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 GRAND ARCADE ll 
 
 OF THE 
 CATHEDRAL 
 
 OF 
 COMMERCE
 
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 THIS BOOK WAS DESIGNED 
 
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 FOREWORD 
 
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 S. PARKES CADAIAN, D. D., S.T. D., L. H. D. 
 
 HE man who proposes and the architect who designs 
 a truly great building confer a lasting favor on the 
 race at large. Our indebtedness to those who con- 
 structed the Parthenon, the Coliseum at Rome, St. 
 Peter's Cathedral in that city, St. Paul's in London, 
 St. Mark's in Venice and the pure Gothic of St. Chapelle and Notre 
 Dame in Paris, is utterly beyond ordinary methods of computa- 
 tion. These monuments of rare beauty, devotion and civic pride 
 far outlast other achievements of their respective periods. Their 
 true value is not in stone nor in gold but in the spiritual aspira- 
 tions which they embodied and expressed. Brute material has 
 been robbed of its density and flung into the sky to challenge its 
 loveliness. 
 
 Just as religion monopolized art and architecture during the 
 Medieval epoch, so commerce has engrossed the United States 
 since 1865. The close of the Civil War released the pent-up powers 
 of a young nation, occupying a virgin soil, with the consequences 
 we now witness. Multitudes flocked to our shores, trade increased 
 by leaps and bounds, railways linked East and West in a conti- 
 nental expanse, cities throve apace. Out of the struggles of this 
 process, not without its pulsive and sordid features, have been 
 developed gratifying benefits. The prairies of Illinois, Indiana, 
 Iowa and the Dakotas have become the granaries of the earth. 
 The mineral treasures of Pennsylvania, Georgia and the States 
 located among the foothills of the Rocky Mountains have been 
 mined and placed at the disposal of nations. These and many 
 other enrichments of human life and intercourse received their
 
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 visible tokens in the steady advancement of general prosperity 
 and welfare. Their metropolitan and financial centers were found 
 in New York. Here, on the Island of Manhattan, and at its south- 
 erly extremity, stands a succession of buildings without precedent 
 or peer. The vision of their grandiose effect from the Brooklyn 
 Bridge at dusk, when the gathering darkness softens their bold 
 outlines, and every one of the numberless windows coruscates 
 with radiance, is beyond the brush of Turner to paint c^r the 
 eloquence of Ruskin to describe. It outvies imagination in its 
 most fertile moments. Of these buildings the Woolworth is Queen, 
 acknowledged as premier by all lovers of the city and the com- 
 monwealth, by critics from near and far, by those who aspire 
 toward perfecti(jn, and by those who use visible things to attain 
 it. When seen at nightfall bathed in electric light as with a gar- 
 ment, or in the lucid air of a summer morning, piercing space like 
 a battlement of the paradise of God which St. John beheld, it 
 inspires feelings t(Jo deep even for tears. The writer looked upon 
 it and at once cried out, "The Cathedral of Commerce" — the 
 chosen habitation of that spirit in man which, through means of 
 change and barter, binds alien people into unity and peace, and 
 reduces the hazards of war and bloodshed. Such is its testimony 
 due to Frank W. Woolworth, whose magnitude of mind origina- 
 ted the scheme, and to Cass Gilbert, whose genius executed it to 
 the last detail. To these men, America pays a lasting tribute, and 
 their accomplishment will remain at the heart of the world of 
 trade, a lofty example of the best possibilities in human nature, 
 even when engaged in mercantile pursuits. 
 
