DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.33567#0112
railway, and the whole slued around by November 3d, after six days and nights of tedious and
unsatisfactory work.
It was evident that a more expeditious method of making the remaining eleven turns and part
turns necessary in order to reach the site must be designed. The London obelisk was not turned
or moved overland at all. The Paris obelisk had been turned by placing it on a pivoted cradle, an
expensive and for my purposes an impracticable system. The turning apparatus shown on Plate xxiv
I designed and arranged in time for the next turn from the West Boulevard into Eighty-sixth Street.
The distance between these points, two thousand six hundred and fifty feet, with two changes of
grade, was made in eight days. The ways beams were laid directly over the new turning apparatus,
which was reached on November i5th. Twenty-two hours were occupied in preparing the blocking
and four hours in effecting the turn.
The apparatus comprises two circles of iron channels, with cannon-balls between, and a hundred-
ton hydraulic pump under the large end of the obelisk as a pivot, and two sections of iron channels
bent to arcs of different radii under the middle and the small end. The upper channels of the two
latter were long enough to project a little beyond the ways beams ; the lower ones covered an angle
of ninety degrees. A purchase was applied to the small end of the obelisk, and the power necessary
to effect the turn was equivalent to that required for lifting only two tons. The end of the railway
bearing the engine was allowed to slide on a beam shod with iron.
From the intersection of Eighty-sixth Street with the West Boulevard to the Eighth Avenue
entrance of Transverse Road No. 3, the distance is two thousand two hundred and fifty feet, with
ascending grades of one in thirty-seven and a half, and one in ninety. The entrance to Transverse
Road No. 3 was reached on November 26th. An examination of the plan and profile of this
transverse road on Plate xxiii will indicate, in a measure, the difficulties to be overcome in order
to transport the obelisk through it. The distance from Eighth to Fifth Avenue is two thousand nine
hundred feet, with a descending grade of one in sixty, followed by an ascending grade of one in fifty-six,
a level, then a descending grade, of one in twenty-six, and concluding with an ascending grade of one
in fifty. Besides these changes of grade, there were eight partial turns in both directions to be made,
aggregating one hundred and seventy-three degrees of arc. To add to the difficulties of this part of
the work, intensely cold weather alternated with heavy falls of snow, and the picked men gave out
one by one from attacks of rheumatism and other effects of exposure. The time occupied in moving
the obelisk through the transverse road was nineteen days. Work was carried on continuously
night and day by two gangs, relieving each other at six o'clock, morning and evening. I made it
a point to spend six hours of each day and five hours of each night personally superintending the
work. And in order to give encouragement and hasten it, a bonus was paid for accomplishing a
distance greater than that regarded by the foreman as a fair day's work under the circumstances at
the time.
The turn southward down Fifth Avenue was made on December 16th. The distance to the
Eighty-second Street entrance to the park is seven hundred and ninety feet, or a uniform down grade
of one to one hundred and thirty-one. The obelisk reached the turning-point at the intersection of
Fifth Avenue with Eighty-second Street on December 18th, and was turned on December 2 2d to the
direction in which it was to be hauled over the trestle to the site. The greatest distance covered in
one day was six hundred feet on November 11th in the West Boulevard.
The trestle extended a distance of eight hundred and ninety feet from the roadway of Fifth
Avenue to the site. It had a uniform ascending grade of one in fourteen nearly. Plates xxiii,
xxiv, and xxvii fully illustrate this ordinary form of trestle, which was composed of timber bents,
braced together in the customary manner, standing on mudsills, the tops connected with exceptionally
large stringer-pieces which formed the ways timbers of the obelisk railway. The highest bent was
unsatisfactory work.
It was evident that a more expeditious method of making the remaining eleven turns and part
turns necessary in order to reach the site must be designed. The London obelisk was not turned
or moved overland at all. The Paris obelisk had been turned by placing it on a pivoted cradle, an
expensive and for my purposes an impracticable system. The turning apparatus shown on Plate xxiv
I designed and arranged in time for the next turn from the West Boulevard into Eighty-sixth Street.
The distance between these points, two thousand six hundred and fifty feet, with two changes of
grade, was made in eight days. The ways beams were laid directly over the new turning apparatus,
which was reached on November i5th. Twenty-two hours were occupied in preparing the blocking
and four hours in effecting the turn.
The apparatus comprises two circles of iron channels, with cannon-balls between, and a hundred-
ton hydraulic pump under the large end of the obelisk as a pivot, and two sections of iron channels
bent to arcs of different radii under the middle and the small end. The upper channels of the two
latter were long enough to project a little beyond the ways beams ; the lower ones covered an angle
of ninety degrees. A purchase was applied to the small end of the obelisk, and the power necessary
to effect the turn was equivalent to that required for lifting only two tons. The end of the railway
bearing the engine was allowed to slide on a beam shod with iron.
From the intersection of Eighty-sixth Street with the West Boulevard to the Eighth Avenue
entrance of Transverse Road No. 3, the distance is two thousand two hundred and fifty feet, with
ascending grades of one in thirty-seven and a half, and one in ninety. The entrance to Transverse
Road No. 3 was reached on November 26th. An examination of the plan and profile of this
transverse road on Plate xxiii will indicate, in a measure, the difficulties to be overcome in order
to transport the obelisk through it. The distance from Eighth to Fifth Avenue is two thousand nine
hundred feet, with a descending grade of one in sixty, followed by an ascending grade of one in fifty-six,
a level, then a descending grade, of one in twenty-six, and concluding with an ascending grade of one
in fifty. Besides these changes of grade, there were eight partial turns in both directions to be made,
aggregating one hundred and seventy-three degrees of arc. To add to the difficulties of this part of
the work, intensely cold weather alternated with heavy falls of snow, and the picked men gave out
one by one from attacks of rheumatism and other effects of exposure. The time occupied in moving
the obelisk through the transverse road was nineteen days. Work was carried on continuously
night and day by two gangs, relieving each other at six o'clock, morning and evening. I made it
a point to spend six hours of each day and five hours of each night personally superintending the
work. And in order to give encouragement and hasten it, a bonus was paid for accomplishing a
distance greater than that regarded by the foreman as a fair day's work under the circumstances at
the time.
The turn southward down Fifth Avenue was made on December 16th. The distance to the
Eighty-second Street entrance to the park is seven hundred and ninety feet, or a uniform down grade
of one to one hundred and thirty-one. The obelisk reached the turning-point at the intersection of
Fifth Avenue with Eighty-second Street on December 18th, and was turned on December 2 2d to the
direction in which it was to be hauled over the trestle to the site. The greatest distance covered in
one day was six hundred feet on November 11th in the West Boulevard.
The trestle extended a distance of eight hundred and ninety feet from the roadway of Fifth
Avenue to the site. It had a uniform ascending grade of one in fourteen nearly. Plates xxiii,
xxiv, and xxvii fully illustrate this ordinary form of trestle, which was composed of timber bents,
braced together in the customary manner, standing on mudsills, the tops connected with exceptionally
large stringer-pieces which formed the ways timbers of the obelisk railway. The highest bent was