Volume 17 (1868) (428 pages)

oe Ye te to * 020 6 = —— = oO, On oO, Oy Subscription, SS Per Anni, Single, Coples, 15 Cents. A Journal of Useful Arts, Science, and Mining and Mechanical Progress. BY DEWEY « Co., Patent Solleltors. San Francisco, SATURDAY, December 26, 1868. VOLUME XVII. WNumber 26. See Inpex on last page, which embraces the contents of thisnumber. A pertsal of this carefully prepared index will give the reader soma idea of the large amount of varied useful information contxined in six months’ issues of the Mininc AND Screntiric Press. The editorial Jabor bestowed on the Press is equalled by hut few weckly papers in the United States. The Sea Wall of San Francisco,ENGINEERING DATA REGARDING THE CITY FRONT. The accompanying drawing exhibits a transverse vertical section of the sea wall and wharf now in progress of construction along the water front of this city. No other question can be of such vital importance to the approaching fnture of our great city and its destined commerce as the proper construction of a permanent pier and harbor frontage. We found the sands of Yerba Bnena pnre, aud the transparent waters of the bay rippling cheerfnlly in 1849. Weare bonnd, from motives of sanitary prevention and of trade, no less than from motives of pride, to see to it that we do not make out of it a permanent sink of pollution—a consummation which would bear down to posterity a stigma upon the race which, having come to gather gold, built filthy cities in clean places, unconscious of their destiny. Fortunately it is not necessary to argne the point. Citizens, merchants and legislators are agreed that a first-rate sea wall must be made of it. George Oulton, in 1863, drew the bill; and the Harbor Commissioners since then have been carrying out the work, as below descrihed. . The seeds of all true national greatness and heroism, like that so distinctive in Greece and Rome, and in the history of England, have invariably been laid in the repuhlican principle, the suhstance and purport of which is, or ought to be, that individuals and cliqnes shall not be suffered to rnn counter to the general welfare. Wharf-holders and officials of thesort whose faces indicate an ownership of lax and oily consciences, must nut be permitted in any manuer to thwart us in avcomplishing eventually that which tne situation and necessities of San Francisco imperatively demand—a solid stone city front. By Act of the Legislaturo, all the streets in front of the city have a uniform width of 150 feet, the outer balf, or seventy-five feet of which is nnder the jurisdiction of the Harbor Commissioners, acting for the State of California. The following deacriptiou, condensed from the specifications, explains the character of the work: A pit or channel, sixty feet wide at the bottom, at a level of twenty feet below mean low tide, is excavated, and in this channel is placed the foundation of the sea wall, consisting of a rock embankment thirteen feet in width on top, at the level of mean low tide. The outer extremity of the excavation corresponds with the city front, and, consequently, at this point, the feet below mean low water. The stones are thrown pell-meld into the bay, beginuing on the center line of the embankment, and are allowed to settle until they reach a firm foundation. When itis ascertained that the scttling has ceased, a body of conerete, two feet in thiekness and ten feet in width, is Jaid upou the embankment, and upon this conercte is constructed a wall of solid masonry. This wall is seven feet and three inches in width at the bottom, and niue feet aud eight inches in hight. It is vertical on the land side, and on the harbor side has a batter of two iuches to the foot for seven feet and eight inches, where there is an offset of two feet, forming a recess to receive the ends of the timbers of tle wharf. From this offset the wall is carried up vertically two feet, making it four feet} in width on the top. WME TRANSVERSE VERTICAL SECTION OF SEA WALL AND WHARF. The top of the wall is four inches below the official grade of the city, and the face of the wall at the top is forty feet distant from the line of the water front. The wall will be of the form and dimensions shown iu the above drawiug, aud will he of the best quality of first-class masonry. It will be built in regular courses of the following thickness, beginning at the bottom, namely: twenty, nincteen, nineteen, cighteen aud sixteen inches, to the offsct of two feet, above which there are two courses of twelve inches eacb, making in al] nine feet and eight inches in bight. The front will consist of Folsom or State Capitol granite, will be laid with alternaty stretchers and beaders, and each conrse will break joint with the course below it. No header will be less than five feet in lengtb. The stretchers in the three lower coprses will be nat iess than tio feet, and in ihe remaining courses not slope of the rock emLaakment is twenty / lesa than eighteen inches in width. The masonry will