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 THE CATHEDRAL 
 OF COMMERCE 
 
 EDWIN A. COCHRAN 
 
 N the night of April 24, 19 13, President Wilson pressed a tiny 
 button in the White House and 80,000 brilliant lights instantly 
 flashed throughout the Woohvorth Building. The event marked 
 the completion, the dedication and the formal opening of that 
 regal edifice, the tallest and most beautiful building in all the 
 world erected to commerce, so judged by the officials of the Panama-Pacific 
 Exposition when they placed their seal of approval upon it and awarded it 
 the gold medal. It also set in motion a vast machine called industry, whose 
 influences and benefits forever will be felt in every corner of the globe. It was 
 a memorable night. A profusion of light filled the twenty-seventh floor, which 
 had been arranged for a superb banquet. And assembled there, was a great 
 host of statesmen, captains of industry, merchants, journalists, scholars, poets 
 — all representative Americans, proud to break bread with, and hcjnor the 
 man who had realized his dream and the gallant aides who tirelessly had 
 labored with him to accomplish the stupendous task, the upbuilding of a 
 monument to small things. 
 
 Yes, as a commercial institution the Woohvorth Building is jireeminent. 
 Within its walls are housed great banking institutions, the e.\ecuti\e and clerical 
 stafTs of giant industries, the New York representatives of America's big 
 business enterprises and a great many leaders in the professions. Its tenants, 
 with their employees, number 10,000 people — the population of a city — and 
 only tenants of the highest standard are accepted. The Building could have 
 been filled twice over had not Mr. Woohvorth been so strict about the responsi- 
 bility and personal integrity of every lessee. Altogether, these tenants rank 
 among our country's most prosperous, most progressive and most reputable 
 business and professional men. 
 
 Doctor Cadman, the noted divine, has called this Building "The Cathedral 
 of Commerce," a term which fittingly describes it. It stands in magnificent 
 splendor, a masterpiece of art and architecture, a Glorious Whole, quite beyond 
 the power of human imagination. The true Gothic lines and tracery of the 
 exterior are extremely impressive, and the proportions have been executed 
 with such studious care and fidelity to detail that its enormous height is not 
 realized from the street; yet it is by far the tallest building in the world, rising 
 792 feet I inch above the sidewalk, its summit ])iercing the heavens. The 
 recessive Tower, gradually diminishing from base to pinnacle and appearing
 
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 always in new lights and colors, forms a fascinating picture from every view- 
 point, as it stands silhouetted against the sky. 
 
 Its location, too, is of supreme importance. It is in the very heart of things 
 — the civic center of the world's great metropolis, in the midst of all transpor- 
 tation lines. It faces upon three streets and has nine entrances, including two 
 direct communications with the subway system. It is within a stone's throw 
 of City Hall, the Municipal Building, Brooklyn Bridge, the Post Ofifice and 
 Courts, as well as close by the great financial and banking center. No building 
 could command a better location or one more advantageous to its tenants. 
 
 From the Observation Gallery, fifty-eight stories above the street, the 
 view is marvelous, and the thrilling sensation which comes over the sight- 
 seer is never to be forgotten. It is indeed the most remarkable if not the most 
 wonderful view in all the world. The scenic and color eff'ects, with the sun 
 shining on the multi-colored buildings around it, but far below, and on the 
 water and land for twenty-five miles in every direction, make a landscape 
 impossible of adequate description. The vast area spread out before the 
 visitor's eye is inhabited by more than 7,500,000 souls. To the north lies 
 the great City, with the Hudson River and the lordly Highlands beyond. 
 To the east are Long Island and the mighty Atlantic Ocean, with its ships 
 passing to and fro far distant on the horizon where sky and water seem to 
 meet. To the south are the great Harbor of New York, the Narrows through 
 which pass all ships entering and leaving the Port of New York, Governor's 
 Island, the Statue of Liberty, and Staten Island in the distance. To the west 
 we have again the Hudson River and the great expanses of meadow-land and 
 mountainous country forming Eastern New Jersey. Looking downward, the 
 multitudes of people scurrying about the busy streets in close proximity to 
 the Woolworth Building resemble an aggregation of pygmies — a crowd seen 
 through the large end of a telescope. The view is bewildering. Every year 
 upwards of 100,000 visitors from all parts of the world come here and the 
 Register shows that these good people represent more than sixty different 
 countries and thousands of cities. 
 
