Posted inCivil Engineering Daily News Local Histories

88 Story Office Building May Be Built in New York

Engineers Considering the Feasibility of Plans for Structure to Outrank Woolworth Tower.

New York, Dec. 9.—New York is to have an 88-story office building outranking in height the Woolworth building, which has 61 stories, according to meager information obtainable in real estate circles.

No definite Information regarding the new building will be given the public for the present, it was said at the offices of Cass Gilbert, architect. It was admitted that the project was under consideration, although details are being withheld because negotiations for the size have not been closed.

The new mammoth structure will occupy an entire block in downtown Broadway, it is said.

Posted inCivil Engineering

Bursting in the Thames Tunnel

Water breaking into the Thames Tunnel

The water broke into the Thames Tunnel with irresistible violence last night, about twenty minutes before seven o’clock. Some doubts of the soundness of the roof being entertained, Mr. Brunel, a week or two ago, made numerous borings, from which it was ascertained that the superincumbent soil was at the thinnest part about seventeen feet thick. At the moment that the water burst in, last night, there were luckily no persons in the tunnel but the workmen. The first indication of danger was a tremendous noise, and the rush of the water immediately followed. The men employed in the archway escaped with difficulty, but they did escape, and it is extremely gratifying that, on being mustered as soon after the accident as possible, not one was found missing.

Posted inCivil Engineering Iron & Steam

Marc Brunel’s Account of the Thames Tunnel

Meeting of April 11, 1837

Mr. Brunel gave an account of the Thames Tunnel. Having described the nature and difficulties of the undertaking, and the previous attempts which had been made by others to effect a similar work, he explained, by reference to sections, the nature of the strata below the river. He had adopted the rectangular form of the present excavation, because the work would set better than if it had been of any other form, and it also had a better sustaining surface. The necessity of supporting the ground, and of having a sufficient shelter, had led to the adoption of the shield, respecting which so much had been said. The construction of this would be most easily understood, by conceiving twelve books set side by side on their ends. These would represent the parallel frames which, standing side by side, but not in immediate contact, filled up the excavation. Each frame was divided into three boxes or cells, placed one above the other, the adjustment of the floors of which, and other details, were minutely described by Mr. Brunel.

Posted inCivil Engineering Iron & Steam

Beamish on the Thames Tunnel

By Richard Beamish, M. Inst. C.E.

April 4, 1837

The paper states that several attempts had been made in former years to effect a communication betwixt the opposite shores of the Thames by means of a tunnel, all of which, however, failed. In 1798, Dodd proposed a tunnel at Gravesend; in 1804, Chapman projected one at Rotherhithe; and in 1807, Vazie commenced the construction of a shaft, II feet diameter, at a distance of 315 feet from the river. With Vazie was associated Trevethick, a man of great practical knowledge as a miner, and by indefatigable labor, a drift-way 5 feet in height, 2 feet 6 inches in breadth at the top, and 3 feet at the bottom, was carried 1046 feet under the river. In the spring of 1808, having first ascended from under a rocky stratum, though with a depth of at least 25 feet betwixt them and the bed of the river, the Thames broke in upon them, and not a single brick having been laid, the work was irretrievably lost.