The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1895-01-18
BUILDING A SKY SC3Ao53.
a Constant Menace Which, Threate ne
&eiprl, borixau. 81 Z !

a Constant Menace Which Threatened
Seighboring Structures.
One Of the tallest, if not the largest
building in this city, is that of the
American Tract society, now being
erected at $50 Nassau street, and the
details of it's foundation and the difficult
ties encountered by the contractor are
interesting. The building is to be TWEEN
ty-three stories tall, and will be 325 feet
gh from the top of the foundations to
the tip Of the short tower. 1t will weigh
1000 tons. The impossibility of getting
to rock or anything else solid necessitated
either the abandonment of the scheme or
building upon piles, and the top of the
piles would have to be driven below the
water level. To complicate the situation
there was new foundation to put under
one side of the Morse building at the
back of the lot. and, more important,
there is a 3Oinch water main running
Through Nassau street only few feet
from where the dirt had to be removed
Had the street at this point been allowed
TO settle the least bit there was danger
broken and the flood that would have
poured forth had been allowed to con
tinue for short time. there would have
been danger of the Times building, the
Potter building, the Tribune building and
the Morse building all siumping into the
American Tract society's hole in the
ground together: To guard against this
duty day and night to watch the ground,
and others were stationed at the nearest
water gates. with telephones at their ears.
waiting for the word to shut down.
Sheet pling, heavily braced, supported
the streets. and supporting walls were
built as quickly as possible and braced
as fast rs they were built. The wall
S1lnn0rtS yfr hon . e..
base. and that which supports Spruce
street an S-foot base. Spruce street set
tied Il little and cracked an old sewer il,
1t, tut 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 pillar is to stand, along the wall
line and in the interior. It was a ticklish
JOB to get dpwn to cut off the tops below
the water line. and to All 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 sheet
around to prevent the moving in Of either
of the street walls. When the final depth
was reached a shOvelful of concrete was
kept ready to dump in in place of each
shovelful Of dirt removed. In>this build
ing cantilever trusses will be used to sup
port 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 full
crnm blocks. The base Of these Orders
will be 40 feet long and the short arm of
the lever they form about 5 feet long,
They WILDE ~ feet, arranged in pairs,
and fastened to three lines of columns
hack ofathase supporting the upper walls:
thirteenth floor. From there to the ton
they will be carried on Orders resting
on the steel work. This building will
cost about $1,OOO,OOO The foundation
cost about O,OOO-New York Sun. ::