 Another marvel of this Building is the exterior illumination of its Tower 
 by night, extending from the thirty-first to the sixtieth story, a distance of 
 nearly 400 feet. The Tower is illuminated by a gigantic flood of light directed 
 upon it from specially designed nitrogen lamps of great candle-power set in 
 mirrored reflectors to give maximum reflective value. Nearly 20,000,000 candle- 
 power of light is thus transmitted to the ornamental terra-cotta of the whole 
 Tower, making it stand out boldly and majestically like a shaft of glistening 
 alabaster against the blackness of the night. The color effects are brilliantly 
 wonderful. The light, soft and mellow at its base, gradually increases in in- 
 tensity as it reaches upward and, at the very top, the pinnacle, an immense 
 ball of fire appears, giving the effect of a gorgeous jewel resplendent in its 
 setting of rich gold. This light may 1k' seen bj- mariners forty miles at sea. 
 The \arie(l colors of terra-cotta and the superb lines and tracery, abounding 
 in the outer walls of the Tower, are brought out in simple elegance by this
 
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 (laz/,lin;,i illumination, which is acknowlcdi^cd to bf the greatest triumjih in 
 flood-lighting ever achieved. 
 
 The wonders of the Woolworth Building are not confined to its exterior, 
 for within will be found a wealth oi things intensely interesting, and first among 
 these should be mentioned the grand ccM-ridor with its tall, perfect lines rising 
 and sweeping into graceful curves and arches. The marble, with its warm, 
 golden, evenly matched colors of varied hues forming the corridor w^alls, was 
 quarried on the Isle of Sk\ros off" the coast of Greece, from the choicest of 
 costly marbles obtainable there. It is richly carved in pure Gothic design, and 
 blends perfectly with the magnificently decorated dome-ceiling. This ceiling 
 is a masterpiece of glass mosaic, and its rare beauty is accentuated by the 
 soft glow of artificial light concealed behind the lace-like marble cornice at 
 the springing of the arches. It suggests a flood of dazzling jewels glittering 
 in the sunlight — emeralds, rubies, sapphires, diamonds — a riot of harmonious 
 colors, all spread out in golden settings, and arranged in excjuisite designs. 
 The whole efifect is one of grandeur with which the corridor of no other building 
 in the worUl may be compared; and it is, indeed, an appropriate entrance to 
 this regal structure, "The Cathedral of Commerce." 
 
 In the sub-basement is located the power plant which generates the 
 electricity needed to operate the elevators and to furnish light and ventilation 
 for the entire Building. This plant is complete in its make-up, and the four 
 mighty engines and dynamos, operating day and night — never idle from one 
 year to another — are wondrous pieces of machinery, the most efficient known 
 to engineering science. The plant has a total capacity of 1,500 kilowatts, and 
 consists of two 500 kilowatt units, one 300 kilowatt unit, and one 200 kilowatt 
 unit. These units are of varying size, so as to afford maximum operating 
 economy, according to the varying electrical load at different periods of the 
 day. The engines are of the tandem-compound low-speed Corliss type, moving 
 at one hundred revolutions per minute, and are capable of generating sufficient 
 power to operate an electric street railway or supply electric light for a city 
 of 50,000 inhabitants. The Engine Room itself is especially attractive with 
 walls and floor of white tile and ceiling of white enamel, always spotless in 
 appearance. Here, too, will be found an elaborate ventilating plant made 
 up of sixteen large motors with fresh air and exhaust ducts, designed to furnish 
 a complete change of air in the three stories underground and the first four 
 above four times in every hour. The air is drawn down from outside the 
 Building above the fifth floor, passed through fine sieves and then through a 
 curtain of constantly running clear water, where it is cleansed and afterwards 
 distributt'd to the tenants free of impurity. During summer months, this 
 air is ctxjled to a proper temperature by refrigeration, and in winter it is 
 warmed by passing through heated pipes. A water filtration plant and a 
 refrigerating plant also form part of the vast mechanical equipment required 
 for the exacting needs of the Building's tenants. 
 
