The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-02-14
Every Effort Bent Toward
Completion Within Con-
tract Time.
WORKMEN LIKE FLIES
Mechanics Who Swarm In Structural
Iron Appear as Insects-Be-
gins to Take Form.

person must actually visit the sits
of the Standard Steel Car company ana
see for himself the numerous buildings
that have been erected, note the thou
sands of yards of concrete foundation
that have been put in, see the score or
more of great steel pillars that are
being swung into place by powerful
cranes and then stop to think that
only few months ago this very spot
was useless waste of ridges ana
sloughs, to realize the wonderful pro-
gress that is being made IN the build
ings of Hammond's newest Industry.
Approaching tho plant from the
North the most noticeable thing is the
tall steel pillars that are rising from
one portion of the grounds to height
of nearly so feet. Just to show how
rapidly the work is being carried on.
last Wednesday the structural steel
was laid out just as IS shown in the
smaller of the above pictures. Last
Sunday the work had progressed so
far that there was a whole line Of the
big steel pillars In place Yesterday
evening a trip to the Standard Steel
Car company's plant revealed the fact
that there is now a double line of
these pillars erected and that the over
head work that is to hold them to-
gether has all been put IN
WOrImen Look Like Flies.
Carload after carload OF steel has
been dumped on the grounds and is
ready for handling by the ironworx-
ers who whtla climbing ovor steel
trestles high in air or elinging to an
upright OF steel seem like flies in com
parison with the object to which they
are clinging.
Next TO the building where the steel
cars are to be manufactured is the
Office building and machine shop.
These are temporary wooden buildings
which will probably be utilized for
the next few years for the purpose for
which they were built.
Next to these buildings and a little
farther to the east is the powerhouse
and another large building that is to
be used for the manufacture of wood
en- cars. The concrete work is about
completed on this building and il is
to be Of brick
Still farther towards the west the
foundations for the paint shop have
been put in. Here the tracks are to
ibe laid on walls of concrete that have
been built up high enough so that the
workingmen will be able to stand un-
der the cars and paint or repair them.
'DO 1t Now" Spirit Prevails.
AS an illustration Of the do it now"
spirit which prevails, in most cases all
work on excavation would be entirely
abandoned until the ground had
thawed Not so the work at the
Standard Steel Works. The contract
ors tunnel under the frozen surface
and simply dynamite it sufficiently to
permit the men to handle the dirt
that is not frozen.
Other obstacles haHe been overcome
in the same manner and it actually
seems that nothing can stop the ire
sistible progress of the work.
One Of the features Of the new plant
IS to be three $50 foot smoke stacks.
The foundation for one is completed
and work on the other two will begin
at once.
1t is not, however, the uses to which
the buildings are to be put that inter-
est the ordinary observer so much a8
the progress Of the project as a whole.
It is interesting to watch the busy
executives who have the spending Of
S5,o00,000. The swarthy faced foreign
ers who are enjoying the opportunity
to work and be prosperous in Uncle
Sans country are there in hordes and
are teeming over the jobs. It is al
most impossible to realize how the
few men upon whom the responsibility
rests could properly supervise the con-
struction OF so many and such enor-
nous buildings.
But some how the work goes on and
from day to day the progress is notice.
able to a remarkable degree. Ideas
are being converted into plans and
plans are becoming actualities and
some time next summer when the bis
plant is complete and the first stee
car IS manufactured it will be tn.
consumation Of all Of these efforts.