MOVING DAY

 I've been amazed when I've seen pictures of houses being moved.  This is a move that went a step further.

In downtown Indianapolis, Indiana stood the Indiana Bell office building built in 1907.  It was a brick over steel frame building with two towers each of eight stories.  Over 600 people worked in the building in 1930 when they decided it needed to be moved.  But, telephone service could not be shut down.

The building weighed over 11,000 tons - over 22 million pounds.  They wanted it just around the corner from where it sat.  The moving construction company built a circular railway to carry it.  They jacked it up just slightly and used hand operated hydraulic jacks to move it at a rate of 1/4" per minute.  All the services had to be maintained throughout the move (water, sewer, electricity).  All six hundred workers were in the building and continuing to work.  

It took 34 days for the move.  That's they way they did things in 1930.  In 1963, they demolished the building.