How buildings move

In 1888, the 460-foot-long 5000-ton Brighton Beach Hotel was moved more than 500 feet back from the Atlantic Ocean. They put the entire structure on top of 112 flat trucks and pulled it all in one piece with six train locomotives.

To witness the moving of this immense structure, crowds of people came from the neighbouring cities, and great enthusiasm reigned. Nothing like it had ever been known before in the United States, and when the engines were ready to start, the excitement was at its highest point. Mr. Miller gave the signal to start, and, in the glowing words of a Metropolitan reporter, “simultaneously six throttles were thrown open — first gradually, then to their full. The music of the guy-ropes and tackle was weird and Wagnerian; then the tug of war began. Panting and puffing, the iron horses strained every fibre of their mechanical muscle.”

(via architizer)