How do you raise an island? Does the former first floor of a house that survived the hurricane become it's basement?
They used dredges to pump sand in from the bay. Wooden homes were generally jacked up and stood above ground at the same location. Stone structures did have their 1st story become the basement.
Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor is on a completely man made island.
"How do you raise an island? Does the former first floor of a house that survived the hurricane become it's basement?"
There weren't any houses on the island after that hurricane. They started over.
No basements that near to sea level. For the few which did survive, very few, I guess the first floor became the foundation.
Dredge material is pumped into the island during the grade raising
after the 1900 hurricane. Residents endured years of pumps, sludge,
canals, stench and miles of catwalks during the project.
Photo courtesy of Rosenberg Library.
From http://www.galveston.com
To prevent such a natural disaster from devastating the island in such magnitude again, the city built a seawall seven miles long and 17 feet high and began a tremendous grade raising project. Galveston's Seawall now extends 54,790 feet, one-third of Galveston's ocean front. Total cost was $14,497,399.
It stands 16 to 20 feet wide at the base and at the top ranges from three to five feet in width and is composed of granite, sandstone or concrete apron from 27 to 40 feet. Many structures were jacked up during the grade raising while dredges poured four to six feet of sand beneath them; in others (such as Ashton Villa) the fill was pumped into the raised basements. Residents used elevated wooden sidewalks to walk through town. The grade raising project began in 1902 and was completed in 1910 and included 500 city blocks.
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