Photo © Library of Congress (LOC)

Manhattan Life Insurance Building

Description

Notable for its ingenuity in engineering, this building was one of the first to use pneumatic caissons for its foundations. Designed by architects Kimball and Thompson and engineer Charles Sooysmith, it reached a height of 348 ft.^[1]

Built on a site with a 54-foot layer of mud and quicksand, the Manhattan Life Insurance Building required its masonry foundations to be carried down to bedrock. Initial excavation was carried out by men and horses scraping across the entire lot, after which caissons were installed allowing men to continue digging beneath the masonry piers that slowly sank to the bedrock.^[2]

… the Manhattan Life Building became NYC’s tallest skyscraper in 1893. It was also the first office building to use pneumatic caissons in its foundation.^[3]

Constructed, 1894

The original structure at 64–66 Broadway was completed in 1894 to the designs of the architects of Kimball & Thompson, and was slightly extended north in 1904 to 68–70 Broadway. It was the first skyscraper to pass 330 ft (100 m) in Manhattan.

The building was sold at least twice. In 1926, the Manhattan Life Insurance Company sold the building to Frederick Brown, who then re-sold it to the Manufacturer's Trust Company a few weeks later. Then, in 1928, Central Union Trust Company, whose headquarters were in adjacent structures to the north, bought 70 Broadway for an undisclosed sum, although the building was assessed at that time at $4 million. Following the Central Union Trust Company's sale of the buildings to the north to the Irving Trust Company, which then built a new skyscraper at 1 Wall Street, Central Union Trust moved to the Manhattan Life Building and modified the structures at 60, 62, and 70 Broadway.

Destroyed, 1963

Related Sites

1 Wall Street-The building was demolished to make way for an annex to 1 Wall Street, completed in 1965. Once the world's tallest building.

Map View

66 Broadway

64–66 Broadway