have hammer-dressed heds and joints, and the vertical joints will be dressed back twelve inches from tle face with a bevel of one inch, to secure the stone from displacement by the action of the waves. The mortar joints on the face not to exceed one-fourth of an inch in thickness; the face of the wall uot to he hammer-dressed, hut to present a rock face, except along the joints, which shall be dressed with a draft on each stone of threefourths of an inch in width. The stone will be dressed before layivg, and will not be moved after being placed in the wall. The bench of two feet in width, and the top of the wall, will be hammer-dressed to a uniform snrface; the upper course or coping will be of granite for the whole width of four feet, and the stone will be s0 placed as to show on the top of the wall ‘no joint more than one-fourth of au inch iu width. The rear of the wall will beconstructed of other first-class stones, to be approved by the Eugincer and Board of Harbor Commissiouers. The stone will be laid on horizontal beds, and the frent and hack of the wall carricd upsimultaueously, ‘They will be well honded together, and cvery course thoroughly grouted. ‘The whole masonry will he laid in the best quality of hydranlic mortar, composed of three parts of sand to two parts of Benicia cemeut, or cemeut of first quality, to be approved by the Ingineer, and all the joints ou tbe face will be . pointed with a cement of proper cousistency. The actiou of the waves will form the face of the rock embankment approximately as represented in the diawing. If the em. bankment should be washed away to a , steeper inclination, it will he replaced. beshall not have settled or washed away down to the line represented, the surplus material will be removed. As soon as any portion of the granite wall is built, the corresponding portiou of the protection or7vip-rap wall in front of it will be constructed in the form represented in the above drawing. ‘The vip-rap wall will be three feet in average thickness, and the upper surface will have au incliuation of one vertical to three horizontal, and will, at its lower end, be at least seven feet below mean low tide. At its junction with the grauite wall, the upper surface will be at least four feet above mean low tide. It will be constructed of hard rock, not liable to be hroken or decomposed hy the action of the waves, to beapproved by the Engineer and Harbor Commissioners, and no stone will weigh less than five hnndred pounds. The stones will be lowered to their proper position by means of derricks, their ends facing the prevalent waves, and will he well wedged togetber. A sewer is designed to pass through the middle of every strect intersected by the sea wall, Through the walla brick sewer with granite facings will be constructed; and through the earth embankment, from the termiuation of the brick sewer to the outer slope of the embaukment, a timber sewer. ‘Ihe form and dimensions of the sewers will correspond with those used by the city in the respective streets. The back of the sea wall will be fortyfour feet distant from the line of the water front, leaving thirty-one feet to the middle of the street. This space back of the wall is to he filled in with earth embanlment, the inner side having a slope of one and a half horizontal to one vertical. Sufficient funds having been received by the State Harbor Commissioners to pay for the construction of a portion of the sea wall, in May, 1867, William J. Lewis was appointed Engineer of the Board, and the specifications having been prepared by him and approved by the Board, three sections were advertised for coutract. The money in hand not being sufficient for the construction of the three, the proposition of A. H. Houston, he being the lowest bidder for the two upper sections, was accepted, and acontract was executed ou the 23d of July, 1867, witb him for the coustruction of the first division from Union street to Vallejo street, in length 650 feet, at $217 per lineal foot, or for the aggregate amonnt of $141,050; aud also for the constrnction of the second division, from Pacifie street to Washington street, in length 743 feet, at $278 per lineal foot, or for the aggregate amount of $206,554, The stone and earth embankments for the above sections have been completed, and t. expedite the settling of the embankment, a space twenty-five feet iu width oast of the water front, at the depta of twenty feet below meau low tide, has been excavated. Also for the accommodation of the business of the port, a wharf has bceu built on the first division between Union and Vallejo streets, and has been several months in use. This wharf is constructed on the general plan, but sothat only a small portion of it need be taken up, to allow of the constructiou of the vertical and protection walls. The granite veqnived for the vertical wall has been quarricd and dressed, and the building will be commeuced early in tlle ensuing year. {Continucd on Page 404) ‘fore building the protection wall. If it

