page_title: Woolworth Building
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Woolworth Building / History / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: Woolworth bldg. ironwork, made April 4th, 1912 Abstract/medium: 1 photographic print.
context_page_description: The Woolworth Building is an early American skyscraper designed by architect Cass Gilbert and located at 233 Broadway in Manhattan, New York City. It was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930, with a height of 792 feet. More than a century after its construction, it remains one of the 100 tallest buildings in the United States.
  The Woolworth Building is located in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood, bounded by Broadway and City Hall Park to its east, Park Place to its north, and Barclay Street to its south. It consists of a 30-story tower atop a 30-story base. Its facade is mostly decorated with terracotta, though the lower portions are limestone, and it features thousands of windows. The ornate lobby contains various sculptures, mosaics, and architectural touches. The structure was also designed with several amenities and attractions, including a now-closed observatory on the 57th floor and a private swimming pool in the basement.
  The skyscraper was originally conceived by F. W. Woolworth, the founder of a brand of popular five-and-ten-cent stores, as a headquarters for his company.
context_section_description: In September 1910, wrecking crews demolished the five and six-story structures which previously occupied the site. Construction officially began on November 4, 1910 with excavation by The Foundation Company, using a contract negotiated personally by Frank Woolworth. The start of construction instantly raised the site's value from $2.25 million to $3.2 million. The contract of over $1 million was described as the largest contract for foundation construction ever awarded in the world.
  It took months for Woolworth to decide upon the general construction company. George A. Fuller's Fuller Company was well experienced and had practically invented skyscraper construction, but Louis Horowitz's Thompson-Starrett Company was local to New York; despite being newer, Horowitz had worked for Fuller before, so had a similar knowledge base. On April 20, 1911, Thompson-Starrett won the contract with a guaranteed construction price of $4,308,500 for the building's frame and structural elements. The company was also paid $300,000 for their oversight and management work, despite Woolworth's attempts to get the company to do the job for free due to the prestige of the project.
  The construction process involved hundreds of workers, and daily wages ranged from $1.50 for laborers (equivalent to $39 in 2019) to $4.50 for skilled workers (equivalent to $116 in 2019). By August 1911, the building's foundations were complete ahead of the target date of September 15; construction of the skyscraper's steel frame began August 15. The steel beams and girders used in the framework weighed so much that, in order to prevent the streets from caving in, a group of surveyors examined the streets on the route along which the beams would be transported. Steel for the building was provided by the American Bridge Company from their foundries in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and took over 45 weeks to manufacture.
  The first above-ground steel had been erected by October 1911, and installation of the building's terracotta began on February 1, 1912. The building rose at the rate of ​1 ¹⁄₂ stories a week and the steelworkers set a speed record for assembling 1,153 tons of steel in six consecutive eight-hour days. By February 18, 1912, work on the steel frame had reached the building's 18th floor. By April 6, 1912, the steel frame had reached the top of the base at the 30th floor and work then commenced on constructing the tower of the Woolworth Building. Steel reached the 47th floor by May 30 and the official topping out ceremony took place two weeks ahead of schedule on July 1, 1912, as the last rivet was driven into the summit of the tower. The skyscraper was substantially completed by the end of that year.
  The building opened on April 24, 1913. Woolworth held a grand dinner on the building's 27th floor for over 900 guests, and at exactly 7:30 p.m. EST, President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button in Washington, D.C., to officially turn on the building's lights. Attendees included Francis Hopkinson Smith, who served as toastmaster; author William Winter; businessmen Patrick Francis Murphy and Charles M. Schwab; Rhode Island Governor Aram J. Pothier; Judge Thomas C. T. Crain; US Senator from Arkansas Joseph Taylor Robinson; Ecuadorian minister Gonzalo Córdova; New York Supreme Court Justices Charles L. Guy and Edward Everett McCall; Commissioner of Education of the State of New York John Huston Finley; Collector of the Port of New York William Loeb Jr.; naval architect Lewis Nixon; Rear Admiral Charles Dwight Sigsbee; Commissioner of Docks and Ferries of the City of New York R. A. C. Smith; Colonel William Conant Church; United States Representative from New York Herman A. Metz; New York City Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo; banker James Speyer; former Lieutenant Governor of New York Timothy L. Woodruff; writer Robert Sterling Yard; Admiral Albert Gleaves; and reportedly between 69 and 80 congressmen who arrived via a special train from Washington, DC. Additional congratulations were sent via letter from former President William Howard Taft, Governor of New Jersey 
caption: The Woolworth Building under construction in April 1912
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Artist": "Library of Congress", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered"}