J Citutific Tutricau

DECEMBER 24, 1898.] J Citutific �tUtricau.

THE TALLEST OF sight of the Park MODERN OFFICE Row building to BUILDINGS. exclaim, "What Although New a monstrosity! " York city did not And it cannot be u n del' t a k e the denied that their construction 0 f exaggerated verti lofty office build c a J proportioll' ings until they _ _ render it impossi had become a fa �_ ble to judge these miliar feature in buildings by the the architecture ordinary canons of some Western and pronounce cities, it has run PARK ROW BUILDING COMPARED WITH THE "KAISER WILHELM DER GROSSE." them beautiful. them up in such 'l'he modern office n umbers and to Park Row Buildinl':: Distance from bottom of piles to top of flagpole, 501 feet; weight, 20.000 tons. building, h Q w - s u c h unprece- " Kaiser Wilhelm": Extreme length on deck, 649 feet; weight, 20,000 tons. ever, is not to be

Trinity Church, New York. Grant's Tomb, New York_ Dome of Capitol, WashIngton. Park Row Building, New Yurk_ The Paris Wheel. World Building. New York. 288 feet. 287� feet. 390 fe et_ 305 feet. 294 feet.

NOTABLE BUILDINGS COMPARED WITH THE GREAT PYRAMID OF EGYPT-HEIGHT, 450 FEET; BASE, 746 FEET.

dented heights in the last judged by the usual archi ten years that they have tectural standards. It pro now beeome the most char fesses to be nothing more acteristic and obtrusive or less than it is-a strictly feature of its architecture. utilitarian structure, ad The sky line of New York mirably adapted to its pur to-day is so changed from pose of housing the great that of twoscore years ago est possible number of that a former resident, re business men upon a limit turning from abroad after ed area in the city's busiest an absence of twenty years, center. The ever-increas would be quite unable to ing value of property, the recognize the city as he tendency of business to steamed up the waters of concentrate within certain the bay. The sky line of circumscribed areas, and former years was deter the possibility opened up mined by the uniform level by the modern fast-run of the five-story buildings ning elevator, have con which composed the bulk spired to render necessary of the down-town districts, and possible the stupend broken by such familiar ous office buildings of to landmarks as the spires day. of Trinity Church and As regards the engineer St. Paul's Chapel, one or ing and architectural prob two shot towers, and a few lems presented, it must be church and chapel towers confessed that the first of less conspicuous height. have been easier of solu To-day the eye follows a tion than the second. It picturesquely i I' re g u Ja r is a simple matter to pile line of cornice and roof story upon story and so tops, much of which is over proportion columns and two hundred feet and not girders to loads that the a little of it over three structure shall posse s s hundred feet above the eternal stability; but it IS street level. an altogether different Towering high above the problem for the architect tallest 01 Lllese great struc to clothe the "skeleton" tures 18 the vast bulk of with a mantle of stone and the Park Row buildmg, glass that !;hall appeal' di which lIfts its twin towers versified, yet dignified and 390 feet into mid-air and appropriate. un fur J8 its two tlags over It wili, we think, be ad the city at a height of 447 mitted that in hIS treat teet above the sidewalk! ment of the towering pIle We can imagine that the of the Park. Row building, New Yorker already re the architect, Mr. R. H. fe rred to, on returning to Robertson, has produced his native city after twen a very satisfactory effect. ty years of absence, espe The bald, tower-like im cially if he had lived pression which w 0 u I d

among the exquisite archi Astor Souse. Park RowB uilding. St. Paul Bulldillfl:. St. Paul's Chapel naturally be con "eyed by tecture of the old world, Erected 1834. Erected 18118. Erected 1896. Erected 1764. a fa«;ade nearly 400 feet would be tempted at first THE OLD AND THE NEW, AS SEEN FROIl ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. high on a base of about

