Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-07-21
THE BUGGY IN Chicago
II Seems Strange In City
Streets to Eastern Eyes.
A. DANGER TO sKYsCRAPERs.
It Was at One Time UnexpectedIy
Threatened by the Big Drainage
Canal, but Now Ii seems 10 Have
Been Overcome.

Threatened by the Big Drainage
Canal, but Now IL seems TO Have
! Been Overcome.
CHICAGO July Is Il Special There
| Is nothing that surprises visitor here
| from one of the big eastern cities more
| than a certain Chicago custom which
| savOrs much Of the country village. 1t
may be termed the buggy practice, .
md although not so prevalent as it was
a few years ago it is still marked fea~
! ture.
! To be more explicit, it may be stated
! that there are many Chicago men who
drive all over town In light four wheel
buggies In the prosecution Of their
business. hitching their horses In front
of the stores and other establishments
where they have occasion to stop ex-
actly as the ruralist who goes to the
county seat to trade" bitches his
Horse in front of the store or the post
office or the courthouse or the black
smith shop, and long lines Of horses at
tached to buggies are to be seen daily
tied to hitching posts along Chicagos
streets.
HitchinE Posts Need Wide Streets,
There are no hitching posts in New
York's business streets nor yet In many
other big eastern towns, but the hitch
ing post is as much a feature of the
streetscape here as in any small settle
ment. The time will come probably
when the buggy habit win disappear
and with it the hltching post Delivery
horses and truck horses will always
have to spend part of each day stand
ing in Chicago streets, as indeed they
do in the streets of every city, but such
horses are trained to stand without ty-
ing. and the hitching post is sure to
disappear as soon as the Chicago bust
ness man stops making use of the
buggy.
The buggy habit could never have
existed as it exists here, in any big
city, were it not for the breadth of the
streets. This will undoubtedly keep
both the buggy habit and the hitching
post alive somewhat beyond their nor
NAL term. But they are certain to 20
eventually, along with the wooden
pavement and the wide plank side
walks. Perhaps this last is the most
singular looking feature of this vast
lakeside city to any visitor accustom-
ed to cities of like size in the east.
The Canal and the skyscrapers.
Although this city cannot today boast
of possessing the tallest skyscrapers,
still it was the first to build this sort
of business building. and it's collection
of multiple storied structures excels
any other, excepting New York's,
down to the present time.
The difficulty of building tfeII and
solid buildings here is much greater
than in almost any other American
city. The business sections of Bos-
ton, Of Baltimore, of Philadelphia of
New York, of st. Louis. are located
mainly on solid ground with u sub
stratum of everlasting rock. In many
cases the ground itself is sufficient in
these cities for an adequate fOunda-
ton for the most massive structure.
When this is not true, it is Compara-
lively easy to dig to the rock, which,
once reached, is absolutely secure. But
here it is different. Here the soil is
soft and spongy and water soaked for
nobody knows how far down, and
here, as in some of the Dutch cities
and in the Russian imperial city,
which Peter the Great built on "a trem-
bling quag, the first thing to do in
building foundations Is to drive piles.
When enough of them have been sunk
into the mud to warrant further
operations, the laying of the real foun-
dations may begin, and every one of
the massive, towering business palaces
which grace this city stands on a com
bined substructure of trees, driven
top end down, into the original marsh,
and tons and tons Of concrete buick
and stone.
sinking Foundations.
Although these foundations were laid
with the utmost care, not a few of the
buildings began to sink and settle soon
after completion, and some OF them are
now several inches below their original
levels Fortunately there has been no
serious uhevenness in tae settling of
amy bl lltlu, dutAs lpilu itdt'lS dLshs TIC
fears which were entertained that the
cutting of the drainage canal would
ultimately do great harm to the Chica-
go skyscrapers seem to have been with
out Justification.
When this big ditch was dug, the eX-
cayators went below certain vein of
slippery blue clay. As they dug they
noticed that the clay was continually
oozing out into the exca vation. This
annoyed them of course, because they
had to do much of their work over and
over again on account of it.
A few days later this feature of the
situation was found to be one of its
least evils. No one had thought about
it, but, of course, no great amount of
clay could slide out into the eXcavated
ditch without causing settlement of
the surface from under which the Clay