oe Ye te to * 020 6 = —— = oO, On oO, Oy Subscription, SS Per Anni, Single, Coples, 15 Cents. A Journal of Useful Arts, Science, and Mining and Mechanical Progress. BY DEWEY « Co., Patent Solleltors. San Francisco, SATURDAY, December 26, 1868. VOLUME XVII. WNumber 26. See Inpex on last page, which embraces the contents of thisnumber. A pertsal of this carefully prepared index will give the reader soma idea of the large amount of varied useful information contxined in six months’ issues of the Mininc AND Screntiric Press. The editorial Jabor bestowed on the Press is equalled by hut few weckly papers in the United States. The Sea Wall of San Francisco,ENGINEERING DATA REGARDING THE CITY FRONT. The accompanying drawing exhibits a transverse vertical section of the sea wall and wharf now in progress of construction along the water front of this city. No other question can be of such vital importance to the approaching fnture of our great city and its destined commerce as the proper construction of a permanent pier and harbor frontage. We found the sands of Yerba Bnena pnre, aud the transparent waters of the bay rippling cheerfnlly in 1849. Weare bonnd, from motives of sanitary prevention and of trade, no less than from motives of pride, to see to it that we do not make out of it a permanent sink of pollution—a consummation which would bear down to posterity a stigma upon the race which, having come to gather gold, built filthy cities in clean places, unconscious of their destiny. Fortunately it is not necessary to argne the point. Citizens, merchants and legislators are agreed that a first-rate sea wall must be made of it. George Oulton, in 1863, drew the bill; and the Harbor Commissioners since then have been carrying out the work, as below descrihed. . The seeds of all true national greatness and heroism, like that so distinctive in Greece and Rome, and in the history of England, have invariably been laid in the repuhlican principle, the suhstance and purport of which is, or ought to be, that individuals and cliqnes shall not be suffered to rnn counter to the general welfare. Wharf-holders and officials of thesort whose faces indicate an ownership of lax and oily consciences, must nut be permitted in any manuer to thwart us in avcomplishing eventually that which tne situation and necessities of San Francisco imperatively demand—a solid stone city front. By Act of the Legislaturo, all the streets in front of the city have a uniform width of 150 feet, the outer balf, or seventy-five feet of which is nnder the jurisdiction of the Harbor Commissioners, acting for the State of California. The following deacriptiou, condensed from the specifications, explains the character of the work: A pit or channel, sixty feet wide at the bottom, at a level of twenty feet below mean low tide, is excavated, and in this channel is placed the foundation of the sea wall, consisting of a rock embankment thirteen feet in width on top, at the level of mean low tide. The outer extremity of the excavation corresponds with the city front, and, consequently, at this point, the feet below mean low water. The stones are thrown pell-meld into the bay, beginuing on the center line of the embankment, and are allowed to settle until they reach a firm foundation. When itis ascertained that the scttling has ceased, a body of conerete, two feet in thiekness and ten feet in width, is Jaid upou the embankment, and upon this conercte is constructed a wall of solid masonry. This wall is seven feet and three inches in width at the bottom, and niue feet aud eight inches in hight. It is vertical on the land side, and on the harbor side has a batter of two iuches to the foot for seven feet and eight inches, where there is an offset of two feet, forming a recess to receive the ends of the timbers of tle wharf. From this offset the wall is carried up vertically two feet, making it four feet} in width on the top. WME TRANSVERSE VERTICAL SECTION OF SEA WALL AND WHARF. The top of the wall is four inches below the official grade of the city, and the face of the wall at the top is forty feet distant from the line of the water front. The wall will be of the form and dimensions shown iu the above drawiug, aud will he of the best quality of first-class masonry. It will be built in regular courses of the following thickness, beginning at the bottom, namely: twenty, nincteen, nineteen, cighteen aud sixteen inches, to the offsct of two feet, above which there are two courses of twelve inches eacb, making in al] nine feet and eight inches in bight. The front will consist of Folsom or State Capitol granite, will be laid with alternaty stretchers and beaders, and each conrse will break joint with the course below it. No header will be less than five feet in lengtb. The stretchers in the three lower coprses will be nat iess than tio feet, and in ihe remaining courses not slope of the rock emLaakment is twenty / lesa than eighteen inches in width. The masonry will have hammer-dressed heds and joints, and the vertical joints will be dressed back twelve inches from tle face with a bevel of one inch, to secure the stone from displacement by the action of

