STEEL BUILDINGS. 



707 



taxation, including that on agriculture, at least 

 20 per cent. For the enforced conversion of ex- 

 ternal into internal bonds the holders were given 

 as partial compensation a premium of 10 per cent. 

 He proposed to convert the floating debt of 543,- 

 000,000 pesetas into Treasury bonds. The coupon 

 of the external debt was duly paid in June. After 

 ', the disaster to Spanish arms at Santiago de Cuba, 

 the Government prepared the country for the even- 

 tu.-il loss of the colony which had cost Spain 1,870,- 

 000,000 pesetas and more than 100,000 lives since 

 the outbreak of the rebellion in February, 1895. 

 I Amid the storm stirred up by the Spanish defeat 

 Sefior Sagasta threatened to resign. Public opin- 

 ion fluctuated so violently that the ministers could 

 not venture either to enter into negotiations for 

 peace or to demand of the nation further sacrifices. 

 The cost of the war was estimated to have been 

 3,000,000,000 pesetas. When all hope of German, 

 French, or Russian aid had to be abandoned, and 

 when peace seemed the only means of averting 

 internecine conflicts, the Government found suffi- 

 cient support for the preliminary conditions of 

 peace negotiated through the medium of the French 

 ambassador in Washington. The Cortes were con- 

 voked on Sept. 5 to give the necessary constitu- 

 tional sanction to the protocol before the meeting 

 of the Peace Commission at Paris on Oct. 1. The 

 meeting of the Chamber was attended with tumult 

 and disorder beyond precedent. Not only Repub- 

 licans and Carlists, but Conservatives and discon- 

 tented Liberals threatened the ministers with per- 

 sonal violence. In the Senate charges of cowardice 

 and incompetence were uttered against the army 

 officers. Gen. Polavieja charged politicians of both 

 parties with being the cause of the country's mis- 

 fortunes ; Senor Canelejas threw all the blame on 

 the Ministers of War and Marine. The Repub- 

 licans, Carlists, and followers of Romero Robledo 

 withdrew from the Cortes as an act of protest 

 against the determination of the majority to re- 

 strict discussion. The public at large regarded the 

 protocol and the tempest in the Cortes with equal 

 apathy. The press censorship and the suspension 

 of constitutional guarantees were continued. The 

 Senate and the Chamber adopted the peace protocol 

 and authorized the cession of national territory, 

 upon which the brief and stormy session was 

 abruptly closed on Sept. 14. In consequence of 

 scandals brought to light in connection with the 

 administration of Andalusia, Senor Garaazo, on Oct. 

 23, resigned from the Cabinet and Senor Sagasta as- 

 sumed temporarily the portfolio of Public Works. 



