The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-11-21
Mechanical Mira
cles and Their Ap-
pHcahon in the
Work Of Rushing
a Modern Structure
from, a Hole in fhe
Ground TO an I'm
posing Edii1fiice, Edifiice
BY WILLIAM ALLEN JOHNSTON.
Copyright. 1909. by the New York Her
aid Co. All Rights Rcscrvcd.)
Speed-speed-morc speed!

aid Co. All Rights Rescrvcd)
Speed-speed-morc speed!
This is an express age we arc living in. Express
trains are shrinking the country from coast to coast
contracting distances so marvelousIy that now bust
moss man may spend alternate days in cities one thou
s,ud miles apart express steamships tearing over
thc Atlantic so fast that today may visit the Old
and New Worlds each other week: express subways
uudcr rock and river are making a small town of
Ceater New York: express elevators take Office
holder TO hs skyscraper home while he getting his
ley from his pocket
And now we have tcxpress" buildngs-structurcs
rarcd so rapidly thai, like the fahed Blarncy Castle
they seem to spring up over night
On the site of tho Gimbc department store
building, in Herald Square. building rsce-a race
against me-is in progress. the magical speed OF
which is without parallel in the history of consruc-
hoh
II is literally Marathon of the skies.
October 20 the site huge pit quarried out of
sold rock TO a depth Of two and half stories and
covering nearly an entire block in BY after
roo of that day the bases o2 concrete and iron grill
lsge were completed and ready for their stupendous
burden and by night OF that day the of iron
. begn.
Big white arc lights and yellow incandesccuts
cleaned all along the four deep walls. and small
amy OF >men slipped down into the pit and made
. anchOrages for the derricks,
"A AT midnight the derricks came with groaning and
reakng OF trucks and a swapping of whips
o the four and six-horsc teams. Such derricks were
ryer seen before, even in skyscraper New York.
Thy selected giants OF the Oregon pine forests,
rounded by the skillfu sparsmen S adzcs perfectly
that it seems they might have been turned by some
Monster lathe.
The masts arc ninety feet long and weigh more
Han eight tons each; the booms measure elghty.fve
sei Three fiat cars to each gigantic stick-an en-
Ire train for the total tweye-and deal of sEillful
i ailroadng were required TO bring them here over
her ranscontinental Journey They could only he
ued through the streets when traffic was suspended
81 night
One ny one they lowered into the pit, and one
BY one they aud pokcd their slender heights
INTO The mnrky glare Of the electric lights. Hastily
Ae power connections made-the drums opcr-
ae by electricity, steam is too slow-and by day
sh' at least of the big fellows lifting iron
'H Of tue streets though it were papier mache
Now more iron began to arrive Al day long the
iafo| side streets filled with an almost con
nnous succession of four-horsc trucks, each truck
aost as long the street is wide The drivers are,
7 'ae main, former ironworkers, and know how to
snppe load and where to place il. The heavy, rat
une work goes swiftly; each load disappears like
eAge into the capacious nav of the pit.
The Flag on High.
SOW already, column stands up and is marked
''n nag in tribute to the 'pusher' and his gang
seven who got it up first. Fifteen minutes later
a0ucr pushed up It's bracketcd head and
h Asr7-and more in swift succession.
ihey weigh fifteen tons each, these big posts and
II s ooed fast 10 the concrete bascs-through. the
n ufnt and down 70 the iron grlagc underneath.
~, arc three and one.half stories hlgh-all one
.n piece of rolled steel-and so their sturdy heads
II ' ,9 Uali story above the street level
n headers, beams, girdors are added fast the
= oer'cks can lift and place them, They do deli,
III !" "ork-thesc monster cranes. As the beams
~ @ch- riding them and scrambling back and forth
m'Ae connectons-sa mp and hover over their
f.e PAGES the fGa Gt is question of only
',s"Uo OF an inch, and these mighty wooden arms
-''u by those fractions,
,, e.y the best iron men employed upon tins
M ',,a breaking Of iron, men who their spurs
we Manhattan Bridge, the Singer and MetropoIi-
""ers and other big constructions. There are
- applicants They stand waiting tho sunny
~ Vi The cross street. their little newspaper bun
In "ntllning their oyeralls and often their all
* eareessly over their shoulders. But only the
Bss arc ehosen-thc steady tacturn workers VINO
.av' S waste energy nor lives.
n 'l they work in little world Of ever present
Iru one man who had broken his two legs and
oo"c IN previous jobs had his hand nippcd OIL
I0bh hhncklcs thirty minutes after he started work;
Ihlng 5aa the muscles Of his leg stripped on by
aa derrick, They get good pay-oftrn as much as
IhAe week when they WORK overtime, But one would
ysae v," oe a plumber, it would seem, and d?aw tAc
T. hardest struggle of the iron construction takes
Of bn See basement After tho derrieks are ra'S6a %
" 'nu bounds, the huge dcrricks along with IT,
Express Building
II Wihin now comes the marvel OF it all
R,asS;athirty days Of two shifts cach--the roof Of
ess o ron structure viii be laid Only thirty days
FM osnl riyct more than thirty million pounds ol
on'y thirty days to build the twelve stories