Dream And Reality

Daniel Badger ran one of the more successful iron foundries in New York in the mid-1800s, the Architectural Iron Works. We know more than a bit about his products because of his detailed and beautifully-illustrated catalog. The engraving below is from the 1865 “Illustrations of iron architecture, made by the Architectural Iron Works of the city of New York”. First, Badger’s dream of a sidewalk vault:

The large fluted columns are part of the front facade cast-iron-front building (and mark the lot line), with the building to the left. The wood joists in the middle of the left side of the frame are the ground-floor structure. Below that is a cellar, and since the cellar floor is shown to be wood joists, there’s a sub-cellar below that. So far, a reasonably typical Soho or Tribeca warehouse. The sidewalk vault extends from an elevated area (in reality, the change in elevation was usually more, so that the higher area could serve as a loading dock) to the main sidewalk and then under the cobblestone driving lanes. The cast-iron gutter at the curb line is a nice touch.

Here’s a photo I took in an actual building of about the same age as the engraving:

It is, of course, messier than the concept, particularly with the modern mechanical systems in place. Here’s a labelled version:

A is a cast iron vault light in pretty good condition except for some cracked lenses. B is an iron rib supporting the panel of vault light, spanning from the center girder (C) to the lot-line wall. C is a cast-iron girder parallel to the facade, supporting the elevated iron vaults on one side and a granite-slab sidewalk on the other. D is a cast-iron column supporting the C girder. The brick wall in the distance is the outer edge of the vault, in line with the curb above. Now back to the engraving:

A, C, and D are the same as above. We can’t see the B ribs, but it’s safe to assume they are there, underneath the iron vault lights. Instead of granite slabs, the outer half of the sidewalk consists of more iron plates, on heavy iron ribs, supported at the curb line by a second girder (G) which is supported on a second line of columns (F). Because of the angle, looking back toward the building, we see the facade columns continuing down into the vault (E).

In short, few people ever intentionally built a vault that continued under the driving lanes because there simply wasn’t a need for that much leaking and poorly-ventilated sub-grade space; masonry was used for the main sidewalk rather than iron for durability. So Badger was being ambitious, which is fine as long as you don’t confuse this illustration with reality.