Mega Movers Transporting MASSIVE Barns & Churches (S1, E7)
In America's heartland, few structures are as iconic as the country barn and the local church. See more in Season 1, Episode 7, "America Moves."
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00:00Today on Mega Movers, this giant of a bygone era, an 85-ton gothic roofed barn must be
00:08moved 26 miles.
00:10Neither snow, ice, or deadly roads will stop this determined crew from getting the job
00:15done.
00:16I really don't know how he's going to make that.
00:19And in Texas, it's a wild sight as a relic from the old west is cut up, hauled in pieces
00:25to a new location, and then reassembled.
00:28If anything goes wrong, I'll be right up there in the middle of it.
00:46Butler County, Nebraska.
00:48This gothic roofed barn, towering high above an endless expanse of America's heartland,
00:54is being moved 26 miles along slick, icy, unpaved country roads to a new home.
01:02Vernon Curtis, a local farmer, recently purchased the barn, which was built in the early 1920s.
01:09And it's all original.
01:10Nothing has been torn out.
01:11A lot of these old barns, you know, the insides have all been gutted out and then made over
01:16for a modern purpose.
01:19To move the barn, Vernon has called in Dave Scribner, owner of Scrib's Moving and Heavy
01:24Hauling in nearby David City, Nebraska.
01:28Dave's family has been in business for more than 50 years and has moved large objects
01:32all over the United States, including three Carnegie libraries.
01:39But moving a barn of this size will be one of the most challenging jobs Dave and his
01:42crew have ever faced.
01:44It is a large barn.
01:47Just looking at it, it's got to be about 50 or 60 foot tall before we even put it up
01:51on the wheels.
01:52The height is imposing, but it's the width of the barn that has Dave worried.
01:56The barn is 40 feet wide, nearly 10 feet wider than most roads.
02:05The barn is being moved so far away that it has to pass through three separate power districts,
02:11requiring an army of workers.
02:13The final challenge will come when the 85-ton barn reaches Vernon's farm.
02:18It must maneuver off the country road and across a steep alfalfa field.
02:23We hope we get it moved without it falling off the truck or anything disastrous happen,
02:28but you never know.
02:30If we get a big wind that day, it could be a problem.
02:35To move this barn, first, the crew will insert two 42-foot steel I-beams.
02:40Next, 12-inch wide channel iron will be bolted along the outer walls.
02:45Then, because the barn has no floor to reinforce it, they will bolt timbers to all of the outer
02:50walls and each of the interior structural braces.
02:53The barn will then be jacked up seven feet.
02:56Eight-wheeled truck dollies will be rolled into place, and the barn will be hauled 26
03:00miles to Vernon's farm.
03:07It's day one of the project.
03:09I'm cold, man.
03:10December 4th, temperature zero degrees.
03:14This is one of the coldest months on record.
03:16Should have got skis for this.
03:18Dave and his crew bring in the steel I-beams to lift the barn, but the front loader won't
03:24start.
03:25It's so cold, the batteries don't want to turn the engine on.
03:27Bill Scribner is Dave's son, the third generation working with Scrib's Movers.
03:32I know I'd rather be in a warm place.
03:35Despite the cold, winter is still the best time to move a barn.
03:39It's a time that worked for us because we just got done with harvest about a month ago,
03:43so we had to get that out of the way first.
03:47Built for one of Nebraska's most prominent horse breeders, this barn is a historic relic
03:54from a bygone era when teams of horses were hitched to plows to tend to the large fields.
04:01The entire second floor of the barn was built to store loose hay.
04:04The way the horses were fed was you had these alleyways on this barn on the outside of the
04:10manger and then there are trap doors up above in the hay mow where the hay would have been
04:15pitched down and then it was thrown over in the manger for the horses.
04:22The loft could store up to 200,000 pounds of hay stacked right up to the peak of the
04:27roof.
04:28Metal vents were needed to prevent the hay from overheating in the summer and starting
04:32a fire.
04:42The front loader finally turns over and the crew begins unloading the dollies and moving
04:47the steel I-beams into place.
04:49This is going to be one of the main cross beams that goes in the back, in the hole in
04:53the back of the barn.
04:54It will be holding most of the weight between this one and the one more that we put in identical
04:58to this one.
05:01Dave cuts the holes in the side of the barn where the beams will be positioned.
05:19We're going to put a bunch of steel beams and wooden timbers and channel irons and attach
05:24it to the barn and raise it up.
05:26It looks pretty lined up.
05:29Next, 12-inch channel iron will be secured to every stud along the outside wall of the
05:34barn to support its 85-ton weight.
05:49See this nail pattern going down, all the way down?
05:54There's a stud in the inside wall right there.
05:58See, we're trying to get a lag screw to screw into that stud.
06:06These barns were built with mill floors.
06:08Consequently, when lifted, there's a danger of them buckling and collapsing.
06:13So to provide additional support, five 8-foot by 16-foot wooden timbers are bolted to the
06:18barn.
06:21By the end of the second day, the barn is prepped and ready to be lifted.
