Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-09-11
4 HANGING BUILDING
VIII Be Built Downward, Sus-
pended From a Bridge.
Ne" York Structure viii Have Gird,
ers of Steel Resting Upon Nine
teen-Story Buildings to Bear
Its Weight.

New 4ork--From a 325-ton steel
bridge suspended 250 feet above Fiji
teenth street and Irving place the en-
glneers OF the Consolidated Gas com
pany are preparing to hang a seven
story building. The bridge may be
considered as gingantic trapeze,
sixty feet long, from which the build
! ing viii hang by its teeth.
extraordinary engineering feats are
common in New York, but there are
rev TO equal this. When the building
IS completed it will be the only one
OF us Kind in the world. Although
similar operations have been Der-
formed once or twice on a much small
er scale, this is the first time any at.
tempt has ever been made 10 use them
on a large structure.
Two years ago the gas comDapv
tore down its old home on the corner
u ileehth street and Irving place,
and just behind it, in the center of
the block, erected a new fireproof
structure. twelve stories high.
al that time the officers of the com
pany thought that with new build
ing on the old site, added to the nsW
t"eIve,story skyscraper, they would
nave one completed structure ample
enough for all their needs.
but they We're wrong. Before the
maj specifications were drawn it was
PLAIN that if the gas company was
really to have all the room it needs
demanded the building must be
spread out much more
1t found itself with 178 feet on FIT
teenth street and 81 feet on Irving
place Sixty feet of it's holdings were
occupied by the new building, the 9TH
er I1S by the ruins of the old. Alto
gethef 1t did not have anything like as
much ground as it wanted.
Some hasty financial operations
look place. They ended in the acouir-
ing by the gas company of more land
on the east side Of the building. This
lett 1t with a twelVe-story building in
the center Of the block and two
lengthy stretches Of vacant land on
eacn side. Altogether, this gave ii
zS' feet inches-a good frontage. but
not enough to make advisable a
t"eiVe-story building. The new home
was not sufficiently wide. SO it would
nave to be higher It was finally de-,
clded to make it nineteen stories
But mere, in the center Of the plot,
was a brand new twelve-story build.
ing, erected In accordance with preyi.
Gus plans and entirely unadapted to
the new. The first twelve stories of
course, could easily be joined to the
nrst twelve OF the nineteen-story build,
ing The additional seven, though,
presented problem.
The foundations of the twelve-story
building were not strong enough to
support seven stories more. What
was to be done? Naturally. the gas
company didn't like the idea of two
big buildings with little one in the
middle
Besides, it needed those additional
seven stories for floor space. It could
throw bridge across at the twelfth
floor, but that would mean the sacri-
nee of 5,O40 feet of Office room. The
bridge itself would take up a couple
OF floors. That wouldn't do The en-
gineers deliberated for weeks over the
problem. Finally they arrived at Il
solution
They would throw the bridge across
the gap at the top of the nineteen
story buildings and hang the seven
stories from it.
That is exactly what is being done.
The bridge is composed of eight grid
ers Of structural steel, each weighing
forty tons. They were made in the
shops Of Miliken & Co, on Staten
island, the firm which has charge of
all the iron work in the building. Com