You’ll believe a building can fly (639 NY Ave. NW)

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  • April 15, 2015 at 6:20 pm #916709
    PotomacCyclist
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    The building might not be flying, but it is moving. The entire three-story brick building has been reinforced with steel beams and hoisted onto other steel beams, to be moved down the street. This is being done to preserve the building and to clear out space for the construction of a new modern building on the site.

    According to the Washington Business Journal, the building was the former home of the DC Eagle bar. In June, another building, behind 639 NY Ave., will also be moved.

    639 New York Ave. weighs 880 tons with the reinforcing steel beams. According to the project manager, these will be the largest structures ever to be relocated intact in the District. Usually they just demolish the older buildings, like they did with the old convention center.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2015/04/d-c-s-biggest-move-ever-880-tons-and-34-feet.html

    I rode by there earlier this afternoon. It’s less than a block away from the Convention Center, between 6th and 7th Streets on New York Ave, NW.

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  • April 15, 2015 at 9:50 pm #1028182
    Brendan von Buckingham
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    Project manager is bragging, but he’s not right about being the largest in DC.

    Before today’s concrete Calvert Street bridge between Woodley Park and Adams Morgan, there stood a 1,500 ton cast iron bridge between the two neighborhoods. They wanted to build the concrete bridge in the same location as the iron bridge, but wanted to keep the road open to traffic.

    So they moved the iron bridge 80 feet downstream. Intact. With horses. People 80 years ago were smart too.

    Washington Post

    Some other guy

    April 15, 2015 at 10:02 pm #1028183
    Brendan von Buckingham
    Participant

    Open this link in the right format and you’ll find a dozen photos them moving the bridge. Engineering drawings too.

    April 16, 2015 at 4:44 am #1028195
    PotomacCyclist
    Participant

    The manager might still be able to get away with saying it’s the largest building to be moved in D.C. He could also say that the two buildings combined are the largest overall structure move. If you add up the two buildings (plus the steel beams), the total weight is slightly heavier than the bridge.

    In any case, it’s not something you see every day. They might have completed the move today. Comparing the photo I took with that on Google Maps Street View, the building was already farther over than before, almost up against the other older building.

    The building move in June will involve the heavier of the two buildings.

    April 22, 2015 at 7:41 pm #1028648
    PotomacCyclist
    Participant

    Time-lapse video of the building move

    [video=vimeo;125509745]https://vimeo.com/125509745[/video]

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