100 feet is modified by treating these stories in sets of "distributing girders" were placed between the foun four or five and accentuating the width of the building dations and the footings of the vertical columns of the Name, Number of Stories. Tower, Height. by heavy mouldings and projecting balconies. This building. These girders are from 8 feet to 47 feet long ------accentuation:of the horizontal as against the perpen- and vary from 4 feet to 87a' feet in depth. The heaviest Feet dicular lines is successful, for, impressive as it is, the of these, which is placed beneath the wall on Theater ParkRow ...... 29 Yes 390 building does not really" look" its full height of 447 Manhattan Life ...... 18 Yes 348 St. Paul ...... feet to the top of the flagpole. 26 No 313 21 No 312 It is not our intention in the present article to enter �cia�'g:�r�·::::::.::::::·::: 20 Yes 304' Gillender ...... , ...... 19 Yes aoo into a detailed description of the constructional features ---- of the building, which do not differ in any important particulars from the standard work put into buildings World building,the dome of the Capitol at Washington, of this class. We will rather draw attention to what and the spire of Trinity Church, NewYork,it requiresall might be called the sensa! ional and spectacular features of its 57 feet of flagstaff to bring its highest point within of this, the most remaJ'kable commercial building ever 3 feetof the top of the Pyramid. Omitting the Pyramid, erected, or, in respect of its height, likely to be erected. however, it is conspicuously the tallest inhabited build The plan of the bui Iding, as will be seen from the en ing in the world, for while the cornice of the American graving, presents much ir('egularity, due to the cupidity Surety building is 313 feet above the level of the street, of some of the adjoining property owners, who asked pro the floor of the restaurant at the top of the Park Row hibitive prices. It has a frontage of 103 feet 11 inches building will be 308 feet above the street, while the floor on Park Row, 23 feet on An.n Street, and 47 feet 10� of the topmost oflices in the towers (fine, well-lighted inches on Theater Alley. 'l'wo of our illustrations were rooms 24feet in diameter) will be 340feet above the same taken from the Ann Street side, another was taken from level. The main part of the building will have twenty· the western end of SL Paul's Churchyard, while that five stories, while the Park Row front will be twenty on the front page was taken from the roof of the Astor seven stories high, the space between the two towers House, looking across the junction of Park Row being occupied by a ki tchen for use in connection wit h and Broadway. The area of the lot is 15,000 ·square a restaurant below it, which will occupy the full feet., and the vast bulk that towers above it, weighing, wid! h of the building. The cornice of this f!'Ont is with the maximum loads that can be placed on the 336 feet above the sidewalk, while the top of the twenty-nine floors, some 54,000 tons, stands (it may cupola on the towers is 390 feet above the same le vel. surprise some of our readers to know) upon a founda The flagpole truck is 57 feet above the cupola, while tion of sand. No such fate as befell the Biblical the feet of the pilps are 54 feet below the street le\-el ; house that was built, not upon the rock. but upon the hence the total heil!ht of the building from shoe of sand, will ever overtake this .. end of the century" piling to truck of flagpole is over 500 feet. structure, for the duty of carrying t.he building is in The point of view from which the building shows its trusted to SOUle four thousand, 12-inch piles, which were driven into the sand by the pile-driver until they ('efused to budge any further. As the average load that is ever likely to come upon the piles is about 7 tons, while their maximum bearing capacity is oveJ' 20

STATUE FOR FACADE BY J, MASSEY RHIND.

Alley, weighs 52� tons. While on the subject of the steel work, it will be of interest to state that the heaviest load borne by any one column is 1,450 tons. Park Row Building. The Great Pyramid. VERTICAL HEIGHT.-The Park Row building is COMPARATIVE BULK OF PARK ROW BUILDING AND considerably the tallest commercial building in the THE GREAT PYRAMID, world. The following table gives the names and TYPICAL PLAN OF A FLOOR. heights of those New York office buildings whose tons, it will be seen that even if the rain descends, and highest point is 300 feet or more above the street level. vast proportions to best advantage is that from which the floods come, and the winds blow and beat upon The sketch on the adJoining page, which is drawn our front page engraving was made. The arljoining that house, it will not fall. The piles are spaced 16 strictly to scale, shows the relative height above ground five-story buildings on either side act as an admirable inches between centers immediately beneath the verti level of several notable structures in this country com foil to set off the imposing height. By far the most cal columns, and the rows of piles will be about 2 feet pared with that favorite reference-scale for height and striking effect, however, is that obtained by standing apart. Moreo\'er, as the piles are cut off below the bulk-the Great Pyramid of Eg�'pt. It will be seen on the opposite side of Ann Street, which is very nar level of g('olmd water, they are absolutely indestructi that while the Park Row building greatly exceeds the row. and letting the eye range up the full sweep of ble. After the t went y - nine piles were cut stories. The off, the sand Ann S t I' e e t was remo\'en fron t ag e is to a dept.h of only 20 feet, one foot belo\\' and, looking the top of thl' up from the piles and con street, it has crete WI1S ram· for all t 11 e me din be world t.he ap tween the m pea ra n ce of and finishE'd so m e factory off flush with chimney of ex the top of the tremely I e a n piles. AbovE' proportions. the piles and Our readers concrete were will agrE'ewith laid large gl'R liS that the nite blocks to photograph form the bases ment io ned, of the brick taken with the niel's, the piers lens looking ai bein� finished m 0 s t plumb off with g'l'a into t.he heav nite capstones ens, may be upon w h ich reckoned as was laid a grill among the age of 12-inch m 0 s t original 1-beams. cnriosities 0 f To insure an the art. even distribll- VOLUME AND t ion of the THE FACADE FROM THE ADJOINING SIDEWALK. THE VERTIC AL PERSPECTIVE OF A MODERN SKYSCRAPER. WEIGHT. -Al pressure, huge View takenfrom Ann Street. tho ugh the

