The Arizona copper camp., 1917-02-17
ESPEE To HAVE
FINE BUILDING

The new Southern Pacific building in
at the close of 1917 will be the largest
office structure of it's kind west of Chi
cago, is beginning to assume shape
Visitors at the Ferry Building at the
foot of Market street, can now get an
idea from the steel framework of what
it will look like when completed.
The building, which will house the
San Francisco general offices of the
railroad, will be ten stories in height.
1t will require 10000 cubic yards of
concrete which would require about 80
cars of cement. 1t will need $500 tons
of steel-40 tons to a car-and 500 tons
of reinforcing steel besides 20 miles or
115 feet long. The building will weigh,
when completed $4,000 tons, the steel
averaging $500 tons and the piling $500.
Looing after the piling, incidentally,
has been no small job when it is con-
sidered that the new structure itself
calls for SO miles of piling besides an
additional 10 miles under the Buckley
building, according to Engineer in
Charge C. F. Harrington of Assistant
Chief Engineer j. @. Barlow's office.
The 2236 piles = under the building
proper are 115 feet long and reach 100
feet below the sidewalk to hardpan,
making the biggest, deepest and heavi
est foundation in San Francisco and,
probably on the Pacific coast. There
was difficulty encountered in getting
these piles. because of the increasing
demand for long timber, but they were
finally obtained from the Douglas Fir
forests of Oregon and each 16 piles
required three freight cads to haul
them to San Francisco. They are
crowned with a cap of concrete 5 feet
thick and 16 feet square, full of rein
caps or piers, varying according to the
weight they are to support from to
40 piles beneath them. For the driving
of this timber, two mammoth drivers,
the largest ever set up on the Pacific
coast, were constructed that were 1876
feet high and the hammer of one of
60 times minute, or once every sec
ond in operation, with a 1900 moving
part. To be sure of the foundation of
the building, test piles were driven be-
fore the regulars were pounded into
the earth and they were loaded with
pig iron from the company's Sacra-
mento foundry to assume the required
weight the regulars would be called
upon to support.
There are two big concrete plants
now on the job. These will use from
two to three carloads of cement a day,
pouring 400 yards of concrete, which
means, because of the limited street
room and the congestion of traffic at
the site for feeding the plants, that Is
big motor trucks loaded with rock and
sand are brought in each day. Only
good organization can keep the work in
progress every twenty -four hours.
The moving of the Buckley building,
which was on the Spear street side of
the new building, was no small job. 1t
weighs 5000 tons, measures 157 feet
by so, had three stories and basement
and was showed back $50 feet on Spear
street without so much as a window
pane being broken 1t was moved, in
tact, with it's basement. Piles from 80
to 100 feet long were required. OF
course a donkey engine furnished the
motive power but the power was SO
multiplied that the engine was not fas-
tened to the ground. The great trouble
encountered was to run it slowly
enough. AS it was, the Buckley build
ing retreated at rate of 25 feet a
day until it had gained the site Sc
lected for it.
-