The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-16

metropolis. In order to be classed as a skyscraper nowadays building must con tain at least twenty stories above the pavement, and then it is only one of the little brothers in the family of tall build ings. A forty-story structure is in process of erection in this city, while the tower to be added to the Metropolitan Life building, which occupies the site of Dr. Parkhursts old church in Madison Square will be FOO feet high. In other words it will overtop the Washington Monument by 150 feet and will be about three-quarters the height of the Eiffel tower.
 A modern office building often houses 4000 persons, and the amount of daily bus mess transacted in such a structure is proved by a recent count of elevator traffic, which showed that in a single building more than 6O,O00 persons. a num- Der about equal to the entire population of Evansville. Ind. Portland, Me, or Oak land. Cal. had been transported up ana down during business hours. The Wall street skyscraper is to include twenty-five stories, and is being built by the Trust
 
 rooms will be the handsomest in New York.
 Work Is Long.
 The work of putting up such a building is one which requires many months, even before the foundations reach the level of the street. and during the past summer and fall the Trust Company of America's building has furnished a striking illustra- tion of the possibilities of modern con struction methods. It is an evidence of the coming of the era of concrete, the free use of which, together with the sys- tenn of caisson sinking, have lately wrought revolutionary change in the builders art Fifteen years ago such structure would have been imposs bilty. no support strong enough to bear the weight having been devised at a time when pling was universally used in foun- dation work It was in New York. in 1892, that for the first time in the world eaissons were used to support the columns of building No foundation company at that time could think of any way to carry out the architects plan. so in desperation the architect turned to bridge building firm and received from them an estimate well up into the six figures. Today such job is far cheaper and is executed as mere matter of course
 ! With the increase in the number of huge buildings the construction of suitable foundations has become a science in itself Not only must the weight of the building be known, but also the character of the finding much as a good sized boulder site. The foundation company. after get ting the architects figures as to the weight of the structure to be erected turns to it's files and from them learns the probable conditions to be found when the excavations are made The ability to gauge these conditions is based on knowl- edge accumulated gradually as a firms business increases. and it becomes a valu- able stock in trade.
 Planting skyscra pers on Manhattan, however, is a simpler task than similar operations carried on in some other cities. Here nature built upon a rock foundation with a comparatively thin layer of soil for a covering. in consequence of which the work of supporting a building. though arduous, is not a difficult feat of engineer ing. In Chicago. on the other hand where men could dig down indefinitely without finding as much so a good sized boulder the engineering architects were put to it to devise suitable supports for their sky until some one thought out the now famous floating foundation" sort of raft of steel and concrete built to bear tremendous weight and floating upon the