The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-02-17
SUBTERRANEAN SKY SCRAPERS
THE LATEST IN NEW YORK
THE GREATEST PROBLEM.
WORK IN COMPRESSED AIR
Contractors Go Down Nine Stories Be-
meath the Earth Before Erecting the
Worlds Highest Structure, the
WoolWorth Building.

This tallest OF all habitabe struc-
lures will rise $50 feet above the curb,
ninety-two feet higher than the Met
ropolitan Tower, now the tallest in
the world. Besides the great height,
there will be a section of the structure
not counted in the height, which will
be carried into the earth equal to nine
stories of an ordinary building. The
idea is general that a building is be.
gun at or near the ground level and
from there carried upward. The prof.
ectors and builders of the huge struc-
lures. however, find their greatest
problem in work below ground.
Before a building is visible to pass
ers by it must be carried from a
depth, great or small, according to
the height of the structure above the
ground, and the thousands of tons of
steel and masonry must rest upon the
solid rock. To reach that point, the
foundations must go through clay,
gravel, quicksand and water to a
depth of one hundred or more feet.
Open excavations in rock might be
made, but into the holes would flow
quicksand and water, which would
fill the holes almost as rapidly as
diggers could take it out. Making
of such excavations would prove dis
astrous to buildings hundreds of feet
distant. Such buildings as were not
resting on rock foundation would
settle and become unsafe. 1t was this
problem that led to excavating so
that no disturbance of the surround
ings occur. Quicksand or water are
kept in their pockets" and prevented
from flowing into the holes by the
use of compressed air.
The foundation of the Municipal
Building now in process of erection
at the entrance to the old Brooklyn
Bridge was a great underground work
in which, because of the sandy char
acter of the subsurface, it was neces-
sary to go well below one hundred
feet before rock was reached Some
parts of the foundation Of this build.
ing, which will be the fourth highest
in the world, had to be laid on large
concrete columns, termed in the lore
no rock could be found.
The depth below the stree. level OF
the Woolworth Building will be as
great as the Municipal Building The
site now presents a scene of ineytri-
cable confusion, but derricks, boilers,
engines and wheezy machinery are
all operating in unison filling huge
steel cylinders with prisms of con-
crete that are gradually being forced
downward until they rest on rock,
and from there to support the steel
columns which will form the support
ing pillars of the structure above the
ground.
Through the center of each of these
Columns, termed in the lore
of the art of a caisson, runs a mar
row shaft large enough to permit
man to go through it. At the bottom
Of the shaft there is a large chamber
where several men can work comfort
badly with pick and shovel eXcavating
: bn Oth n1
it up through the shaft in steel buck
cts to the surface. To prevent water
and quicksand from flooding this
chamber, air is pumped into the cais
son, until the pressure is sufficient
to balance the pressure of water and
the quicksand outside. As the men
are working in this chamber like
moles, concrete is added by workmen
above the surface, and the whole col
umn settles gradually down.
The caissons being used by the
Foundation company in the Wool
worth Building, now visible to pass
ers-by, are the largest ever used for
the foundation of a building. The
steeel cylinders of the caissons at the
Broadway and Park Place end of the
site are 1876 feet in diameter and they ,
are to be sunk to a depth of from ,
log to 116 feet below the street level. ,
At a depth of about eighty feet water
: found in this part of the city Each ,
# the caissons will weigh 1.50O tons,
md they will each carry load of ,
POO tons.
TO CURE A COLD IN ONE DAY