NEW YORK SKYSCRAPER.

Otago Witness, Issue 4031, 16 June 1931, Page 68

NEW YORK SKYSCRAPER.

THE WORLD’S TALLEST BUILDING AN AMAZING PROJECT.

By

P. S. de Q. Cabot.

If for nothing else, the name and fame of New York have spread far and wide by reason of the city’s superb monuments of engineering skill, daring, and enterprise. The skyscraper—for yearly is the term becoming more literally true —is without doubt a magnificent tribute to man’s ambition and almost ruthless energy to conquer fields anew. Small wonder that the stranger stands in wonder and awe as he gazes upwards, allowing his eye to follow ever so easily the graceful, alluring lines of these “sky-piercing Valhallas crowned witli light.” Even the busiest and most sophisticated New Yorker, whose steps lead him down Fifth avenue or among the darkened narrow ways of the busy downtown district, cannot resist snatching an upward glance, momentarily drawing a sharper breath if ever so little, and registering a peculiar inward feeling of the sense of both inferiority and superiority, not solely the emotion of self-con-scious pride in achievement as a triumph of American engineering skill —yet it could be deservedly all that—but that of man’s ability to defy the cynics and seeminglj’ all-powerful obstacles together with that of appreciation of something mysteriously aesthetic, undoubtedly compelling in its simplicity of line and lustrous sheen of chrome nickel plate. Few there are who would not say the skyscraper came into being, phcenix-like, because of the pressure of the exigencies of the practical situation, for no one will deny the cramped space on Manhattan Island. Acknowledging the truth of this and other materialistic reasons, one cannot but feel that in these magnificent structures such motives, for the nonce apparently mean and shallow, are swallowed up in the conception and consummation of the sheer appeal to the aesthetic. While the skyscraper itself represents a quite distinct and modern contribution to architecture —maybe a transplanted form of Gothicism—yet the last few years have seen some rapid modifications in style. In response to the well-meaning and rightlyfounded claim for fresh air and sunlight on the part of dwellers in more humble buildings, legislation has compelled the skyscraper designer to adopt a set-back style in some localities so that there is a gradual progression of step-lik e groups of storeys, each, as it nears the apex of the whole building, set back farther and farther from the street base line.

One fact that New York engineers and owning-syndicates must be sincerely thankful for is the peculiar bed rock structure of Manhattan, which, girded by the Hudson, the East, and Harlem Rivers and, at its famous skyline region, by the Atlantic waterfront, is almost entirely composed of mica rock. Deprived of this fortunate geological formation, this city could no longer boast any higher buildings than those of London. So thorough are the constructors that core drills bore their way as deep as 50 feet below the deepest excavation to make sure there is no fault in the schist bed. Fundamentally there has been little significant change in the methods adopted in building the skyscrapers; always is there the tremendous amount of excavation to be carried out by an army of men and huge supra-human mechanical monsters whose Gargantuan jaws grapple with large blocks of blastriven rock; always are there the towering steel girders that are hoisted aloft in uncanny fashion over 1000 feet in the air by cranes and winches that are progressively lifted upwards as the storeys increase in number; always are there to be heard those masters of balance and selfcontrol, the riveters, who, hundreds of feet aloft with their inimitable noise-producing machines clank-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k, throw to certain ones in their gang the blazing red-hot rivet stumps with a nonchalance and unconcern that is positively terrifying to the uninitiated; always is there the listless knot of idle bystanders clustered around the basement of thebuilding, gazing at the construction work rather than looking into their future. But one thing changes. It is the height of the buildings. Many skyscrapers have enjoyed the distinction of being the tallest—a distinction the length of duration of which has varied from shorter to shorter periods. And so the names of such edifices as the Woolworth, the- Bank of Manhattan, the Chanin Tower, the Metropolitan Tower, and the Chrysler building have at some time or other conjured up visions of what at such and such a time represented the acme of building heights. But still there is one that eclipses them all and bids fair to reign in its majesty for some time to come. This is.the Empire State Building erected on the west side of Fifth avenue, between Thirty-fourth and Thirty-third streets.

Here, if ever, is a building romance, but it was only when I made my journey to the topmost storey, and then on to the aerial mooring mast 1248 feet above the street level, when the finishing touches were being made to this maifffnoth that I could fully realise the significance of some of the following amazing facts. It was at the end of August, 1929, that Alfred E. Smith, ex-Governor of New York State and opponent of President Hoover at the last elections, announced his daring scheme of constructing the world’s tallest building at an expense of some 55,000,000 dollars on the site then occupied by the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel, which for long had been the rendezvous for the elite of the city. It is interesting to record that away back in 1827 W. B. Astor, of millionaire fame, bought this very plot of ground for 20,000 dollars. In 1928 Smith and his associates paid 20,000,000 dollars for both hotel and site, the hotel to be destroyed, but the site to be built on. Then followed an amazing sequence of _ incidents. Five months were taken in completely demolishing the ever-to-be remembered Waldorf. The exact date this was completed was March 12 of last year. Five days later the first steel beams of the 58,000 ton skeleton were set in place, and in November of the same year the masonry of the 85 storey structure was completed bv an army of a daily average of some 2500 men, whose

