It was this week in 1930 that an Indianapolis utility, Indiana Bell, moved its headquarters.
And no, I don’t mean they moved from one building to another, they physically moved their 11,000 ton, eight story central office to a different location.
As Amusing Planet reported, the phone company was growing and needed a bigger office space.
But, because it provided an essential service, it couldn’t just tear down the old space.
Eventually they realized they could move the original structure to the back of their land, making way for new construction.
But doing that would be tricky; remember, they had to maintain phone service to customers the whole time they were carrying out the move.
They used hand jacks and some steam power to slowly lift the building up, just ⅜ of an inch at a time.
Then they moved the whole structure 16 meters south, so they could turn it by 90 degrees, and set it in place 30 meters further west.
The move took four weeks, but the service never went down and workers kept working inside.
They installed flexible power and water lines to the building, and people went in and out thanks to a movable wooden sidewalk.
Of course if they couldn’t get in, they could’ve called the office to let them know.
More good news this week out of Colorado: the governor just announced with tongue firmly in cheek that his state is tied for the state with the fewest number of shark attacks.
If you’re not shaking your head at this already, let me just explain: Colorado is landlocked, they don’t have sharks.
We’re still gonna need a bigger boat though.
An Incredible Move: The Indiana Bell Telephone Building (Amusing Planet)
Colorado tied for state with fewest shark attacks, Gov. Jared Polis boasts (Denver Post)
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Photo by William H. Bass Photo Company – Ray Hinz Collection, Public Domain, via Wikicommons
