The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-18
a Constant Menace Which Threatened
Neighboring Structures.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
One of the tallest, if not the largest.
buildings in the city is that Of the Ameri-
can Tract Society, now being erected at
No 1oc Nassau street. and the de aiIs of
its foundation and the difficulties enccun-
tered by the contractor are interesting.
The building is to be twenty-three stories
tail, and Will be S25 feet high from the top
of the foundations to the tip of the short
tower. 1t will weigh q, 900 tons. The i'm
possibility of getting to rock or anything
else solid necessitated either the abandon
ment of the scheme or building upon piles,
and the top of the piles would have to be
driven below the water level. To compli-
cate the situation there was new founda-
uon to put under one side of the Morse
building at the back Of the lot, and. more
important there is 30-inch water main
running through Nassau street only a
rev feet from where the dirt had to be re-
moved. Had the street at this point been
allowed to settle the least bit there was
Danger that this main would break II
II had broken and the flood that would
nave poured forth had been allowed to
continue for short time there would
nave been danger of the Times building,
$500 HAAANAAA6s lut tribune DullQlnE
ana the Morse building all slumping into
the American Tract Society's hole in the
ground together To guard against this
men from the water department were on
duty day and night to watch the ground
ana others were stationed at the nearest
water gates, with telephones at their ears.
waiting for the word to shut down.
Sheet piling, heavily braced, supported
the streets, and supporting walls were
quilt as quickly as possible and braced as
tast as they were built. The wall that
supports Nassau street has a 7-foot base
and that which supports Spruce street
an S-foot base. Spruce street settled a
little and cracked an old sewer in it. but
Nassau street and the water main held
Seventeen hundred and eighty-three piles
were driven for the foundations. These
were put in groups where each main pil-
lar is to stand, along the wall line and in
the interior. 1t was a ticklish Job to get
down to cut off the tops below the water
line and to fill in between the pile heads
with the foot of concrete the law requires
Each,group was treated separately. While
the hole was dug around it the sides were
lined with shet piling, and special braces
were put all around to prevent the moving
in of either of the street walls When
the final depth was reached shovelful Of
concrete was kept ready to dump in place
OF each shovelful of dirt removed. In
this building cantilever trusses will be
used to support the walls adjacent TO those
of the two buildings on the sides of the
lot. They will be scalene triangles of
open work. with the apex resting upon the
fulcrum blocks. The base of these Cir
ders will be forty feet long and the short
arm of the lever they form about five
feet long. They will be twelve feet deep,
arranged in pairs. and fastened to three
lines of columns back of those supporting
the upper walls. The walls will be self
supporting up to the thirteenth floor.
From there to the top they will be car
ried on girders resting on the steelwork.
This building will cost about 81, 000, 900. The
foundation cost about $4,000.