The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-07
A MOVING HOTEL.
The Brighton Beach Structure Begins
It's Trip.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.

It's Trip.
From the Brooklyn Eagle
The moving of the great hotel at Bright
on Beach, after months of preparation,
crowded the trains to CoHey Island Tuesday
morning. The report that an unsuccessful
effort to move the huge wooden structure
was made Monday evening was inaccurate.
The work that was then done was to test
the ropes and to see that their arrangement,
which had occupied an army of men during
the entire day, provided for an equal strain
on every line and every car. When dark
ness put an end to the preparatory work
everything was in readiness for the supreme
effort Tuesday morning. The beautiful
weather and the positive assurance that the
greatest feat of house moving ever accom-
plished would be on free exhibition was
sufficient to account for the presence of fully
1000 persons on the beach at noon Tuesday.
At 9:15 o'clock, when few spectators were
on hand, six engines, with full head of steam
on were given the signal to move forward.
The locomotives were on two tracks, three
on each track, and the cables extended from
them in a fan shape to all parts of the
hotel, which rested on 100 fat cars, rolling
on twenty-four tracks. Sixty tackle blocks,
weighing from $50 to $50 pounds each, the
largest containing three loops of the rope,
were attached to the cars and to the great
14-inch beams that were used as stays 100
feet back from the hotel. From these stays
the ropes passed to the engines. The one
and half inch manila rope used in the
work, especially manufa 1tured for the oc-
casiOn, weighed nearly three tons. The
hotel is owned by the Brooklyn and Brigh-
ton Beach Railroad Company, and the
work OF moving it was in charge of the
roads superintendent, j. l.. Morrow. b.
G. Miller q Son, however, placed the
house on the cars and Mr. Miller superin-
tended the moving this morning. The en-
gines at the first signal from him. moved
forward with great care, sanding the tracks
as they went.
When the strain of moving the 5000 ton
building had reached its utmost al the To-
comotives turned on the tracks for a mo-
ment, and it was feared that there had been
a miscalculation as to their power TO draw
the weight. 1t was calculated that each
engine should draw 700 tons. The building,
however, was moving slowly and without
a perceptible tremor. The engines regained
their grasp on the tracks, and the spectators
cheered as they saw the many winged and
many turretted ediice in motion.
This, however, was but an experimental
pull, and after the hotel had been drawn
back six feet the signal was given to the
engines TO stop. Then a careful inspection
of the hotel was made from below and
within. Not pane of glass had been shat
tered nor was the plastering cracked in any
of the rooms
The blocks of wood and beams that sup
ported this 100000 feet of surface area of
the house on the cars were all examined and
excepting an almost imperceptible sinking
at the western end of the building, where
the corner rested on fifty feet of twelve-inch
timber, not change had occurred in the
timber supports.
Preparations were made for longer pull.
The great car on its second trip had three
passengers Mrs. Miller, her daughter and
her daughter-in-law, who occupied chairs
on a little piazza at the rear center of the
building. Four locomotives began pulling
on the ropes, but their wheels turned with
out advancing, and the other two engines
were again attached. After the dead weight
of the strain had been overcome the build
ing followed the engines quite rapidly with
perfect steadineSs. A distance of twenty
four feet was accomplished. and another in
terval for examination was ordered.
third advance was made at II o'clock, when
a space Of twenty-five feet was covered, and
then it was necessary to rearrange the
tackle blocks and stays at greater dis
lance back from the building. II was
o'clock before this work was completed and
provision had been made for moving the
structure 100 feet further before sunset
The tracks on which the hotel rides ex-
tend back but $50 feet and men were busy
grading and arranging for the further ex-
tension of 800 feet, which will place the
hotel in ITS proposed location on piles. some
of which have already been driven. While
the building was in motion John Y.
Frtchett, superintendent of the Brighton
Beach Improvement Company, was under
the structure where he could watch the
running of the cars. Col Fritchett has
lnI gb, af fbo hing ,yi1iDa
adjoining the hotel three times, ard he is a
Judge of that kind of work He said when
the work had ended this morning:
GAS ] stood under the hotel | could not
have told the exact instant when the build
ing began to move had not had my hand
on one OF the floor beams There was not
a culver or excessive straining anywhere
that | could see. No drawing-room car
ever ran more smoothly on its tracks"
Neither Gen. DANES Jourdan, who is
President of the Brighton Beach Improve
ment Association, nor Col LangfOrd, of
the Brighton Beach road, wa, present at
the beach during the morning hours,
though both watched the preparations for
the work last evening. Bridge Superintend-
emit Martin and Muster Of Bridge Tianspor-
tation HOagland were interested spectators
of the last pull this morning.
After the hotel has beel moved back 30
feet there will be "a ssatiol Of work for n
time, but the owners Of the house expect TO
have it ready for opening June p, although
they will not worry then if the day is post
poned till July l. a contract has been let
for building a fireworks Enclosure just
northeast of the new site of the hotel. Tbis
Enclosure will be 600x450 feet, or $50 feet
longer than the affair at Manhattan Beach.
A contract has also been made TO build a
new music pavilion that will be especially
gorgeous.
The Brighton Beach bathing pavilion is
nearly eight feet in the air at high tide, and
though il is not Immediately threatened, as
the piles ON which it stands are sixteen feet
in the earth, yet it has been decided 10
move it back The work viii begin on
Monday. The pavilion mas already been
moved three times and Ia now $50 feet
further in shore than when IL was built. IL
will go back $50 feet further. At the point
where the Brighton Beach Hotel and the
pavilion now stand Coney Island Is but
1 eno foot x.tida which would indfcafa that