Downtown Manhattan
Building Stones
Field Trip
March 5, 2009
Automotive HS
Geology of New York
Field Trip #1
Marking Period #1
Field Report 20 points
Field Guide 15 points
Stop 1
Building name: Trinity Church
Building address: 89 Broadway, New York, NY (Broadway and Wall St.)
Train stop: Wall St. on 4/5
Building Stone: Portland Brownstone (sandstone)
Rock Type: Sedimentary
Extra information:
(1) Headstones in the graveyard of Trinity Church from the mid 1700's are made
of Portland brownstone
(2) The Red Color comes from iron oxides.
(3) When the church was consecrated on Ascension Day May 1, 1846, its soaring
Neo-Gothic spire, surmounted by a gilded cross, dominated the skyline of lower
Manhattan.
(4) Trinity was a welcoming beacon for ships sailing into New York Harbor.
Questions to consider:
(1) Describe the headstones in the Trinity Church graveyard. Other than
Portland Brownstone what stone can you find?
(2) What chemical compound makes the red color in the Portland
Brownstone.
(3) During what decade were Neo-Gothic spires fashionable? _________
(4) Do you think that you can see Trinity Church’s spire from New York
Harbor? Why or why not? Explain.
Stop 2
Building Name: New York Stock exchange
Location: 11 Wall Street
Building Stone: Georgia Marble
Rock Type: Metamorphic
Extra information:
(1) The earliest known use of Georgia marble dates to 1400, when effigies,
bowls, projectile points, and other necessities were carved out of native
marble.
(2) These early artifacts, found in Pickens County, are part of the permanent
exhibit at the etowah mounds near Cartersville.
(3) Etowah mounds - There are three main mounds at the site and three lesser
known mounds. The community was inhabited from about 1000-1550
A.D. by Native Americans of the Mississippian culture. The town was
occupied in three distinct archaeological phases: c. 1000-1200 AD, c. 12501375 AD, and c. 1375-1550 AD.
(4) The central, or temple, mound dominates the three larger mounds near
the plaza and is commonly referred to as Mound A. No excavation of the
mound has been done or is anticipated because temple mounds rarely
yield important finds. A series of steps created with logs and clay led from
a ceremonial plaza to the top of the mound in roughly the same place that
the stairs are today. Although most literature lists the height of Mound A
as 63 feet, we measured it with our GPS and found it to be slightly more
than 61 feet in height. When you reach the top, turn around and face the
steps. In front of you is the plaza. To the left and behind the plaza are four
additional mounds, perhaps for the homes of high-ranking people.
- http://ngeorgia.com/ang/Etowah_Indian_Mounds_State_Historic_Site
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Stop 3
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Building Name: Federal Hall
Location: 26 Wall Street
Building stone: Tuckahoe Marble
Rock Type: Metamorphic
Extra information:
(1)
In 1818, after high-quality white marble was found, the Tuckahoe Marble
Quarry opened and soon became a major producer of marble for the
world. This marble was used in many famous projects.
(2)
The Tuckahoe Marble contains minor amounts of hematite and pyrite.
Oxidation of these iron-bearing minerals cause the stone to turn orangebrown when the rock is exposured and weathers.
(3)
Check for porphyroblasts of tremolite within the marble. A porphyroblast
is a large mineral crystal in a metamorphic rock which has grown within
the finer grained groundmass. The mineral tremolite has the chemical
formula Ca2Mg5Si8O22(OH)2.
(4)
26 Wall Street was the site of New York City's 18th-century City Hall. Here
John Peter Zenger was jailed, tried, and acquitted of libel for exposing
government corruption in his newspaper - an early victory for freedom of
the press. City Hall hosted the Stamp Act Congress, which assembled in
October 1765 to protest "taxation without representation." After the
American Revolution, the Continental Congress met at City Hall and, in
1787, adopted the Northwest Ordinance, establishing procedures for
creating new states.
When the Constitution was ratified in 1788, New York remained the
national capital. Pierre L'Enfant was commissioned to remodel the City
Hall for the new federal government. The First Congress met in the now
Federal Hall and wrote the Bill of Rights. George Washington was
inaugurated here as the country's first President on April 30, 1789. When
the capital moved to Philadelphia in 1790, the building again housed city
government until 1812, when Federal Hall was demolished.
The current structure on the site was built as a Customs House, opening in
1842. In 1862, Customs moved to 55 Wall Street, and the building became
the US Sub-Treasury. Millions of dollars of gold and silver were kept in the
basement vaults, until the Federal Reserve Bank replaced the Sub-Treasury
system in 1920.
http://www.nps.gov/feha/historyculture/index.htm
Questions to consider:
(1)What county is Tuckahoe Marble quarried from?
(2) Is the process described in Extra Information (2)
a. physical weathering
b. chemical weathering
c. physical erosion
d. chemical abrasion
(3) What is the chemical formula of the mineral calcite? ________________
What is the chemical formula of the mineral quartz?_________________
(4) Many important events in the History of New York City and of the
Nation took place right here at 26 Wall Street. List some of them.
Stop 4
Building name: J.P. Morgan Building
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Building address: 23 Wall St, New York, NY 10005
Building Stone: Tennessee Marble
Rock Type: Sedimentary (What the f@&#)
Extra information:
(1) Off-white, pink,
and dark red
limestone has been
quarried from
beds and lenses
within the Holston
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Formation in the Valley and Ridge physiographic province of the
Appalacians of eastern Tennessee since1838.
Bryozoan fossil
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Styolite
Questions to consider:
(1) Why is this rock—Tennessee
Marble—considered a
sedimentary rock?
Crinoid stem
fossil
Modern
crinoids
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Stop 5
Building name: Federal Reserve Bank
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Building address: 33 Liberty St, New York, NY
Building Stone: Ohio Sandstone
Rock Type: Sedimentary
Extra information:
(1).
Ohio Sandstone is considered quartz arenite. “Arenite” is the Latinate
word for “Sandstone.”
(2)
There are 12 regional federal reserve banks beyond the main agency in
Washington, DC.
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(3) The requirements for a good, natural grinding stone are that it be sharp
sand, clean-free from clay or other impurities-and strongly cemented
together. However, when this ideal condition is reached, any further cement
is objectionable, since it reduces the grit. The coarser the stone the faster the
cutting. The Berea grit is composed of about 4 percent super hard
aluminum oxide (corundum) bonded with about 93 percent silicon dioxide
(quartz), the remainder being iron, magnesium, and calcium oxide.
-from “Ohio's Sandstone: Once the Source of the World's Finest Grinding Stones”
by Dana Martin Batory
Questions to consider:
(1) What is the color of Ohio sandstone? Can you describe how this rock was
deposited?
(2)
Corundum is the mineral name for rubies (if they’re red) or sapphires
(if they’re blue). What mineral property of corundum lends itself to
corundum-rich sand being used for grinding.
Stop 5
Building Name: New York Municipal Building
Location: 1 centre street
Building stone: Deer Isle Granite
Rock Type: Igneous
Qu ic kTi me™ a nd a
TIFF (Unc om pres se d) de co mp re ss or
are n ee de d to s ee th is pi ctu re .
Extra Informtion:
(1) Deer Isle Granite is a grey granite from the United States. In natural stone
trade it is called Granite.
Questions to consider:
(1) How is igneous rock different from sedimentary rocks?
Field Trip route