Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-05-14
One Steel Building a Day.

Everywhere was material piled IN the
open. In some places it had beer
were putting the building up over it.
Several piles were protected by tarpau-
Inns Most of the other piles were OF
building material, stretching along for
miles.
1--WE expect to maintain an average OF
one steel building day put under
cover" said the officer.
The expedition is not committed 70
any one type of building. Steel, wood
brick, hollow tile and white slab
which looks like unslacked lime and
hardens in the weather, all are used.
OF course a building will part miss
ing is not as useless as bridge with
the center span lacking. Still it is
hardly practicable. 1t is not known that
any have been lost, but the parts come
at different times. On one small freight
car from the port may be parts Tor
forty buildings. In some instances
they have not waited for all the parts
to arrive, but fitted together what they
had and the buildings will be COM
pleted when the remainder come in.
Along one switch track is pile after
pile of parts of steel buildings sorted
out and waiting until the pile is COM
plete.
Triumph in Simplicity.
Ine muCn CTltfClSeu CIuioiSo ue
partment has a type of building which
is a triumph in simplicity. In these
immense square hippodromes, 500 by
600 feet in dimensions, there are only
three different pieces of steel. All the
uprights are of the same length,
while all the girders are of two
lengths, according to whether they run
lengthwise or crosswise of the build
ing. The slope in the roof is obtained
thA
piers in steps, ascending in height to
the center of the building. The work
ers can grab up any piece and slam 1t
into place. They all fit.
This one yard will have $50 miles OF
switch tracks. The sand for the many
miles already in has been hauled twelve
miles It will have 13.9S1.034 square
feet of storage space, 4,os! ,o34 under
cover in $50 buildings and 100000 In
the open. Plans call for the dredging
out of the swamp of q new harbor
basin large enough to dock and un-
load sixteen ships Of any size at the
same time. The engineers say that
once they are given the word to start
they can finish in a few weeks.
City Grows by Magic.
I saw this same spot last autumn
when it was a dismal tract OF FROST
bitten swamp grass anu we miles Oh
tracks and warehouses existed as fu-
ture plans on blueprints. A few months
ago 1 saw it again. A few frame bar
racks and Office buildings stood out
against the horizon, while we'll muffled
surveying parties were driving stakes
through the ice. Today under the
bright spring sun buildings are going
up almost overnight and the long piles
of material seem to have sproouted
from the ground, instead of come thou
sands of miles across the ocean.
Once for days, years ago, little VIII
lage in Panama. where placid OK teams
were the fastest conveniences and the
leading citizens with three wives and
thirty-two children had never been
more than ten miles from his adobe
house. tried to give him an idea of
the size Of an American city. He could
not grasp it. One day an illustrated
newspaper came. showing several hum
dred children in front Of New York
East Side tenement All the children
of a city" he said mo, only the chill
dren of one house; there are thousands
like that" I explained. Suddenly his
primitive ideas expanded and grasped
what an American city means.
1t was the same with this. In view Of
what has been done. the millions of
tons of supplies and materials which
have been brought over. and what re-
mains to be done, and must be kept up
day after day, week after week and
possibly for years. a person compre-
bends for the first time what this war
means to America.