the waves. The mortar joints on the face not to exceed one-fourth of an inch in thickness; the face of the wall uot to he hammer-dressed, hut to present a rock face, except along the joints, which shall be dressed with a draft on each stone of threefourths of an inch in width. The stone will be dressed before layivg, and will not be moved after being placed in the wall. The bench of two feet in width, and the top of the wall, will be hammer-dressed to a uniform snrface; the upper course or coping will be of granite for the whole width of four feet, and the stone will be s0 placed as to show on the top of the wall ‘no joint more than one-fourth of au inch iu width. The rear of the wall will beconstructed of other first-class stones, to be approved by the Eugincer and Board of Harbor Commissiouers. The stone will be laid on horizontal beds, and the frent and hack of the wall carricd upsimultaueously, ‘They will be well honded together, and cvery course thoroughly grouted. ‘The whole masonry will he laid in the best quality of hydranlic mortar, composed of three parts of sand to two parts of Benicia cemeut, or cemeut of first quality, to be approved by the Ingineer, and all the joints ou tbe face will be . pointed with a cement of proper cousistency. The actiou of the waves will form the face of the rock embankment approximately as represented in the diawing. If the em. bankment should be washed away to a , steeper inclination, it will he replaced. beshall not have settled or washed away down to the line represented, the surplus material will be removed. As soon as any portion of the granite wall is built, the corresponding portiou of the protection or7vip-rap wall in front of it will be constructed in the form represented in the above drawing. ‘The vip-rap wall will be three feet in average thickness, and the upper surface will have au incliuation of one vertical to three horizontal, and will, at its lower end, be at least seven feet below mean low tide. At its junction with the grauite wall, the upper surface will be at least four feet above mean low tide. It will be constructed of hard rock, not liable to be hroken or decomposed hy the action of the waves, to beapproved by the Engineer and Harbor Commissioners, and no stone will weigh less than five hnndred pounds. The stones will be lowered to their proper position by means of derricks, their ends facing the prevalent waves, and will he well wedged togetber. A sewer is designed to pass through the middle of every strect intersected by the sea wall, Through the walla brick sewer with granite facings will be constructed; and through the earth embankment, from the termiuation of the brick sewer to the outer slope of the embaukment, a timber sewer. ‘Ihe form and dimensions of the sewers will correspond with those used by the city in the respective streets. The back of the sea wall will be fortyfour feet distant from the line of the water front, leaving thirty-one feet to the middle of the street. This space back of the wall is to he filled in with earth embanlment, the inner side having a slope of one and a half horizontal to one vertical. Sufficient funds having been received by the State Harbor Commissioners to pay for the construction of a portion of the sea wall, in May, 1867, William J. Lewis was appointed Engineer of the Board, and the specifications having been prepared by him and approved by the Board, three sections were advertised for coutract. The money in hand not being sufficient for the construction of the three, the proposition of A. H. Houston, he being the lowest bidder for the two upper sections, was accepted, and acontract was executed ou the 23d of July, 1867, witb him for the coustruction of the first division from Union street to Vallejo street, in length 650 feet, at $217 per lineal foot, or for the aggregate amonnt of $141,050; aud also for the constrnction of the second division, from Pacifie street to Washington street, in length 743 feet, at $278 per lineal foot, or for the aggregate amount of $206,554, The stone and earth embankments for the above sections have been completed, and t. expedite the settling of the embankment, a space twenty-five feet iu width oast of the water front, at the depta of twenty feet below meau low tide, has been excavated. Also for the accommodation of the business of the port, a wharf has bceu built on the first division between Union and Vallejo streets, and has been several months in use. This wharf is constructed on the general plan, but sothat only a small portion of it need be taken up, to allow of the constructiou of the vertical and protection walls. The granite veqnived for the vertical wall has been quarricd and dressed, and the building will be commeuced early in tlle ensuing year. {Continucd on Page 404) ‘fore building the protection wall. If it