, 1888-05-23

saw Six HGClo locomotives snort and strain,
and went nearly crazy as the monster build
ing gllded bodily and smoothly along until it
stood on the bank back of the beach, 1T
feetfrom where the front had rested. The
400 feet, from first floor to the top of the
lofty towers, moved as one. There was no
Earring, no wrenching, no trembling. A
person in the hotel would not have known
that it had stirred.
The great scheme was 8 success, and the
thousands that had paid a visit to the sea-
shore to see it tried were delighted. The sea
alone looked sad, for it had been robbed of
It's prey, and only the spiles from which the
hotel had so long defed the waves remained
to brave their fury. But the sea was con-
queror after all, for had it not driven the
hotel away? The constant inroads of the
waves year after year made it necessary to
move the structure, for little by little seven
hundred feet of beach in front of it had been
washed away, until the waves rolled under
Its piazza and half way to its rear foundation
wall. Bulkheads were built in vain. The
sea laughed and swept them aside. 1t be-
came evident that the hotel had to 60 into
the sea or be moved back out of its way.
The company decided to move it inland sos
feet, but how was it to be done? The build
ing cost $780, 900. To tear it down and re-
build 1T would be an enormous expense. 1t
was too heavy and covered too much ground
to think of moving it in the ordinary way
with skids and jack screws. One bright day
an idea occurred to Superintendent Morrow,
OF the Brighton Beach Railroad. He suggest
ed that the moving be done on flat cars and
that locomotives do the pulling. The idea
was startling, but practical, and it was
adopted. Work was begun by Contractor
Miller last November, and yesterday the
hotel left the sea and began its novel journey.
1t vas a picture worth seeing. The day
was perfect and the air just right for a trip
to the beach. There stood the big hotel
seemingly immoyable in any way known to
man, yet the engineers said it would soon roll
bodily and easil inland. The ends of twenty
four trains Of iron fiat cars could be seen
sticking out from under the long building.
1t was hard to imagine that they held
100000 0 pounds, the estimated weight Of
the hotel, but they did, and so evenly had
the weight been distributed that no sagging
could be detected by the eye. Each of the
end cars had a pulley block attached. Then
up the respective tracks a little way were
other blocks bound down by chains to the
rails, which were weighted by great timbers
and spiked to keep them from raising or
spreading. Three tons, or about two miles,
OF new inch and one-half rope ran through
these blocks and lead away here and there
to the locomotives that were standing on
the two middle tracks ready to grapple
with their heavy load. There were six
of these locomotives, three on each track
coupled together. Not one Of them weighed
over thirty-tiye tons, but, as their combined
pulling capacity was estimated at 8,400, 900
pounds, it was reckoned that with the help
Of the powerful purchase given by the blocks
and tackle there would be no trouble about
persuading the hotel to leave the beach for
the country. Still, the little engines look.
ed like so many little ponies hitched to the
City Hall. 1t seemed laughable to think of
their moving that five story, solid building
that towerd above them and stretched away
50 far on either side. Early in the morning
Contractor Miller and his son and Superin-
tendent Morrow, Of the Brighton Beach
road, were on the ground anxious to try the
great experiment. They had worked for
months for the hour to arrive. The success
of the novel plan of moving a hotel of such
size on railroad cars and by locomotives was
entirely in doubt. Nothing of the kind had
ever been tried before.
After the adoption of Mr.. Morrow's idea
the work of raising the building, for it had
to be lifted from it's foundation to allow the
fat cars to be run underneath, and the lay
ing of the tracks was intrusted to experts,
who hrouohh all their skill into NAV to nro