 The boiler plant consists of six mammoth Babcock & Wilcox boilers 
 with a total capacit)- of about 2,500 horse-power. These boilers are operated
 
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 at hiLi,h pressure and except during a few weeks of unusually cold weather in 
 mid-winter the entire Building is heated by exhaust steam from the engines 
 and pumps. Some idea may be furnud of the enormous quantity of coal 
 consumed by these boilers from the fact that the Building's coal bunkers 
 contain over 2,000 tons of coal, which is replaced as used by cargo shipments 
 direct from the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania. An immense Swimming 
 Pool and Turkish Bath establishment, open day and night, is also located in 
 the sub-basement, and here will be found every modern device making for 
 comfort, safety and sanitation. 
 
 The Woolworth Building Safe Deposit Co. has its vaults in the basement. 
 This, too, is a thoroughly up-to-date institution, where courteous, efficient 
 attendants show hundreds of persons to their strong boxes every business 
 day. No exi)ense has been spared to make it a safe place for the keeping of 
 valuables. Another interesting place in the basement is the beautiful restaurant 
 called "The Postkellcr" — one of the City's show-places. The food and service 
 here are of the very best, and it is noted for its cleanliness. There is also a 
 large, finely equipped Barber Shop in the basement where the appointments 
 are unexcelled and the service first class in every particular. 
 
 The Irving National Bank and the Broadway Trust Company, nationally 
 known institutions, occupy spacious quarters on one of the main floors, and 
 provide every modern banking facility for the convenience of customers. In the 
 Irving National Bank each department is as convenient to the customer as the 
 single window in the smallest country bank. The final humanizing touch has 
 been given to the Tellers' Department: Each teller both pays and receives, so 
 that customers always transact business with the same teller whether depositing 
 or withdrawing funds. Personal contact between the customers and officers is 
 encouraged by the special design of the Bank's quarters; all officers are within 
 easy reach. The Broadway Trust Company conducts its business along similar 
 lines, personal service being dominant in both institutions. 
 
 Perhaps the most difficult problem in a structure as tall as the Woolworth 
 Building is the question of elevators. The Building's success depends largely 
 upon the adequacy, safety and regularity of the elevator service. The 
 architectural design of the Building, together with the peculiarities and 
 difficulties of its structural steelwork, to a very great extent govern the 
 number, arrangement and grouping of elevators. This important feature has 
 been carefully studied, and as a result, twenty-eight high-speed electric 
 traction elevators afford excellent service throughout the twenty-four hours 
 of each day, every day in the year, Sundays and holidays included. These 
 elevators travel on a headway of twenty-five to thirty-five seconds during 
 business hours, which means that a car is available to carry passengers up or 
 down from any floor about every half-minute, and this service is faithfully 
 maintained. In order to get tenants, their employees and clients to and from 
 the offices with the least possible delay, many of the elevators are operated 
 at a speed greater than that maintained in any other building, yet they travel 
 so smoothly and noiselessly that their movements are scarcely observed. 
 
 <is4
 
 ETTSCTTC' 
 
 The two elevators, which operate from the ground to the fifty-fourth Ifoor, 
 rise 700 feet in one minute, and these are the highest-rise and fastest-traveling 
 elevators in the world. Although elevator service is provided in the ICiffcl 
 Tower, Paris, to a height of nearly 1,000 feet, three cars must be used to 
 reach the top, the highest rise of a single one being about 450 feet. 
 