number sometimes went as far as 4000. A noteworthy feature about the construction of this building with its clean-cut fascades of Indiana limestone and granite, relieved with strips of chrome nickel steel, has been the attention paid to light penetration, made possible by the set-back style of construction. This means that only five storeys cover the whole lot area, while from the sixth floor the tower continues its upward progress 60 feet from the boundaries of the lot line. . As can be imagined, this record-making project entailed a tremendous amount or attention to details of transit of workmen and material within the rising building; the building schedule of a floor a day was possible only by the closest co-operation; meals served’ to the thousands of workmen were eaten on the premises, and canteens were found in plenty; in fact, no one was required to leave the work in hand before the day was over, thus avoiding crowding in the elevators and enabling the men to have some measure of rest. As with most skyscrapers, the story of the steel construction makes enlightening reading. In the Empire State, there is enough steel to-build a double railway track from New York to Montreal, a distance of approximately 400 miles, while within 80 hours of being made in Pittsburg each steel member, accurately marked to indicate its position, was riveted into place. More than 2,000,000 feet of telephone and telegraph wire and cable are interwoven in the building—a total, which, if added to the amount of electrical cable, would stretch nearly twice around the earth. For the convenience of the workmen engaged in construction some 50 miles of temporary water piping were installed. Over 10,000,000 bricks were used, 200,000 cubic feet of stone, and 400 tons of chrome nickel steel, nearly seven miles of elevator shafts, and enough floor space to shelter a city of the population Dunedin are further indications of the immensity of the undertaking so successfully accomplished. But more is to follow. When all the offices are fully occupied it is estimated that more than 20,000 people will find their work here on this area of a plot 200 by 425 feet, while a conservative estimate of the total number of business people and visitors is placed at a daily figure of 50,000, Truly will there be a city within a city. Every possible convenience is to be found within the walls of the building; restrooms for employees, a dining club, public restaurants, barber shops, a swimming pool, Turkish baths, telegraph and telephone booths, a drinking water purifying plant, adequate fire and police and so on—all the needs of daily use well cared for. Situated between two of the greatest railroad terminals in the world, the Pennsylvania and Grand Central stations, the Empire State is well catered for in the matter of subway transit, for a special tunnel under Sixth avenue and Broadway links up with the subway trains to Pennsylvania station. No indication of the structure of a skyscraper would be comprehensive without some mention of the lifts, or, as they are called in the United States, the elevators. Exclusive of the special cars, there are 62 regular elevators, all of which are selflevelling, and lead directly into a marble panelled two-storey lobby specially designed to afford quick access. Express cars reach the sixtieth floor in less than a minute, the regulation rate of 700 feet a minute being strictly observed. Tower elevators reach from the eightieth to the eighty-sixth floor, and then the mast elevator continues to the top of the mooring mast, 200 feet higher than the tip of the spire on the Chrysler building, and constructed in glass, chrome nickel steel, and aluminium illuminated from within and carrying a beacon at the top. After several changes of elevators on my journey to the top of this giant of masonry and steel—for the full service had not yet been installed—l at last stepped on to the roomy platform specially built to accommodate visitors and guests. Here the air was as pure and as invigorating as one could wish in any countryside, and here was found a rebaf from the ceaseless grind of the traffic of the subway and elevated trains. Not a sound could be heard except for a distant, low, almost moaning rumble of sound, which, peculiarly enough, came from the river steam boats. Away to the west stretched New Jersey on the mainland, and southwards lay New York’s famous sky line. Near by could be seen the famous Flatiron building, once the pride of New York's constructing ability; nearer still could be distinguished the bronze coloured facets of the New York Life Assurance. To the north there was geadily visible, like a huge abyss amid the forest of buildings, Centra) Park, while in the east the eye discerned the Fast River through a low-lying pall of smoke rising ever so slowly from the factories cluttered along its shore; Long Island in the distance could just be seen through the blue grey blanket, while nearer at hand one could detect the new City ’ still in construction— a building project of high-class and wealthy apartment houses set in an area once regarded as filthy and poor.

Seen with naked eye from every part of Manhattan and distinguishable from as far as Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, 25 miles distant, places that have been immortalised by the memory of Washington Irving, this new monument, towering pre-eminent among its fellow niegatheria, of them yet apart from them, envied and unenvious, will command the utmost respect and wonder from classes and races interested in the accomplishment of man, a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation from bottom to top without a dissenting line.”

C’est beau, e’est grand, e’est vTai.

While digging on the waterfront road at Onehunga, one of the men employed there found in the sand a shilling bearing the date of 1820 and having on it the head of King George 111. Although over a century old, the coin was in a good state of preservation. It is still good currency (reporta the Auckland Star).