Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

Walker, Joseph H., Mass.........Banking and Currency.

Wallace, Rodney, Mass.......

Coinage, Weights, and Measures.
Pacific Railroads.

Mileage.

Wallace, William C., N. Y....................Naval Affairs.

Railways and Canals.
Irrigation of Arid Lands.

Washington, Joseph E., Tenn.....Territories.

[blocks in formation]

Eleventh Census.

Merchant Marine and Fisheries.

Naval Affairs.

Merchant Marine and Fisheries.

Military Affairs.

..Civil Service.

..Mines and Mining.

Naval Affairs.

.Coinage, Weights, and Measures.
Commerce.

Private Land Claims.
.Banking and Currency.
Patents.

Expenditures on Public Buildings.
Commerce.

..Coinage, Weights, and Measures.
Claims.

.Military Affairs.

Ventilation and Acoustics.
....Coinage, Weights, and Measures.
Manufactures.
Enrolled Bills.
.Agriculture.

Levees and Improvements of the
Mississippi River.

Invalid Pensions.

Post-Office and Post-Roads.
Indian Affairs.

Claims.

Expenditures in the War Depart

ment. Elections.

Expenditures in the Treasury Department.

Wilson, William L., W. Va....... Judiciary.

Wright, Myron B., Pa.......

Yardley, Robert M., Pa....

Yoder, Samuel S., Ohio.....
FEB. 27, 1891.

Manufactures.

Investigation of Proposed Purchase
of Certain Ballot Boxes.
Quadro-Centennial.

. Banking and Currency.
Public Lands.

Y.

...Revision of the Laws.

Expenditures in the War Department, chairman.

... Invalid Pensions.

Indian Depredation Claims.

BUILDING FOR LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

COMMUNICATION

FROM THE

CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, U. S. ARMY,

TRANSMITTING

A report on the construction of the building for the Library of Congress.

DECEMBER 1, 1890.-Referred to the Committee on Appropriations and ordered to be printed.

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS,

UNITED STATES ARMY, Washington, D. C., December 1, 1890.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of proceedings and operations for the construction of the building for the Library of Congress for the year ending December 1, 1890:

As described and partially illustrated by photograph, in my last annual report, the masonry of the entire cellar story and area walls, including the construction of the basement floor, had at that date been completed, bringing the building up to the level of the exterior surface of the ground.

During the succeeding winter season the remaining seven stationary derricks, making ten in all, together with four stationary steam engines for operating them, were set in place and made ready for use in the spring. The excavation at the east side of the building for the boiler and coal vaults and the chimney foundation was also made, while during the same period cut granite for both the court and front walls of the building continued to be delivered steadily from the quarries and cutting yards of the contractors at Concord, N. H., and Granite, Md., where work proceeded without interruption.

Regular building operations were resumed on March 20, when the construction of the boiler and coal vaults was begun. That work was continued steadily until the vaults were finished, about the 1st of June. Stone setting and brickwork were resumed on the building proper on April 3, since which date the building operations, consisting chiefly of stone and brick work, have continued uninterruptedly to the present time and are still in progress.

The entire basement story, which is, in fact, the first story above the exterior ground, has been built, and all of the iron girders, beams, and fire-proof arching constituting the first-story floor, covering the basement story, have been put in place. This includes the main readingroom or rotunda floor. Above this floor level the court walls of the first story proper, including the rotunda but exclusive of the bookstacks, have been brought more than half way up to the second-floor level, and considerable progress has been made with the arching and vaulting in the main stair hall and approaches to the rotunda and also in the corridors of the west front. On the north front and north half of the west front the first three courses of the first-story stonework have been laid.

The accompanying photograph, compared with that contained in my last annual report, furnishes a good view of the general progress made, in actual construction on the ground, to November 21.

The office force has been busily engaged throughout the year upon the working drawings and the studies necessary to perfect all interior arrangements and equipment of the building for its purpose as a large library in every particular.

Contracts are in force for all of the dressed stone and facing bricks required to complete the exterior and court walls and those materials are being delivered with regularity.

The rate of progress of the work is necessarily quite dependent upon the supply of cut granite received, the special sizes, patterns, and fine quality of which, both in stock and workmanship, require time to produce. No serious delay, however, has thus far occurred and none is anticipated. The building has accordingly been brought to the point originally expected to be reached at this date.

Following are the quantities in round numbers of some of the work performed and materials consumed during the year.

[blocks in formation]

The average number of workmen employed daily on the building during the respective months of the past working season was:

[blocks in formation]

While this force of men has been engaged on the building itself, it should be stated that about double the number have been constantly at work for the building at the contractors' stone quarries and cutting yards and other places.

The following is a table of all the contracts made or in force during the year and the condition of each at the date of this report:

[blocks in formation]

PROBABLE OPERATIONS DURING THE SEASON OF 1891.

The coming winter will be chiefly occupied in receiving cut granite from the contractors so as to accumulate a sufficient quantity for the resumption of active work on the building in the spring. At that time. the work will proceed upon the first story proper, which, as above shown, is already far advanced.

By the close of the next working season it is expected that the masonry of the entire first story, including the iron and brick work of the second story floor, being the third floor from the ground level, will be completed, and that all of the walls of the court-yards, including the rotunda and book-stacks, will have been nearly finished by reach ing the top of the second story; that is to say, the front walls will have reached nearly one-half their full height, while the court walls, exclusive of the rotunda, will be ready for the roof.

Contracts for most of the iron door and window frames, trimmings, and wash boards of the cellar, basement, and first stories, and for all of the interior structure of the three main book-stacks are about to be let, and this work is also to be completed during the coming year.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »