Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-02-18
THE POST OFFICE SITE
Test Borinxs Already Commenced-whatt the
Work Of One Drill shows.

Iest OUTINGS Atfcaty ION u1enceff-H NAT the
Work Of One Drill Shows.
Yesterday afternoon the work Of boring
through the soil Of the post Office site. in order
to determine the character Of the foundation
that is to be provided under the building, was
begun. and today the steel drill is eating its
way down through mud, clay. sand and gravel
at merry rate. The frs. hole is located at
the northeast corner, and there will be one
bored at each corner, about twenty feet from
each side. The location of the others will de-
pend largely upon the results produced by
these corner shafts. So far the results have
been quite satisfactory.
THIRTY-FIvE FEET DOWN.
Mr.. Conley had. up to noon, sunk his shaft
down about thirty-fve feet and there were no
elements encountered that were in any way
disappointing either to the architect, Mr.. Ed
brooke, or MIR. Steward, the superintendent.
For three feet from the surfece the material
was q mud or muck formed by the mixture Of
the filed soil with the surface water. The hole
10 in the center Of the old bowling cellar, where
there has been some rain water
standing since the buildings were
removed. At three feet below the surface, or
sboutI5 inches below the bottom ofthe general
excavation that is to be made, bed Of red
clay was encountered, extending for IL feet
~ inches, or to the level of Is feet ~ inches
This clay II hrm, even and compact and shades
lighter in color downward, until at Is feet "a
inches 1t turns much lighter, and there is
trace Of sand This lasts only foot and 515
inches, as at 16 feet "a inches there Is q
stratum Of fine blue clay, which is 10 feet 9
inches wide. At q feet Al inches comes a
distinct view of the same clay mixed with
sand, at "a feet ~ inches the stratum ends,
and there Is a streak of hard sand with fine
gravel At % feet inches the sand disappears
and the gravel becomes eoarser, presenting
hard, firm bed, in which the progress of the
drill 10 comparatively slow.
WILL DO FOR PILINo.
It is expected that this bed of gravel is az
thick a. will be at all essential for piiing. There
are stones in it that can be felt by the driller
- he works, though they are too large to be
brought up through the two-inch casing that
forms the outer portion of the ,outft. These
stones are pushed aside as they are encount-
cred by the drill and the growth of the hole Is
not interfered with The water that goes
down the inner pipe that carries the
drill returns to the surface through the outer
casing and flows out into q bucket, in which
the sediment settles and affords the samples
for examination. These samples are dried on
the stove in the office and bottled and labeled
SO that they can be marked with the depths at
which they were encountered As soon as the
other holes have been bored the architect will
have prepared an accurate map of the surface
geology at various points, and possibly he may
be able to obtain q graphic representation of
cross sections through the square from north
to south and from east TO west From the ten
denotes Of the soil noted during the excavation
IL would seem as if there were quite dip IN
the strata from west to east, but this will soon
be demonstrated beyond question
RAPID WORK OF EXCAVATION.
The remarkable stretch of fair weather that !
has been almost unbroken during the past fort |
night has been a great aid to Contractor Glea- |
son in his work Of digging out the square, and |
II 10 now estimated that there has been nearly |
SO per cent OF the soil removed. At this rate |
the work should be finished by the 18th of |
March at the latest, or two weeks ahead Of /
time, but Of course there may come In a few |
hours a storm or q series of storms to delay the
digging several weeks However, the chances
are favorable for the holes being dug out in
ample time.