06:25The crew is one step closer to saving what was once one of the most popular style barns
06:30in America.
06:32The Gothic Barn was a radical change in construction from the European style of heavy timber, mortise
06:38and tenon construction.
06:40With the Gothic Barn, stud walls were built of lightweight machine-sawn wood held together
06:45by nails.
06:47One of the biggest changes was in the design of the roof.
06:50The earliest barns had simple gable roofs, but following the Civil War, they were commonly
06:56rebuilt with gambrel roofs, slanting in two different pitches to allow for more storage
07:01space for hay.
07:03But Gothic Barns, with their curved arch roof, provided even more storage space than the
07:08gambrel roofs.
07:10The design of the roof was so that there were less center supports up there, so you got
07:14more room for hay and less obstacles to work around.
07:19Another factor that fueled the popularity of Gothic Barns was the low cost of constructing
07:24them.
07:25By the early 1900s, farm materials began to be mass-produced, so farmers could actually
07:30purchase everything they needed to build a barn for $500 to $2,500 through mail-order
07:36companies.
07:38Among the superstitious, Gothic-roofed barns were especially popular.
07:42They thought the curved shape eliminated the corners under the roof where they feared the
07:47devil liked to hide.
07:54The next morning, they're ready to lift the barn.
07:56The crew positions hydraulic jacks beneath each cross beam and the front and back support
08:02timbers.
08:06The placement of each of the jacks is critical.
08:08The first jack is going to sit right here on this timber, which is connected to all
08:13these studs in there, and it's all connected as one.
08:15Each tow jack is capable of lifting 15 tons.
08:19We've got another hose, but I've got three of them here.
08:27We're going to put two jacks in on this steel I-beam here, two more on the next one.
08:33It's time to lift, but the central jacking unit struggles in the cold.
08:37How come it's running so rough?
08:39Is the choke on or what?
08:42To give you an idea of what 2,500 PSI is like, if you have a car, it's usually about
08:4732 PSI to fill in your tire.
08:49It's 32 pounds per square inch.
08:52We're pumping 2,500 right now into each one of these jacks, so it's quite a bit of pressure.
08:59What kind of pressures do you have?
09:01About 3,000.
09:03It finally generates enough pressure, but the building won't budge.
09:08Josh!
09:09Billy said hold it a minute.
09:13What's the matter, Bill?
09:14I don't think it's coming up here.
09:15What?
09:16Are you all right back there?
09:17A bolt.
09:18A bolt?
09:19Okay.
09:20The sail plate's not coming with the barn.
09:21It's wanting to pull off.
09:22We can't find a bolt.
09:23This barn isn't going anywhere until the crew finds the bolts that are holding down the
09:24back corner.
09:25You found a bolt?
09:26Yeah.
09:27Oh, that's wonderful.
09:28It's in this.
09:29There's no way to get to it.
09:30Okay.
09:31It's like they stuck it in when they built it.
09:32But when this barn was built, electricity wasn't available in this part of Nebraska,
09:36so the crew used a brace, a bit hand drill, a draw knife, and a hand saw to construct
09:41this barn.
09:42Today, the crew is using a Sawzall reciprocating saw
09:46with the speed of up to 2,800 strokes per minute
09:49to cut away the bolt.
09:50But when this barn was built, electricity
09:53wasn't available in this part of Nebraska.
09:55So the crew used a brace, a bit hand drill, a draw knife,
09:59and a hand saw to construct this barn.
10:01A bolt, a well-built barn, and frigid temperatures
10:05are too much.
10:06They destroy the saw.
10:08OK, we'll see if we can find you another blade.
10:13Work comes to a stop while Dave and Bill
10:16head out to buy a new Sawzall.
10:18The nearest store is 30 miles away.
10:23Then we can get the bolts cut off
10:25and be able to get this thing raised up.
10:28By afternoon, the crew cuts the final bolts,
10:31and they're ready to lift the monster.
10:34You're getting it.
10:35It's coming.
10:36I think it's free.
10:43Despite record low temperatures in Nebraska,
10:46Dave Scribner and his crew are ready to lift the 1920s
10:49Gothic Roofed Barn.
10:51Real temperature is like 5 and 7 below zero,
10:54and the chill index is 20 below.
10:56And you just can't hardly stand it outside.
11:06The jacks raise the right side of the barn 12 inches.
11:13Let's make a line and crib it in.
11:16I'm tight over here.
11:18Coming down.
11:19With the weight of the barn resting on the cribbing,
11:22the jacks are lowered and repositioned
11:24on the other side.
11:27They lift again.
11:28You OK yet?
11:30The other side of the barn breaks free.
11:36The crew is shooting for 18 inches,
11:39high enough to bring in two 80-foot-long support beams that
11:42will run the length of the barn.
11:44That's an 18-inch beam, and we've only got about a foot,
11:47I think.
11:48OK, we're ready, Chad.
11:51The crew slides the 13,000-pound beam into position.
11:55That make you happy, TJ?
11:57All right.
12:00Right now, we're trying to get all the snow and ice
12:02off the bottom of the beam so we can roll it on a roller.