 On account of the complex elevator problem and the high speed at which 
 service is maintained, together with the fact that nearly 25,000 people daily 
 travel upon these elevators (about 8,000,000 a year), particular attention was 
 given to the matter of safety devices. The more important of these are the under- 
 car safety operated by a governor placed overhead; oil buffers placed under 
 each car and counterweight; retarding and latching device at the top of each 
 shaftway; limit switches at the bottom and top of travel; speed go\crnor and 
 potential switches operated by governor; switch attached to safety plank on 
 the under-car safety; emergency wheel and safety switch inside the car itself. 
 Ik'sides these, the gcarless traction elevator has the great inherent safety feature 
 because, if either the car or counterweight over-travels, the tractive force is 
 lust, owing to the weight of the car or counterweight being removed from the 
 hoisting cables. There are also many electrical safety devices which form a 
 part of the controlling equipment safeguarding the operation of these elevators. 
 Two additional features of great importance among the safety devices 
 are the emergency exit doors and the interlocking devices on the shaftway 
 doors. The emergency exit doors are so constructed that, in the event of an 
 elevator being accidentally held between floors, passengers may be transferred 
 to an adjoining elevator and carried safely to their destinations without delay 
 or confusion. The interlocking device on the shaftway doors effectively 
 overcomes one of the common causes of elevator accidents, namely, those 
 which occur as passengers enter or alight from elevators. These accidents 
 may usually be charged to the carelessness of the operator in opening the 
 shaftway door before the elevator reaches a full stop or starting the elevator 
 before the door is fully closed. In this Building, elevators cannot be so operated 
 because the interlocking device absolutely prevents an elevator from moving 
 until the shaftway doors are fully closed. 
 
 Besides the regular safety devices enumerated above, Mr. Woolworth 
 ordered air cushions for all elevators. These consist of a heavy steel structure 
 enclosing each elevator shaft separately with reinforced concrete placed be- 
 tween I beams. In addition, the interior of the shafts is lined with heavy 
 steel plates, and as a car enters the air-cushion zone and approaches the 
 bottom of trawl the air pressure underneath increases. Therefore if all safety 
 devices failed to operate and the car dropped, the air Avould be so rapidly 
 compressed that it would not have time to escape through the automatic 
 valves or through the clearance space around the elevator; hence, the speed 
 of the latter would be retarded and the car brought gradually to rest at the 
 base of its shaftway without injury or shock to passengers within. To deter- 
 mine the utility of the air cushions, a test was made by loading an elevator 
 with 7,000 pounds of material and dropping it from the forty-fifth floor with
 
 l==J THE 4=.=-^ 
 
 WOOLWORTH 
 
 m\ BUILDING ,fg 
 
 BY DAY
 
 The loftiest and most 
 beautiful building in 
 all the world dedica- 
 ted to commerce — 
 seen through the great 
 arch of the Municipal 
 Building in the soft 
 glow of early morn- 
 ing sunlight. 
 
 r
 
 L^ 
 
 ^.^ THE ^ 
 WOOLWORTH 
 i:s'. BUILDING 
 BY NIGHT 
 
 35*3:
 
 all safety devices and cables removed. When this elevator reached bottom, 
 its load was unharmed; the vibration being so slight that even a glass of 
 water, which it carried, remained intact. 
 
 Daily inspections are made by the Building's maintenance force, not only 
 of this apparatus but of everything else affecting the safety, comfort and 
 welfare of tenants and the general i)ul)lic. To show the extreme caution oi 
 these inspectors, a remarkable test was made in the plant of John A. Roebling's 
 Sons Co. with a set of six hoisting cables condemned and taken from an elevator 
 after three years of active service. The one most worn of these cables was placed 
 upon a powerful testing machine to determine the weight it would sustain before 
 pulling apart. It broke only after assuming a burden of 16,600 pounds; hence 
 the total carrying strength of the six condemned cables was at least 99,600 
 pounds. As the maximum weight of an elevator and its passengers is about 
 6,000 pounds, it will be seen that these cables were, by actual test, still strong 
 enough to safely handle sixteen times the maximum weight of a loaded elevator. 
 
 "Safety first" and ahvays is the watchword in the operation of this vertical 
 railway system. \Miile the cars travel at great speed, the maintenance is so 
 closely watched and cared for that they move along almost unnoticed — no 
 quivering, no vibration, no sound whatever, al)solute smoothness and safet}-. 
 