building admits of comparison in respect of height with Could the captious critic but stand to-day and look THE BURSTING OF A WATER MAIN IN the Pyramid, when we come to the question of volume around in this" place so remote and sequestered" ! BROOKLYN. and weight our nineteenth century effort sinks into pos The oldest pew-book extant commenced in 1828 and A 48-inch water main at the corner of Central A ve- itivI) insignificance. The Pyramid, in its present IlIU contains such names as that of Thomas Barclay, the nue and Covert Street, Brooklyn, New York, broke tilated condition, has a base of about 746 feet square first British consul in the early days of the republic, on Sunday, December 11, and did great damage. The and a vertical height of about 450 feet. Its present and other names more or less conspicuous in the history pipe was of cast iron and was placed in position about "olume is estimated at about 82,000,000 cubic feet and of the city, such as Haight, Larogue, Edward Bacon, eight years ago. It runs from the Ridgewood reser its weight at 6,316,000 tons. The Park Row building has Beekman, Stuyvesant, Schuyler, Kip, Lorillard, Gop voir, which is not far distant, to the Prospect Hill a volume of 3,906,580 cubic feet and a total dead weight let, and Stewart. Earlier pew holders in 1787, when the pumping station. As a result of the fracture the of 20,000 tons, so that the ancient structure has about population of New York was ouly ;30,000, were Isaac houses in the neighborhood were undermined alld twenty·one times the volume and over three hundred Jones; Peter Goelet, who lived at 48 Hanover Square; rendered untenantable. :For blocks around all the times the weight of the modern building. Mayor Richard Val'ick; Abraham Lawrence; and water was cut off and, owing to the break in the sup' Evidently in respect of the bulk and weight of our Mayor James Duane, who lived at 26 Nassau Street (at ply, a considerable section of Brooklyn was much re buildings we cannot compete with the ancients, and as that time the upper Fifth Avenue of New York.) stricted in the use of water. The gas mains were the Pyramid is no longer a popular form of mausoleum, On April 30, 1789, immediately after Washington's in broken by the caving in of the street and the electric it is not likely that we shall ever attempt to. auguration, he and both houses of Congress went in light and the trolley systems were also disorganized. It is a curious fact, which will come as a surprise to procession to St. Paul's and attended appropriate ser The soil at the point of the break was sandy, whICh many of our readers, that for all its great size and mass vices. accounts for the fact that the street had been under this building is no heavier than the latest ocean liner The remains of Montgomery, who fell at Quebec, mined long before the break showed on the surface. the" Kaiser Wilhelm del' Grosse." The building con: were, in 1818, deposited heneath the monument erected As near as could be ascertained it occurred about five tains about 8,000 tons of steel and 12,000 tons of other by Congress to his memory. Other notable monu o'clock in the morning. The local fire house was noti material, chiefly brick and terril, cotta, making a total ments are that erected by Edmund Kean in memory fied and a number of firemen at once ran to the scene weight for· the building of 20,000 tons. The" Kaiser of the actor George Frederick Cooke, and that of of the break to render aid. When they reached the Wilhelm" displaces 20,000 tons of water, and therefore Bechet, Sieur de Rochefontaine, who served in the re place of the accident, they found the street car tracks equals the towering" skyscraper" in weight. The ex volution. In the burial ground rest not a few other on Central A venue had disappeared and the trolley treme length of the liner is 649 feet, measured on deck, soldiers who fought on one or other side in the revolu poles had toppled over, forming a letter A. There was so that she exceeds the greatest dimensions of the tionary struggle. a number of live wires, which made any attempt to building by 148 feet.. The total cost of the building Across the street to the left is seen a portion of the render assistance dangerous. In a few moments there was $2,400,000, and that of the ship probably a million famous Astor House, built in 1834, once the most was a roarilJg torrent and the ppople were fleeing for or even a million and their li"es from ad a half more, the jacent blllidings. On greater cost of the the northeast corner ship being due chief t h el'e was a four ly to the greater s tor y ten e me n t power and weight of house, the groiInd machinery, of which floor being occupie(l about 27,000 horse by a mission chapel. power is in the ship Fortunately, the I' e as against 1,000 horse was no one in the power in the build chapel, but the floors ing. Brick and terra above were tenan ted, cotta, moreover, are and as it was evident c h e a p er materials the flood had under than ship frames and llIined the building, plating. the police and tire POPULAT ION. lOen at once aroused This extraordinary and ordered out all of building, wit h its the occupants. The modest frontage of cellars in the vicinity 104 feeton ParkRow, weI' e flooded to a and of 20 feet and 48 depth of "IX teet, and feet on a side street the foreman of the and an alley, will ac fire engine company commodate the float informed headquar ing population of a ters that there was fair-sized co u n try danger of a water town. That this is famin e ; so that a no exaggeration, the I a I' go e part of the following figures will chemical apparatus show. There are in in the city was sent the whole building to the· fire engi ne 950 separate offices. houses in that sec As most of these are tion. A d etai I (,f of generous propor laborers from tll/' tions, a fair estimate water department a' of the iI' capacity o n c e proceeded t" would ba an average the scene of the :tP.CI of four people to each dent. It was knOWll office. Now, it is rea at the pumping sta sonable to assume tion that there was BREAK IN A 48-INCH WATER MAIN IN BROOKLYN, N. that there will be at y, already trouble, for any given hour of the pumps had been the day an average of one visitor in the building on famous hotel in America, and still a popular resort drawing nothing but air for an hour. Steam was at business for each person employed. This would make with those travelers who delight to house themselves once shut off and the water was diverted to other con a total num bel' of persons in the building at any period amid historical surroundings. The tower-like building duits, but for a long time the flood in the Central of the day of 8,000. If we assume that on an average across Broad waY,313 feet in height, was the tallest office A venue main continned to flow, for there was enough five persons would call at each office during the day, building in the world until it was overshadowed by its water in the huge pipe to still cause trouble. In three for each person employed, we get a total of about colossal neighbor in the adjoining square. hours the flood had assumed the proportions of a spec 25,000 souls making use of the building in the course Our thanks are due to Mr. R. H. Robertson, the ar tacle worthy of traveling a long distance to see. At of every working day of the year. chitect, and Mr. A. Pauli, who had charge of the erec the point of the break the water was surging and boil HISTORICAL SURROUNDINGS. - In concluding we tion of the building, for courtesies extended in the pre ing like the rapids of a river. The overplus was run draw particular attention to the reproduction of a paration of this article. ning over the curbs and sidewalks of the ad jacent

