According to my dad: new york is going to fall into the ground one day because it is on pillars. is it true?

Question

According to my dad: new york is going to fall into the ground one day because it is on pillars. is it true?

Answer 1

If you look at a profile of Manhattan from either the east or the west, you will see what looks like a bimodal curve. There are two places on the island where it is possible to build skyscrapers because of the underlying bedrock. In the rest of the borough, it is necessary to use pilings to support the buildings and they cannot be built as high as the ones on bedrock.

If you want to see a place in which everything must be built on huge pilings, watch construction in New Orleans. Charity Hospital has already sunk into the ground quite some distance since it was built.

Answer 2

Your dad, if I may risk to say, could be misinterpreting construction science.  All high rises and most businesses  have several meter long concrete piles or pillars under the ground helping to hold the building stable.   So, from this point of view there are pillars under all buildings that are higher than a couple of stories tall in New York and in all other cities in America.   But these pillars help stabilize the buildings and would in no way cause the buildings to collapse.

Answer 3

Pillars are used to support some of the large builings and sky scrapers in NY Many scy scrapers have to install what is basically a large swimming pool but instead of keeping the water in it keeps the water out since large portions of NY are built on landfill and to dig down enouph for a solid footing they go below the water table so without this massive cement feature the buildings would flood causing instability and possibly collapse.  There are many buildings with sub basement areas which were designed differently and are actually flooded most of the time.  If you look at the world trade center site you can see the large cement device I mentioned earlier and it was flooding concerns which caused in part the reason it took so long to fix the basement area while it was so quick to get everything above cleared.

Answer 4

He is correct. He is talking about the tunnel system, etc, under the city.

Answer 5

Pillars?  New York?  At best he's thinking Venice Italy, at the worse, he's a total idiot.

Answer 6

He should read The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman. The author interviews an array of scientists, geologists, naturalists and ecologists to come up with an accurate forecast of what would happen to the world if all humans suddenly vanished. A full chapter is devoted to New York, as an example city.

Within a few days the subway tunnels would flood, eventually caving in to create 'rivers' cutting through Manhattan. But I can't say I've ever heard of pillars, and Weisman certainly doesn't mention it.

Venice? Yes. Wooden pillars. Completely crazy.