Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-17
Modern Construction Marvels.

All building works are now much
speedier in this country than two or
three decades ago. Jobs that once re-
quired three or four years are COM
pleted in half the Tina. One-year jobs
of the first part of the century are
topped off and turned over to occu-
pants in six months. In every branch
of the building art time-saving ma
chimes and processes have been de-
veloped Foundations are dug, even in
the most difficult materials, in far less
time than in earlier days, thanks to
faster boring and excavating devices,
to improved pile drivers and to the
faster and more efficient methods of
mixing and laying concrete. Through
coordination of material manufacture
and delivery and the erection work on
the site every possible working hour Is
utilized. Subcontracts are interviewer,
as 1t were, to cause the entire work to
advance as a unit. Interior flnishers
are engaged on lower floors, in some
cases, while the steel on the higher
levels is still being set.
The great Government building pro-
gram In Washington is affording an
opportunity to observe the efficiency of
present-day construction processes.
There have been provoking delays, 1t
Is true, caused by the encountering of
unforeseen difficulties in the ground,
and in a few instances by labor trout
bles on the job. But in the main the
to their present state of completion
have marched" as the French say, in
steady pace. Sometimes an appearance
of idleness on some of these works has
been wholly deceptive. AS, for instance,
recently at the great new home for
the Department of Commerce the outer
walls, still incomplete, seemed to be
deserted, the work at standstill. Yet
on that same day no less than thirteen
hundred men were engaged at various
jobs inside.
A case of seeming stagnation in q
great public work has just been dis
closed as an illusion, in New York. The
new Hudson River Bridge, which Is to
cross the river with a suspension span,
work of unprecedented magnitude,
has for ten months been apparently
at a standstill. The vast towers had
been some time completed and strung
together by "cat-walks," and then to
the eye of the observer the work APP
peared to lag. No activity was evident
from the ground or the river, as the
days, weeks and months passed. AS a
matter Of fact the most vital work OF
all the undertaking was in constant
progress for the entire period. The
other day the completion of this phase
Of the JOB was celebrated.
This essential and necessarily slow
procedure consisted In the stringing of
the wires making up the four heavy
cables upon which the bridge structure
will be suspended. On Thursday the
last of the 1O5,896 wires making up the
four cables was spun across the river.
For ten months little electric carriers
have been travelling to. and fro, each
trailing a metal filament. There were
10000 miles of wire in this fabric,
weighing 28,450 tons, and on all but 81 of
the 292 days, when the weather forbade,
the work progressed. Four hundred men
were engaged in it, and all came
through in safety. Winter and Summer
the spinning continued and the varia-
tons of the temperature added to the
difficulties. The other day when the
thermometer recorded ITO degrees IN the
sun the cables were three feet, four
inches longer than they were last Feb
ruary with the thermometer at zero.
All this work was virtually unseen to
the public. Few knew that it was in
progress and doubtless many looking at
the seemingly stagnant job fused over
the slowness of public construction and
wondered whether the bridge would
ever be finished in their lifetime. Now
that the cables are spun the more spec
taeular phases of the work will begin
and the bridge, it is expected. will be
open TO the public in eighteen months,
making record for size and speed in
this form of construction.