The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-12
BUILDERS BOG.
STRUCK IT IN ExoApATING o THE
NEU ". 7. LIFE BUILDING.

DeHd Vegetation or = Century ago. In a Layer
several Feet ThicL, Compel Them 90 Go
Mnch Lower Than They HAD nbtenaed-
The Peat n Relic Of tho Ola Collect Marsh.
In the work of preparing tho foundation for
q new building which the New York Life In
surance Company is erecting at the southeast
corner OF Elm and Leonard streets. directly
back OF the company's building on Broadway.
the contractors have had an expensive expert
oncc with a treacherous Bubso!l. A peat bog
was discovered In tho course of tho work md
the foundations had to DO carried down nearly
forty feet below the street surface, twenty feot
below what had been calculated as q safe foun-
dation.
The bog was discovered In this way. When
tho excavation was complete as originally dc.
signed, 1t became necessary TO shore up and un.
derpin the walls Of the building'next TO the south
OF the Insurance company's plot. Thdcontractors
found that the underpInning put In TO sustain
the walls of the old building sank as soon as
they attempted to transfer tho weight OF tho
walls to 1t from the temporary shorings. Upon
Investigation 1t was found that the sand upon
which the footing was built was underlaid by
the bed of soft peat. The contractors found
themselves obliged to get to the bottom of tho
peat, q veritable bog three to five and one-half
feet in depth in the main, but quite deep in one
The Engineering Record describes how this
was, done. To support tho wall twenty Pinch
under the wall to a depth Of thirty to forty feet
to hard pan. Then they were filled UP with
At tho bottom OF tho 2O.foot excavation for tho
new building s,s FFh two feet ts Of Son nn aed haze Aye s ALREADY
feet deeper. 1t was carried below the lowest
part of tho peat. and terminated in fine. dense.
wet sand, upon which a solid layer OF C concrete
eighteen Inches thick was spread in several ad-
tacent but separate sections, On these sections
were placed steel beam grillages. upon which
the level Of tho bottom Of The first excavation,
whore they were capped with stee! distributing
originally designed level. The foundations hav-
ing thus been carried down below the PREACHER;
the brick piers, above the new solid concrete
platform to the original level Of tho cellar floor.
The extra cost involved by.this work is put ut
The gound is made land everything what was
the pafshy border Of the Collect Pond: The
could live elsewhere dwelt upon them and in.
habitants Of the east and west sides OF the
ts!ase poor Ssas p ppgss0 who he ' eouid not : live h1s"l else
son5Fse sS4a 0 lsy sessf s sSPsss on a 3SSH; ana In o sHsei
tory Of New York" Capt Anthony Rutgers,
whose home was on .hS East River bank;
ii. that said swamp is flied constantly with
standing water, for which there Is no natural
vent. Bushes and SINAI trees grew upon some
Of the submerged soil, producing In the midst
of the stagnation an added element OF infection
in the way of BILE decay, making the
Kolk Collect, indeed, exceeding dangerous
and Of very pernicious consequence TO all
those dwelling within a short distance of it
Capt. Rutgers was willing to devote time and
money to the work OF draining and filling in tho
swamp IL he and his heirs could be assured of
possession Of the land thus reclaimed and his
proposition was accepted. The work was begun
toward the end of the last century but was not
completed until 1910.
The trees and bushes and decaying vegetable
matter spoken of are what formed the peat just
uncovered. Parts of the peat eXcavated arc
pulpy now. 1t Is all too wet to burn. Hero
and there in IL are bits of red cedar. Some con-
siderable of tree trunks were
brought up in the excavations. In some places
the trunks lay across one another and among
interviewed bushes as though all bad gone
down together in some severe storm. Not all
of the debris is yet cleared from the site. and
there were interested observers watching the
wagons carting 1t away yesterday.
In the series Of papers on old New York that
Thomas A. Janvier wrote for Hdrper'S Maya.
cine a few years ago he drew attention to what
he said was the fact that a mistake had been
made. not, indeed, in filling in these sv amps
and the pond-along with them. but in permit
ting buildings to be put up on the land so made
instead of turning 1t into n park and allowing
trees and shrubs to take up the moisture from
the still too watery soil. He suggested the
planting of the 'watcr-lovins eucalyptus
along the streets overspreading the ancient
site and environment OF the Collect.