New-York tribune., 1901-07-23
THEY STRIKE HIDDEN STREAM.
BUILDERS AGAIN ENCOUNTER UNDER
GROUND RIVER NEAR CENTRAL PARK.

BUILDERS AGAIN ENCOUNTER UNDER
GROUND RIVER NEAR CENTRAL PARK.
The stream which flows many feet beneath
the surface of the street at Fiftyninth-st. and
Sixth-ave., and which has for years caused
much delay to building operations in that part
of the city, has been reached by the workmen
engaged on the Mela Realty Building plot. This
plot is in Sixth-ave. between Fifty-eighth and
Fifty ninth SITS. and adjoins on the east the
site occupied by the New-York Athletic Club.
On it will stand a ten story apartment house,
and the cost of the building. together with the
sum paid for the land. will be about S1.000,o00.
Every minute of the day and night $50 gallons
of water are rushing from the stream into the
excavation, and are being pumped by steam
into the sewer pipes in Fifty-eighth-st. If the
pumps were not kept constantly at work the
water in the excavation would quickly rise, and
the workmen would probably be unable to con-
tinue their labors.
In the building of the present house of the
New-York Athletic Club this stream also
reached, and it wrought much trouble in laying
the concrete foundation for the building. 1t
loosened girders that supported planks which
were used to shore up the earth Walls of the
excavation and a large part of the bank caved
in The damage in this case was said TO be
about $4,000 This was thought to be con-
servative estimate
In unearthing the stream In building the Mela
Realty apartment house, the work on the struct-
ure has been delayed about a month according
to a person interested in its construction. No
further delay is expected, as the steam engines
are able to carry away the water from the
stream nearly as fast as it rushes into the ex-
cavation. What water the engines do not carry
away soaks into the ground.
Robert T. Lyons is the architect of the build
ing. In drawing his plans he calculated that
the stream would surely be revealed in laying
the foundations. Under his directions the work.
men began the interior foundation work first
This foundation was used to support the beams
that kept in place planks snoring up the walls
of the excavation. In this way the danger of
undermining the dirt walls of the excavation
and causing a in said to have been
removed
II is expected that the task of laying the steel
beams will begin September l. In some
places in the excavation there were yesterday
several feet of water Piles being driven
down many feet by steam driver. Three feet
of the upper part of the piles will be in the
water rising from the stream. On the pile
foundation will be laid two and one-half feet of
concrete A Tribune reporter was told yester-
day by one of the workmen that this thickness
of concrete would preserve the piles and would
evenly distribute the weight of the building over
the piles. On this concrete floor will be laid
foundation walls of brick. The third and fourth
floors of the building are to be connected with
the New-York Athletic Club. These floors will
be used by the club as bachelor apartments
The sites of the New-York Athletic Club and
of the Mela Realty Building would have been
bought by Coils P. Huntington for plot on
which to build a home for his own occupancy
If he had not obtained map showing the mys-
terious streams Manhattan Island. He
learned that the stream did not flow by large
parcel at the southeast corner of Flfty-seventh-
St and Fifth-ave, so he bought this plot and
built the house that stands there now.