The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-08-04
NOW IT is THE
GLOUDPIERGER
sKYscRARlNe ouTpoHE ~ MON.
sTER OFFICE BUILDING IN
NEWYoRK GOING \
WARD nc HEIeH OF
OVER 6oosEEEI.

OVER sooEEE
NEw$YpRK Aug -Glbudpisrc
thlt IS the name invented TO de:
scribe the building for which the topns
dationsare now being laid at the cor
uer Of Liberty street and Broadway
skyscraper was too4commonplaca a
term for this forty-one story monster.
1t is I'M a class by itself, a class far
beyond anything ever known before
in the %skyscrapings line. Its forty:
one stories will tower to height Of
612 feet topping the Washington
Monument by n~fty-seven feet
The tallest building In New York
City at5the present time is the Park
Row building which is made up Of
Twenty-Five stories with a height OF
$50 feet This great height was
reached by a gradual evolution In
building Construction which began in
1888. when the Tower Building Of 10
stories was put up at SO Broadway
under the direction Of Bradford L.
Gilbert. This was regarded as a mar.
vel in It's day and everybody was
skeptical about the ability Of the new
wonder to stand alone. But the en-
gineers and the architect triumphed
and the building neither toppled over
of its own weight, nor snapped on
when the winds blew: When the race
skyward reached twenty:nine stories
1t was thought that office buildings
had reached their limit.
will the "cloudplereer" Stand.
But now the Singer Building with
its forty:one storiesl Again the old
questions are brought back with re-
newed force. How can the building
be put up? Will it stand when once
it is erected? What would happen to
the inmates of the building in case
it should catch fire? The architect.
Ernest Flagg, answers these questions
confidently. 1t can be put up so that
1T will not come tumbling down and
it will be built so that it cannot burn.
When 1t is borne in mind that the
Singer Building is to be but sixty feet
square, the problem Of securing a
firm foundation for the 600 feet of
steel and masonry towering aloft
grows apace. According to a care
full estimate by the engineer in charge
of the building, the steel skeleton
alone will weigh 10000 tons.
Add to this the weight Of the stone
and brick forming the exterior of the
building, the hollow thing surround.
ing the steel skeleton, floors, walls,
and the thousand other things found
in a great office building, and a weight
almost ineomnrehensible is made up.
Furthermore, the foundations must
stand the pull and strain Of the great
building as it tugs at It's anchorage
when its broad expanse of surface is
struck by a strong wind.
Hollow Tile eliminates the Danger.
with the engineering difficulties of
getting the great Singer Building up
and then making it stay there, out
of the way, the question of the fire
hazard still remains. If any of the
great s~kyscrapers should go up in
flames. it would necessarily mean the
loss of a great many lives. not g
speak of dollars and cents. The ten.
ant of Floor No. 40 will naturally
want to know that his cloud perch is
unburnable. Consequently as little
wood and other iniammable material
as possible is used. But even then
there is always enough timber in any
office building to create a terrible
Game and generate such a heat that
unless the steel structure Of the build
ing is protected in the most thorough
fashion it will expand and buckle in
a that will bring down the
whole structure.
In the really fireproof building such
as the forty-one-story 'fcloudpIercer"