Hey Bruce, when you send the VW photo to Ken, any chance you can send the
Spain trip photo's to me?

Seems Like A Lifetime Ago
  -----Original Message-----
  From: The listserv which takes flossing seriously!
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Bruce Marcham
  Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 10:43 AM
  To: [log in to unmask]
  Subject: Re: [BP] retaining wall...


  This reminds me of another wall that someone down your way brought to our
attention a few years ago. I don't remember if it was near collapse or what
the interest was. Seems to me it was near the Lincoln Tunnel but I could be
off on that.

  We have lots of low walls (a few feet) around here (Upstate NY) that are
laid up of flat limestone, small pieces about a foot in maximum dimension
and only a few inches thick. We do have a full-size VW Bug sculpture (mid
60's style) made by a friend of Ken's (I still have picture and still plan
to send it to you Ken) using similar limestone construction. Maybe once I
send it to him he can scan it and send it to Pighabit...

  And the wheels were made with rolling stones...

    -----Original Message-----
    From: The listserv which takes flossing seriously!
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Met History
    Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 10:30 AM
    To: [log in to unmask]
    Subject: [BP] retaining wall...


    AOL News:

    Retaining Wall Collapses on New York City Highway;  No Injuries, but
Cars Buried After Hillside Gives Way; Gab & Eti are Safe, But Preservation-L
Listserv Wiped Out
    (May 13) - A 75-foot-high stone retaining wall built in 1908 collapsed
in a roaring avalanche onto the Henry Hudson Parkway in Upper Manhattan
yesterday afternoon. No one was believed killed or hurt, but parked cars
were buried and traffic in the region was thrown into bedlam for the evening
rush.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    I know this wall well, having driven past it scores of Times on my way
out of town - it's on the northbound west side highway, just north of the GW
bridge.  Charles V. Paterno built it in 1905-8 to enlarge the site for his
wildly Rhinish castle.   Of course, everyone is scrambling to find original
drawings for this thing (which I have never seen, except a crude
cross-section published in the Times at the time) but I have examined
closely the photographs of the collapse.

    The wall is laid in what I would call random ashlar, big, VW-bug sized
stones.  The collapsed area reveals walls which are, to my mind, rather thin
construction, considering that the fill (which has now spilled out onto the
highway) is all dirt.   The walls seem to be only 4-8 feet thick, even near
the bottom.

    I am sure that Signor Paterno - who was a real estate developer - had
the wall built to standard, and of course it stood without problem for many
years. But to my mind such a wall - with loose fill behind it - should have
been built like a dam, with perhaps 45 degree slope on the inside face.

    The important thing, of course, is that Gab & Eti are safe.  But how do
others think about retaining wall construction.

    Christopher