The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-01-05
GETTING READY FOR
THE NEW YORK SHOW
Army of Workmen to Rebuild Madi-
son Square Garden Next
Week.

Monday will see 760 men undertake
the work of rebuilding the interior of
Madison Square Garden to accommodate
the thirteenth National Automobile
Show, which will open In that build
ing and the Grand Central Palace nexr
Saturday night. January II. These 7eQ
workmen will include steel construction
workers, decorators, carpenters, cleo
tricians sheet metal men. carpet layers.
sign painter, elevator builders. sculp-
tors. telephone linemen, painters, and
! men of numerous other trades. In all.
there will be 100 people employed by
the show management In the Garden
during the automobile show period In
preparation and during the show. This
may seem unbelievable to the average
show visitor, who naturally would won
der what so many men could do.
A little farther up the line a few hum
dred men are busy getting the Grand
Central Palace into shape for its half of
the national show, but inasmuch as this
building Will not have to have its
interior entirely rebuilt, such a large
army of workmen is not necessary.
In the Garden the heaviest feature
of the work of rebuilding is the erec-
ton of the steel pillars and suspending
the steel Orders which support the ele-
waited platform and extra, wide bal
COMES Four gangs of men. twenty
five in each gang, will have their work
cut out for them. Two steam hoisting
engines. and two electric hoisting engines
are required for their operations.
The most remarkable thing about their
work Is that within three days they erect
a larger skeleton of steel which supports
greater weight than the steel frames Of
the average Office building. When one
stops TO consider this huge network Of
steel measures more than one-sixth OF a
mile around and that more than 200 tons
OF metal and more than 100000 feet Of
lumber enter into its makeup, and. fur
thermore, that this great inner ribbing
OF the garden can be dismantIed again
within a few days after the show Is over
without injuring the building itself, one
can regard the work as a truly remark
able piece OF constructive engineering
This has been the transformation pro-
cess at each of the last two automobile
shows at the Garden. 1t is done in order
to increase the floor space in the build
ing. and the galleries extend out into the
amphitheater toward its center anywhere
from twenty to fifty feet. Five thousand
square feet of mirrors in the wall panel
ing will convert the building into a verb
table crystal palace, these mirrors pro-
ducing an optical illusion which will
make the Garden appear much larger
than IL really is. White and gold are to
be the dominant colors, although green
and crimson will be/strongly in evidence
The Orders of the big dome will be
screened by a canopy of $40 yards of
fireproofed cloth OF fluffy azure blue,
amid which 300 Tungsten incandescent
lamps will twinkle. Twenty huge arc
lamps with crystal skirts or shades
will be pendant from the roof Fifty
thousand feet of wire will be necessary
TO wire the building. Workmen will be
required to work night and day to COM
plete the gigantic task. Not only is there
much rough construction, but several
tons of fireproOfed lattice work to cover
all this will be required. There will be
an abundance of foliage strung, and more
than ECO yards of carpeting will be used
in the garden.
All told. there will be 702 exhibitors in
the two buildings for the two weeks.
Part l. during which pleasure cars, ac-
cessories apd motorcycles are to be
shown, will show 467 exhibits. Part II.
which is to house commercial vehicles
and accessories, will have over 80 ex-
hibitors. In the Garden forty-two makers
will display pleasure vehicles the first
week. while the Palace has a greater
number-fOrty-siN. all told.