The Hawaiian gazette., 1906-05-22
BUILDING ON
MADE LAND

" "''''h'f lh'toT WI the dOMn-
town commercial rebuilding which
seems TO be carefully avoided I'm dis
cussing these matters 1t IL this: When
the city of san Francisco was laid out
uhere lay a blight or small bay on the
EASTERN shore OF the peninsula between
Ciarks 5 Point on the north and Rincon
Foint on the south. North and south
OF The blight or cove these hills ran ont
INTO the bay. and these points were
made up of rock and sand. Between
them lay this vast territory on which
was butt the downtown district. IL
was a mud fiat, covered by water at
high tide. When the tide was low. a
vast stretch of mud lay between the
coast land and the water line To show
now great a distance it covered. the
highest point of this mud fiat. where
1t met the firm sand of the beach. came
nearly up to the rear of the present
Hall of Justice, fronting on Portsmouth
square, at Kearney street near WASH
lngton. If pedestrian walks from the
Hail of Justice to the foot of Washing
ton Street wharf, it will give him an
idea of how far up this mud fiat pene-
trates in the solid heart of San Fran
cisco SOIL. 1t is something like a mile.
In the early fifties ships were hauled
up on this mud fiat at crazy structures
called 'wharves," when their crews
abandoned them and fled to the mines
IN their mad thirst for gold. On the
northwest corner of Clay and Sansome
streets there is an old building called
the Mantle. 1t is so called after n
snip OF that name which lay at CLAW
street wharf during the gold seekers
rush. She sank down in the mud and
slush and ooze, and presently a lodging
mouse was built on her decks by some
thrifty speculator of the time. where
lodgings We're let out to the returning
miners at the trifie of four or five dol
lars night. Many years after, the
writer saw workmen excavating there
for the foundations of the present sub
stantial structure, and with his own
eyes he saw the lines of the hull, the
bilge of which protruded well out un-
der Clay-street. He saw the workmen
removing the rotting ribs of the old
SNIP winch had sailed many seas in
her days, at last to come to an in
glorious end as the basement of a lodg-
ing mouse in a San Francisco mud fiat.
oLOWLY SLIPPING DOWN
TO the north of this on Merchant
street Is a block of buildings over forty
years old. These buildings, like many
others there, have been slowly slippine.
toward the bay into and over the quag-
nlre beneath. When sales of land have
taken place, ii has sometimes been
necessary Tor the adjoining owners to
deeu TO each other in exchange an inch
or SO on eastern and western lines This
gradual slipping forward of the mass
OF buildings characterizesN the whole of
the territory affected. Although these
statements will be stoutly denied bv
many whose interests are unfayorablv
affected by them, they are patent to
the most casual observer Nearly every
new building located in that district
within the last ten years has been
forced to set its sidewalk ON the "odi-
cial grade" This official line is NOT
measured from the uncertain surface
of the earth, but is fixed scientifically
from the base line," which is deter
mined by considerations with which
the slipping and sinking soil in that
dlstrict has nothing to do. Therefore
1t is that pedestrians in the downtown
oistrict so often find themselves forced
10 mount steps when they reach a side
walk In front of new building, some
times going up as high as two or three
ieet. The lower level of the old side
walks shows the manner and the ex-
tent to which the soil has sunk since
the date of their construction Cor
respondingly, when the present Market
street Railway cable was constructed
some score of years ago, the engineers
found that on lower Market Street the
ofi1cial grade of the street-on which
grade they were legally obliged to Law
their rails-was twelve to twenty-four
inches above the then level of the
street, the street sinking more as they
reached the foot of Market Street
They remained in quandary for some
time, and finally determined to Law
their line on the official levels This
they did. The action created consterna-
tion among the downtown property
owners, who moved heaven and earth
to force the railway people to lower
their levels. But they failed. Even
the city authorities were forced to raise
their pavements, and the property
owners were forced to hoist IN
their sidewalks. In the course of these
succeeding years they have sunk
again.
BUILT ON QUAGMIRE.
If the owners of land on this mud
nat decide to rebuild in steel-frame
construction, they will have to carry
the foundations on piles, as has been
the case hitherto with two and three
story brick structures. Many such
buildings there are now supported by
hundred-foot piles. These piles have
been driven down through the mud,
sometimes striking nothing solid, even
at depth OF hundred feet Some
times couple OF hundred-foot piles
nave been driven down, one on top OF
the other without striking bedrock. II
Is on this quagmire that the builders
OF colossal sIoel-frame sky-scrapers
must support their structures The