photograph taken from St. Paul's Churchyard. It . '.' . streets. Vacant lots were submerged and cob ble stones,

would be impossible to find in all America a spot Gelatine In Gum. sidewalks, and car tracks were undermined by the flow where the old and the new are so strangely blended as of the water. During the morning there were a num A. '.rrillat employs commercial formaldehyde solu here. The venerable ecclesiastical building was erected ber of narrow escapes, as the sandy soil had been tion to render gelatine insoluble, so that it may be in 1764 and was originally known as Trinity's St. Paul's washed away, and a few pedestrians provided with detected and the amount present determined, in mix· Chapel. The site selected was a field of wheat opposite boots, while attempting to ford the street, were almost tures containing gum, sugar, - or other bodies not the Common, now the City Hall Park. It was opened engulfed, and were rescued with difficulty. Every few precipitated by formaldehyde. The substance to be for service on October 30, 1766, the sermon being minutes the sidewalk would fall in on Central Avenue tested is dissolved in water, and the clear solution eva preached by Samuel Auchmuty, D.D., "Rector of and the foundations of buildings were carried away. porated to a sirupy consistence: a little formaldehyde Trinity Church and Chaplain to the Right Hon. Wil After several honrs the water began to recede, and as solution is then added and evaporation continued liam, Earl of Stirling." The churchyard sloped west It went down, the full extent of the damage could be until a pasty consistence is reached. The residue is ward to the Hudson River, whose shoreline was located �een. The whole crossing was undel'lnined from one finally washed by decantation with hoiling water, where Greenwich Street now extends. The steeple of side to the other, maklllg a pit measurmg 100 feet in dried, and weighed.-CoUlptes Rendus, cxxvii., 724. the church was added in 1794. At that time the church each direction and fully 20 feet deep. As the water was beyond the city limits, and history records that ..