 Owing to the arrangement of the elevators, the severe service to which 
 they are subjected, and the variations in the height of travel, it was necessary 
 to provide special means of controlling the operators and the movement of 
 the elevators themselves. A Dispatcher System was therefore devised and used 
 in this Building for the first time. This system consists of a dispatch board and 
 a signal board with electric flashlights to indicate the movement and location 
 of every elevator. The dispatcher absolutely controls the elevators and is 
 prepared, by means of telephonic communication, to pass instructions to the 
 operators when necessary, regardless of whether the elevators are in motion 
 or at rest, so as to correct inmicdiately any irregularities in the service. 
 Incidentally, the telephone in each elevator, while primarily a part of an 
 interior system designed to bring about the greatest efiiciency in operating, 
 is also connected with the great Bell telephone system directly through the 
 Telephone Company's central office, so that one may communicate by tele- 
 phone with any part of the United States from a moving elevator in the 
 Woolworth Building. 
 
 Although the Building is fire-proof throughout, in so far as engineering 
 masters have been able to make it, antl the possibility of fire occurring within 
 its walls is extremely remote, nevertheless, every mechanical dexice has been 
 provided to safeguard the lives and property of tenants should the "im- 
 possible" occur. A fire could not possibly spread beyond the ofifice in which 
 it broke out because the walls are of stone or steel, the doors, trim, etc., also 
 of steel, and the glass of heavy plate, wired. In fact, no inflammable material 
 of any description was used in the construction of the Building. Every stair- 
 way is an enclosed fire-tower, and every elevator shaft is free from outside 
 influences such as smoke, fire, heat and gases.
 
 TWO NIGHT VIEWS OF THE 
 WOOLWORTH BUILDING 
 
 THREE TOWERS OF LOWER MANHATTAN 
 AT NIGHT
 
 A powerful fu'e-punii) forms part of the Buil(lini;'s thoroughly complete 
 fire-fighting equipment. This pump, Icxalcd in tlie sub-basement, is capable 
 of delivering 500 gallons of water per minute at the fifty-eighth story against 
 a head pressure of 820 feet, and on account of the protection thus afforded 
 neighboring properties, the owners have, in some cases, been able to secure 
 substantial reductions in their fire insurance premiums. 
 
 In most buildings the inside or court offices are usually quite dark and 
 undesirable on account of the narrowness of the openings and the height and 
 dingy character of their walls. Not so in the Woolworth Building. It has a 
 great, wide court — nearly the width of an average city street, and, as the 
 walls are of glazed white tile, much natural light is reflected into the court 
 offices, making them quite as choice as those facing the streets. All ofifices in 
 the entire Building, without exception, are especially wide, light, and well 
 ventilated, and their appointments are of the very best. 
 
 For the convenience of tenants, a completely equipped Hospital Room 
 has been established for female stenographers, clerks, and others, where they 
 may receive first-aid treatment and simple remedies at the hands of a compe- 
 tent nurse or rest quietly from the mental or physical strain attendant upon 
 their work. Quick relief is thus afforded and sometimes serious illness is 
 prevented. Should any case be so serious as to require the attendance of a 
 physician, one may be had within a few minutes. This room is maintained 
 as part of the Building's general service for which no charge is made. Public 
 Committee or Board Rooms are also available for tenants' use. These rooms 
 are elaborately appointed, and may be engaged for limited periods at very 
 reasonable rentals. 
 
 The public corridors throughout are spacious and well lighted and 
 ventilated. They have flooring of polished marble terrazo and wainscot of 
 selected Italian marble carried half-way up to the ceiling. Directories on 
 every floor below the Tower enable one to locate his destination quickly upon 
 alighting from the elevators. The toilet facilities are unique as regards the 
 number of rooms assigned for that purpose and the elegance of their appoint- 
 ments. A toilet room for ladies and one for gentlemen will be found con- 
 veniently located on practically every floor of the entire Building. Their 
 walls are lined with white carrara glass, the costliest, most sanitary, and 
 most attractive wall treatment known for this purpose. The ceilings are of 
 white enamel, and the floors of white flint tile. The fixtures, too, are the last 
 word in modern design and construction. Without exception these rooms 
 are all that the word "sanitary" implies. 
 
