Inventions; Science; Technology -- Social aspects; Technology and civilization
The other campanile which has excited the wonder and admiration of the
world is the colossal pile known as the Metropolitan Building. This
occupies the entire square or block as we call it from 23rd St. to
24th St. and from Madison to Fourth Avenue. It is 700 feet and 3 inches
above the sidewalk and has 50 stories. The main building which has a
frontage of 200 feet by 425 feet is ten stories in height. It is built
in the early Italian renaissance style the materials being steel and
marble. The Campanile is carried up in the same style and is also of
marble. It stands on a base measuring 75 by 83 feet and the
architectural treatment is chaste, though severe, but eminently
agreeable to the stupendous proportions of the structure. The tower
is quite different from that of the Singer Building. It has twelve
wall and eight interior columns connected at every fourth floor by
diagonal braces; these columns carry 1,800 pounds to the linear foot.
The wind pressure calculated at the rate of 30 lbs. to the square foot
is enormous and is provided for by deep wall girders and knee braces
which transfer the strain to the columns and to the foundation. The
average cross section of the tower is 75 by 85 feet, the floor space
of the entire building is 1,080,000 square feet or about 25 acres.
The tower of this surpassing cloud-piercing structure can be seen for
many miles from the surrounding country and from the bay it looks like
a giant sentinel in white watching the mighty city at its feet and
proclaiming the ceaseless activity and progress of the Western World.
CHAPTER VI
OCEAN PALACES
Ocean Greyhounds--Present Day Floating Palaces--Regal
Appointments--Passenger Accommodation--Food Consumption--The One
Thousand Foot Boat.
The strides of naval architecture and marine engineering have been
marvelous within the present generation. To-day huge leviathans glide
over the waves with a swiftness and safety deemed absolutely impossible
fifty years ago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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