New-York tribune., 1904-10-30

The Tallest and the Narrozvest N0zv
Being Completed in This City.

Where will the audacity of the builder of sky
scrapers stop?" Such a question is likely TO
arise in the mind of the most casual observer
rs he walks about the city. Within the last few
months several structures have been erected
which eclipsed any of their predecessors in the
boldness of their design, and just at the present
time two buildings being completed in the
Wall Street district which would seem to mani
fest an especial contempt for the laws of
nature. Neither has towers, and in
this class of Office buildings one is the
tallest in the world and the other is the
hafrowest Because of their extreme type
both present a most fantastic appearance The
first has a rear addition twelve stories higher
than its front, and consequently looks as il
ready to turn somersault The second is so
thin that it resembles a gigantic soda cracker
stuck up edgewise.
Yet the builders of these skyscrapers declare
that they are far safer than the dwarfish three
and four storied, old brick buildings that they
overtower. To these men neither one of these
buildings appears especially remarka ble Neither
one represents by any means the limit to their
airing and skill AS one OF them said
IF it were not for the law we could build
them as tall as the Eiffel Tower and that is
9S4 feet high, or little more than 600 feet above
the tallest skyscraper in New-York."
MGR is this audacity confined alone to the
architect who plans or the contractor who
takes the job" Every workman seems i'm
bued with this same characteristic. The riveter
may be seen climbing about the top of a steel
column some three hundred more feet above
the street nimbly a monkey Now and
then he will hang from that dizzy height with
only a bolthead under the toe Of one foot, and
the other leg twisted around a crosspece. Now
and then some workmen will go travelling sky
ward astraddle of beam which is being hoisted
by the derrick on top Of the steel frame, and
so unconcerned they of danger that they
light their pipes they sail aloft.
n comparison of some Of the most recent sky
sorap,rs with a few Of the earlier ones shows
how much more audacious the builders Of
to-day than those of few years ago. AS soon
as the theory of the steel skeleton tall sruct-
ures was discovered about twenty years ago.
il was used to construct buildings of great
size. which ware regarded at that time as mar
vels of the builders art These structures
however spread more than .hey lowered. The
ground area OF some of them was tremendous,
ard even at the present time few Of them sur
pass all their more modern rivals in the size of
the ground they cover The Produce Exchange
erected in 1881. which was the first large steel
cage building erected in New York, covers more
land than any other Office. building in the city
It's total ground area is 1880 feet It's height,
tower ii is .,25 feet high
In striking contrast with the Produce Ex-
change Building is the Trinity Building now in
tie course of construction at No III Broadway
1T shows how the present day builder piles up
his structure. instead of spreading it out AL
though its topmost office floor is nearly two
and a half times higher than that of the Prod
uce Exchange. il stands a plot having an
average width Of II feet. or one-fifth as wide
as the exchange. The Trinity Building is 21
stories high. AMI, although il has only II jlS
square feet OF ground area. less than one-fifth
that Il TIE Produce Exchange. ii has floor area
of 24,isS feet, or more than ore-half that Of the
exchange, which contains 401 ,45O square feet of
noGr.
The building almost completed at No 60 WALL
ST. which runs through to Finest. has III Office
floor 20 feet above TIE street or higher than
that of any otk"r towerless budn, Ii the
world This is the twenty-sixth floor. and the