Building a skyscraper

    When people descibe this story, they say that the part about the fair is boring.  They say that it lags, with alot of information about everything to do with the time period possible.  Also, they say that the parts about Holmes, the murderer, is incredibly interesting.  Not to say that they are lying, but I have found so far that the World's Fair portion of the story, mainly the architeture, has been incredibly interesting.
     It is an ominous task to build a skyscraper today, so imagine how difficult it was to build one in the late 1800s.  Now, taking in the usual complications, add in the small factor that made it difficult to build in Chicago; its soil.  The bedrock of Chicago laid onehundred twenty-fve feet below the surface.  In between the surface and the bedrock was this mushy clump of land, giving very little support to the buildings up above.  Burnham, the architech this story focuses on, was in partnership with a man name Root, who was the man that came up with the solution for Chicago's unsteady soil.
     Originally, buildings were placed on stone pyramids, all resting on what is known as the basement slab.  This would not work though, because for one to build a ten story building, they'd have to have incredibly large stone pyramids in the basement where the boilers would need to go, creating problems down the line for the functionality of the building.  Instead, a new method was created.  Instead of using pyramids, they'd start off by digging down to the first sturdy bit of land beneath the surface and then lay down concrete two feet thick.  On top of this slab, steel rails would be placed going from one end to the other.  Another layer of rails would be placed on top of this, and then more cement would be poured over all this.  Essentially, by doing this, builders were able to create a bedrock that would also work as the floor of the basement.  By coming up with this design, skyscrapers would now be able to be built, without the workers having to worry that the ground wasn't strong enough to hold it up.
     I found this part to be very compelling.  This is the start of modern achiteture.  Without this "floating foundation" the world as we know it today would be very different.  This foundation helped to build the first skyscraper, so without it, cities could potentially be years behind where they are today.  I'm amazed how how informative this book is, so who knows, by the time I'm finished, maybe I'll know how to build a skyscraper, or a house of cards at least.