capital
of each of these columns, cost $1,000. The
columns with their ornaments, will cost
$l50,000. The total number of marble steps
in and about the building is 24O--costing
$32,764. Thequantity of brick used is called
"almost fabulous" Up to the first of July,
the lumber bill was 100000.
And so forth and nearly all the costly
materials in this costly house has come from
the North.-the granite and marble from New
England, and the iron from Plttsburg
An important matter in relation to the
work is thus alluded to by the Bee:
The question now arises is the foundation
OF the building strong enough to sustain the
immense weight that will press upon it when
the building Is stored with merchandise
When the building is completed, Its weight,
by itself, will be twenty pounds to the square
inch-what will it be when the house will be
running over with the products of the four
quarters of the globe? 1t has been calculated
by the best civil engineers in this city that
the soil of Louisiana should not sustain more
than ten pounds to the square inch. We are
hoG surprised, therefore, TO learn that the
building has settled eighteen inches since the
foundations were laid.
What the ultimate settling may be, it is, of
course, impossible to say. 1t has been stated
and generally believed, that this settlement
has been uniform, but such is far from being
the case. The top of the building is now six
inches out Of the level, that is while the
structure has only settled one foot on the cor
neE OF Canal and New Levee streets, near the
porticoes on Custom House Street, it has set
tied eighteen inches. 10 show that this set.
ting has been anything but uniform, we may
state, what we believe is now generally known,
that it caused the groined arches in the CEN
tire of the building to break to such an extent
that they had to be taken out and replaced
with iron girdes, and this, notwithstanding
the strength of the huge iron bands and wire
cables which bind the walls together in every
direction. Had piles been driven to the depth
of about thirty feet, at which distance re-
peated experiments, such as boring for the
Artesian well, for the Marine Hospital, etc.,
have demonstrated that there is layer of
solid earth, foundation might have been OBJ
tanned that would have lasted for centuries.
AS it is, it would not be surprising if in the
course of fifty years, the floor of the collect
or's room should be on level with the cur
rent of the Mississippi