The Building of Manhattan, Dover Architecture

279 Pages·2012·19.72 MB·English

by  Donald A. Mackay

Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
PREFACE
IN THE BEGINNING
THE MANHATTAN INDIANS
AND THEN THE DUTCH CAME
WOOD, STONE, AND BRICK
FORT AMSTERDAM
STUYVESANT SURRENDERS
1664: NEW AMSTERDAM IS NOW NEW YORK
COLONIAL NEW YORK: 1664-1783
MECHANICKS, SLAVES, AND APPRENTICES
CAPITAL OF THE NEW NATION: 1785-1790
1811: A PLAN FOR GROWTH
POPULATION PRESSURES: 1811—1850
THE CAST-IRON BUILDING
THE “SAFETY HOISTER” RAISES THE ROOF
THE WONDER OF THE IMAGINATION
THE SKILL OF THE ENGINEER
THE IRON SKELETON
“AN IRON BRIDGE TRUSS STOOD ON END”
1850 TO 1900
THE FLATIRON BUILDING: 1901
THE WOOLWORTH BUILDING: 1913
BOOM AND BUST: 1900—1930
THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: 1930— 1931
THE RIVETER: $1.92 PLUS HALF A CENT AN HOUR
THE DERRICK
COURAGE . . . SKILL . . .
. . . AND PREPARATION
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN . . . ROCKEFELLER CENTER: 1931
OUT OF THE DEPRESSION: 1930—1965
DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN . . . THE WORLD TRADE CENTER: 1966
—1971
KEEPING THE HUDSON RIVER OUT
A PROBLEM IN LEVITATION
CARRYING THE WEIGHT
A CITY WITHIN THE CITY
ZONING: AN ATTEMPT TO SET RATIONAL LIMITS
THE ARCHITECT: CONCEPT AND DETAIL
THE CITY’S VITAL SERVICES
THE BUSY UNDERGROUND
THE SUBWAY
WATER FIT TO DRINK
ELECTRICITY . . . LIFELINE OF THE CITY
STEAM
GAS
TELEPHONE
AND EMPIRE CITY SUBWAY
SEWAGE
GOING . . . GOING . . .
. . . GONE
TEST BORINGS
AND DRILLING ROCK
THE POWER OF COMPRESSED AIR
THE EXCAVATORS
DYNAMITE!
STAND CLEAR!
HARD HATS
WHO DOES WHAT AT A CONSTRUCTION SITE
THE SURVEYOR
SHORING UP THE OUTER WALLS
THE FOUNDATION
DIGGING IN LOWER MANHATTAN
BULL’S LIVER AND OTHER PROBLEMS
AS THE CITY BUILDS
CONCRETE
THE REINFORCED CONCRETE SKYSCRAPER
FROM LIQUID MASS TO HARDENED SOLID
SALAMANDERS
THE BIG CRANES
TOWER CRANES
ASSEMBLING A TOWER CRANE
RAISING THE CRANE’S HEIGHT
PRIVATE PLACES PUBLIC SPACES
STEEL
STEEL
AND IRONWORKERS
LOOK OUT BELOW!
SPUD WRENCHES
FROM BEAM
TO BEAM
THE WELDER
THE FLOORS TAKE SHAPE
THE OUTER SKIN
TRADES AND UNIONS
UP AND DOWN . . . AT 20 MILES AN HOUR
SKYSCRAPER STRESS
ACROPHOBIA ... FEAR OF HEIGHTS
THE SOUNDS OF THE CITY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SOURCES
PREFACE
Artists are lucky. Once they are seen to be actually drawing something, they are
generally accepted as part of the landscape. Busy Manhattan construction sites
are no exception, if the artist keeps out of the way, and once it has been
determined he is not an inspector. He can stand around, tolerated, in all kinds of
places, for long periods of time, doing nothing but watching other people work.
Of course he may not be making any money, but that’s another part of being an
artist. What he may be doing, even if he’s not yet aware of it, is accumulating
material for a book like this.
Almost thirty years ago a drawing I made of the construction of the Chase
Manhattan Bank in lower Manhattan had been put away and forgotten. By
chance, all these years later, I met foundation engineers of the consulting firm
that worked on the foundation and they described for me the method used to
stabilize the “quick” sand encountered during the excavation. Pure luck, and the
drawing is now part of the book.
This is not a textbook, but I hope it is factual enough to please the concrete
worker who said he’d like his children to see what it is he does for a living. And
repay the ironworker I talked with during his lunch break. Asked how
fireproofing is applied to steel framework he said, “I’ll show you.” You follow,
only to be stopped by a supervisor’s “What are you doing here?” You show him
what you’re drawing and he takes you down temporary wooden stairs into the
unfinished depths of the sub-basement. There you step into another world, a
brightly lit office filled with working drawings and schedules, closed off from all
the outside commotion. He has you sign an insurance liability release, tells you
always to borrow a hard hat and to come back on Saturday when he’ll have time
to talk. Not only does he talk, but you see fireproofing being applied. It’s
slippery and messy, and its application on an off-day doesn’t interfere with other
work operations. On another Saturday you expect to find out how heavy panels
get anchored to the outer frame of the building but the foreman has had to bring
in a crew on doubletime pay. It is not the time to ask questions. Later, on a
weekday, he sees you and leads you up in the lift, up the outside of the building,
to an open upper floor. Here his men are working right on the edge of the