STEEL BUILDINGS. The substitution of steel 

 for stone and brick as a building material has been 

 brought about gradually, being first introduced in 

 large buildings in the lower floors in order to gain 

 space for show windows, etc., which were otherwise 

 restricted in size by the thickness and breadth of 

 the columns of masonry required to support a tall 

 building. Thus it became common to erect business 

 buildings in which most of the stone or brick work 

 began at the second story, being supported usually 

 by columns of cast iron or steel and horizontal steel 

 girders. As demands came to architects for higher 

 buildings, they introduced more steel, and 1890 may 

 be set as the period when American architects began 

 :<) accept the skeleton steel construction as desirable 

 for buildings more than 125 feet high. Chicago 

 was the first city in which these buildings were re- 

 cived with favor, but New York shortly learned 

 itheir merits, and within the past five years has out- 

 <t ripped all other cities by the size and number of 

 its towerlike business structures. There are now in 

 New York 6 business buildings that exceed 300 

 keet in height, 19 that exceed 200 feet, and probably 

 100 that exceed 125 feet. The list of the principal 



ones, with the height in feet above the street level 

 and the number of stories, follows: American 

 Surety Company, 23 stories, 306 feet; American 

 Tract Society, 23 stories, 306 feet ; Bank of Com- 

 merce, 20 stories, 270 feet ; Commercial Cable, 21 

 stories, 280 feet ; Dun, 15 stories, 223 feet ; Gillen- 

 der, 16 stories, roof 219 feet, tower 273 feet; Home 

 Life Insurance Company, 16 stories, roof 219 feet, 

 tower 280 feet; Hudson Realty Company, 16 stories, 

 206 feet; Irins Syndicate, 30 stories, roof 350 feet, 

 tower 382 feet ; Manhattan Life Insurance Com- 

 pany, 23 stories, roof 242 feet, tower 350 feet; 

 Mutual Life Insurance Company, 15 stories, roof 

 210 feet, finial 230 feet; Hotel Netherland, 17 

 stories, 220 feet ; New York Life Insurance Com- 

 pany, 12 stories, front 188 feet, tower 270 feet; 

 New York Realty Company, 15 stories, 204 feet; 

 0. B. Potter Trust, 20 stories, 270 feet; Postal 

 Telegraph Company, 13 stories, roof 179 feet, 

 penthouse 193 feet ; Pulitzer, 15 stories, finial 309 

 feet ; St. James, 16 stories, 204 feet ; St. Paul, 26 

 stories, 337 feet ; Washington Life Insurance Com- 

 pany, 19 stories, 273 feet. 



The Masonic Temple is the largest steel building 

 in Chicago, being 20 stories high and 274 feet above 

 the sidewalk. In Philadelphia the tower of the 

 Broad Street railway station is the tallest structure 

 of the kind, reaching 240 feet. The Ames building 

 in Boston is the tallest in New England, being 186 

 feet. Measurement above thesidewalk does not always 

 give an adequate idea of the size of these great steel 

 structures, as many of them extend from 50 to 80 

 feet below the sidewalk, in reaching a sure founda- 

 tion. This means that several of these structures 

 measure more than 450 feet in extreme height, and 

 as the ground plan of several of the larger ones 

 covers about 15,000 square feet, it will be seen that 

 they are capable of containing populations as great 

 as are found in some small cities. The Dun build- 

 ing is the largest in area, being 131 feet front by 

 608 feet deep, and having 15 stories, giving about 

 1,000,000 feet of floor space. It is so long that its 

 height of 223 feet does not seem remarkable. The 

 Ivins Syndicate building, 13 to 21 Park Row, is the 

 tallest yet constructed, and the first to outrun the 

 twenties in number of stories. It has a front of 

 104 feet and a depth of 154 feet. 



The rapid construction of so many great business 

 buildings has been brought about by a combina- 

 tion of causes, the chief of which was a reduction, 

 in the cost of structural steel, and a demonstration 

 that it added to the fireproof qualities of a build- 

 ing. When fii'st introduced in buildings, steel was 

 found to be a dangerous element in case of fire, 

 because of its liability to warp when subjected to 

 heat, such warpage tending to throw down any 

 superstructure of stone, brick, etc., that rested on 

 the steel. This danger has been diminished by 

 covering the steel framework with terra cotta, brick, 

 or some similar non-conductor of heat, thus protect- 

 ing it in case of fire attacking the woodwork. 

 When properly covered in this manner, the steel 

 skeleton building becomes as fireproof as a building 

 can be made with modern facilities. This was 

 demonstrated in the Nassau Street fire on Feb. 11, 

 1898, when the Vanderbilt building, a 15-story 

 steel skeleton structure, was exposed to the fire that 

 broke out in the Nassau Chambers, 150 feet distant. 

 The Vanderbilt building is one of the earlier of the 

 steel buildings, and has not the latest fireproof 

 appliances, yet the flames that curled about it 

 and burned all the outer wooden cornices on the 

 upper stories, and much of the interior woodwork 

 also, failed to injure the main structure in anv way. 

 The heat was so great that the kalsomine fell, but 

 the walls and floors did not warp, neither did the 

 water that was poured in run through the floors. 



