IMMENSE TRUSS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20024, 4 September 1930, Page 4

IMMENSE TRUSS.

SUPPORT FOR 4500 TONS. What is believed to be the largest nnd heaviest steel truss ever used in building construction has just been placed into position on the site of the new Waldorf-Astoria Hotel at Park and Lexington avenues, Forty-ninth and Fiftieth streets/New York. Three crews of steel erectors have been busily engaged on this task for some weeks. The bottom chord, which is the first of eight steel sections, measuring ninety feet in length, and weighing sixty-three tons, was hoisted by the steel crew of the Thompson, Scarrett Company, under the supervision of Owen Eachus, steel superintendent, and placod in position in July. Six other sections, varying in weight from twenty to thirty tons, have been as. sembled, and the top chord, measuring ninety feet long and weighing seventyfour tons, has been bolted into position. A large crowd of curious people gathered at Park avenue and Fiftieth street t«o watch the hoisting operations of this huge steel form, which measured approximately half a city block in length. The entire assembled unit weighs 312 tons and measures 90 feet long by 33 feet high. This trues is located above the proscenium arch of, the main ballroom from the sixth to the ninth floors of the new Waldorf-As-toria, und will support part of the remaining section of the ,?iant hostelry from the ninth to the forty-sixth floor. The greater part of the main ballroom, a space 87 feet wide by 120 feet long, is entirely free of columns, an area of over 10,000 square feet. The section of the hotel which will be supported by this trues will, weigh in excess of 4500 tons.