 More than 50,000 pieces of mail are delivered to tenants of the Woolworth 
 Building every business day, and from eight to ten letter-carriers are required 
 to handle it. The tenants' outgoing mail matter is almost as voluminous and 
 requires an additional force of handlers to convey it to the General Post Office. 
 Four huge letter-boxes are placed in the main corridor, from which twenty- 
 seven collections are made every twenty-four hours on week days. During 
 business hours, the collections take place on an average of every thirty minutes,
 
 tMii|iyjmiMMiiiim 
 
 GENERATORS AND MAIN SWITCHBOARD IN THE ENGINE ROOM 
 
 BOILER RO(_).\l 
 
 ONE OF THE WORKSHOPS 
 
 EMERGENCY R( l( lAl M'K ll\\\ls AMi \lsiroRS 
 
 ENTRANCE TO THE SAl E i)Ll•lJ:^IT \AULT
 
 LOOKING SOUTH FROM THE OBSERVATION GALLERY 
 
 LOOKING NORTH FROM THE 
 OBSERVATION GALLERY
 
 LOOKING WEST FROM THE OBSERVATION GALLERY 
 
 LOOKING EAST FROM THE 
 GBSERN'ATION GALLERY
 
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 iWUN'EX ABOUT 16501 A\D ITALIAN REXAISSANLE MANTELl'IECE CAR\ED I.\ STONE 
 
 and, for the convenience of tenants, four mail chutes, connected with the 
 mail boxes mentioned, serve every floor of the Building. Thus, any tenant 
 may place his mail in one of these chutes and have it taken to the Post Ofifice 
 within half an hour afterward. Sixteen hundred and fifty telephones are in 
 service throughout the Building, a greater number than is used in a city of 
 20,ooo inhabitants. The average daily tral^c is 24,000 calls, totaling 6,677,400 
 messages per year. 
 
 Frequently visitors to the Oljservatiun Gallery and others ask interesting 
 questions with regard to the means which have been devised to make a building 
 of this height entirely safe before the elements. As a matter of general informa- 
 tion it may be said that, regardless of its supreme height, the structure is 
 quite as safe as the Rock of Gibraltar, and the following facts will probably 
 be of interest to those ^\•ho read them: The foundations for all columns are 
 carried down to solid Ix-d rock l)y means of concrete piers sunk by the pneu- 
 matic caisson process, which consists of sinking metal tubes of the size required 
 for the finished piers. Some of these are 19 feet in diameter. In sinking these 
 metal tubes water was encountered and the pneumatic process had to be 
 resorted to, consisting of closing up the upi)er ends of the tubes by a system 
 of air locks. The interiors were filled with air under pressure, equivalent to 
 the water pressure outside, and this pre\(nl((l the water from entering at 
 
 ?ii
 
 WEST SIDE OF MR. WOOLWORTII'S PRIVATE OFFICE COMMANDING A SUPERB VIEW OF THE HUDSON RUHR 
 
 AND THE GREAT HARBOR OF NEW YORK 
 
 the bottom, thereby affording workmen access to the exterior so as to excavate 
 and remove the soiL Upon reaching the solid rock the tube was gradually filled 
 with concrete, the top removed and the filling completed, lea\ing solid concrete 
 piers for the steel columns of the Building to rest upon. 
 
 The caissons under this Building average no feet long below the side- 
 walk, and there are 69 of these with a combined length of approximately 
 5,000 feet, all carried down to bed rock. The total load on the rock at the 
 base of the caissons was assumed to be 24 tons per square foot. There is no 
 possibility of the Building rocking in the slightest degree, because the dead 
 load on any of the columns is greater than the maximum uplift due to wind 
 pressure on the Building. The Building's Aveight above the cais.sons is estimated 
 to be 223,000 tons, including allowance for wind pressure. 
 
 The wind pressure was carefully studied, and it may be safely stated that 
 a hurricane, blowing at 200 miles per hour, would not damage the framework 
 of this Building in any way. Winds of such velocity are, of course, unknown. 
 It is also a fact that no wind ever obscrAcd in this latitude would have the 
 slightest effect upon the Building. At the very top, where scientific obser\"a- 
 tions have been made, no vibration whatever was detected. The Tower is 
 braced to take care of wind strains by a system of portal braces like those 
 used at the ends of bridges. These braces occur in all stories, so that wind 
 
 m
 
 blowing at any floor level is transmitted through the braces to the floors 
 below successively until it reaches the foundation. This form of bracing is 
 unusual in building construction, but it was considered by far the best solution 
 of the difficult engineering problem in hand. 
 
 The copper roofs on the Tower and on the main building are connected 
 by means of copper cables with the Building's structural steelwork, thereby 
 grounding the structure and producing a result similar to the ordinary lightning 
 conductor. Thus, the Building is safe even during severe lightning storms. 
 
 No description of the Woolworth Building is complete without a word 
 concerning that vitally important feature called SERVICE, a feature, perhaps, 
 more important than all others to tenants. Every possible need of the tenant 
 is anticipated and cared for promptly, courteously, efficiently. The smooth- 
 running organization, planned and developed as it has been along depart- 
 mental lines, as in a great railway system, has, for example, its F"ire, Police, 
 Cleaning, Repair and Maintenance Departments, on duty night and day, 
 always, each Avorking with rigid alertness and fidelity. The Building contains 
 nearly 30 acres of floor space, yet this \ast area is cleaned — yes, and thoroughly 
 — every single day, but not during business hours when such work would dis- 
 turb the tenants. The 5,000 or more windows throughout the Building are 
 cleaned once c\'erv week and more often when storms make it necessar\-. The
 
 work of the Night Watchmen, who make hourly pa- 
 trols of the entire Building, and of the Police Force, 
 is especially important to tenants, because it insures 
 the absolute security of their property during closed 
 hours and prevents interruption and annoyance, dur- 
 ing business hours, of a kind cf)nmionly experienced 
 in office buildings. 
 
 Substantially all of the repair work — and this is 
 a vast item — is executed by the Building's mechanical 
 forces, which include, among others, the Electrical, 
 Plumbing, Heating and Elevator Maintenance De- 
 partments, all operating coordinately and under com- 
 petent heads. Even the tools required to perform 
 special classes of work are made by the house mechan- 
 ics, and the Building may be said to be self-contained. 
 Absolute cooperation exists among all departments, 
 and, to a man, the 250 odd employees are trained to 
 serve. They go about their work determined to sat- 
 isfy and please every tenant from the largest to the 
 smallest uniformly, knowing, as they do, that upon 
 that altogether the success of the great institution 
 depends. 
 
 The Woolworth Building has been called "A 
 Cathedra! of Commerce" — a monument to small 
 things, but it is even more — it is the colossal and 
 enduring gift to civilization of a true-born, patriotic 
 American, Frank W. Woolworth, and it stands unique 
 in the history of great buildings throughout the world 
 in that it is without a mortgage or dollar of indebted- 
 ness. Mr. \\^oolworth paid for this gigantic structure 
 from start to rtnish from his own resources, accumu- 
 lated through his business sagacity in establishing an 
 entirely new line of merchandising through retail 
 stores handling only five and ten cent goods. This 
 wonderful enterprise, starting from one small store in 
 1879, has grown to a $65,000,000 corporation, oper- 
 ating over 870 stores throughout the United States, 
 Canada, and Great Britain, with combined sales ex- 
 ceeding $80,000,000 in 191 5 — the largest retail busi- 
 ness in the world. 
 
 Thus the name Frank W. W^oolworth has been indelibly inscribed 
 throughout the length and breadth of our land and abroad, and the Woolworth 
 Building, symbolizing, as it truly does, the crowning achievement of a career 
 of usefulness toward mankind, will long herald the march of progress down 
 through the corridors of lime.
 
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