12:06You want to adjust the roller?
12:07I can lift it up.
12:09OK.
12:13Can you push down and go?
12:15OK.
12:16With both main beams in place, the crew
12:18will jack up the barn seven feet in the air to roll in the dollies.
12:23With a structure this big, this old, and this heavy,
12:26there's a danger of it falling, putting everyone at risk who
12:29are working in and around it.
12:31If we're going to bring it up, then we'll
12:32start putting our wheels in.
12:34Ready over here.
12:39Let's do it.
12:50It didn't creak a bit, did it?
12:51It's happy.
12:53Nothing better than a happy barn.
12:56Next, four sets of truck dollies, each with eight wheels,
13:00will be positioned beneath the barn.
13:02The most critical component built into each dolly
13:05is a 7-inch hydraulic cylinder.
13:08Allows us to float the building when we're going down the road.
13:11You know, if the road does this, it'll
13:14work and make sure it stays level as we're
13:15going down the road.
13:18There's the mark, huh?
13:20I can always pull it over the cable hoist, too,
13:21just to pull it in there.
13:23Now, you want to go forward with it, Bill?
13:26Head center, and we're on our mark.
13:29There's a hydraulic pump built into the truck.
13:31And when it's snapped in here, we'll
13:32be running hydraulic lines all the way back here,
13:34and that controls the dollies.
13:37The dollies are connected by tie rods.
13:39You don't want these wheels to go down the road.
13:41They split and start doing different things.
13:43They're connected together.
13:44They have to do the same thing.
13:47A system of steering cables controls the dollies,
13:50like a team of horses.
13:51This is vital.
13:53If you don't have this, and you're
13:55trying to go down the road, you can be in a lot of trouble.
13:58Finally, the crew attaches the front harness, or bolster,
14:02to the two main beams.
14:04This bolster attaches to the truck to pull the barn.
14:07All this chain's doing is keeping the bolster attached
14:10to the beams until we get the truck snapped in.
14:14There it is.
14:16Now, after nearly a week of work,
14:18the barn is ready to be moved 26 miles to its new home.
14:23But there's a problem.
14:24The temperatures are hovering near zero.
14:27The power companies can't shut the electricity off
14:30when it's this cold, because a lot of people
14:31are depending on electricity to run their furnaces.
14:34The long-range forecast says it'll be up in about 30 degrees,
14:37which would be 30 degrees warmer than it is now.
14:42The frustrating thing is that nobody
14:44knows when it will be warm enough to complete the move.
14:47The team is shut down indefinitely.
14:52Eight days later, the cold front passes,
14:55and temperatures have warmed up enough to make the move.
14:58We got her, good buddy.
15:00Dave Scribner's 300-horsepower big red truck
15:03pulls gently forward, and the barn begins to move.
15:10It's going pretty good.
15:12He's spinning, though.
15:13He's going to have to hook a boom truck up and pull him.
15:15See his tires up there?
15:17He's going to start spinning on that ice.
15:19The warmer weather is melting the frost,
15:21and the 85-ton weight of the barn
15:24causes the dolly wheels to begin sinking into the mud.
15:27Now, the dollies have went through the frost
15:28is what the problem is.
15:31I think just the front dollies went down, didn't it,
15:33or the back ones up?
15:35Hasn't went down bad, but it's just enough.
15:37The longer we sit, the more it goes down.
15:42But the barn is sinking so fast that it's
15:45pulling a 300-horsepower tow truck off the ground.
15:53We have several options.
15:54We can suck the dollies up, put plywood under.
15:56That would be the quickest way to go.
15:59The crew places wood blocks and timbers
16:02in front of the dollies.
16:10Let's just keep it rolling, see if we can come off.
16:12Keep right on going.
16:15We got out of our hole there, didn't we?
16:17Utility workers begin taking down
16:19the first set of power lines.
16:21We'll kill this, and we'll start cutting it down then.
16:23OK.
16:25The first power district that we're in is Butler County,
16:27rural power district.
16:28About 10 miles down the road, we switch into another county.
16:33At the end of the driveway, the 85-ton barn
16:36makes its first turn south onto State Highway 15.
16:40I'm going to loosen this one up.
16:41We can't afford to let that one go out, can we?
16:44It's pretty clumsy when you start turning corners.
16:47The barn rolls down the highway.
16:48Cruising speed, five miles per hour.
16:52It's slow when you're on a major highway like this in Nebraska.
16:55We've got to let traffic come by.
16:57And as you see, it's already building up.
17:00The barn heads towards Ruby, Nebraska, along country roads
17:05and around tight corners.
17:07Dig it up.
17:09I'm going to have to steer him to the right
17:10to miss his bike.
17:12Got a wheel off the ground.
17:14I know it.
17:15Straighten out if you can, Josh.
17:16We're doing a good job.
17:18We're doing a good job.
17:19We're doing a good job.
17:20We're doing a good job.
17:21We're doing a good job.
17:22We're doing a good job.
17:24All right.
17:25I'm going to pull up.
17:27I know it.
17:27Straighten out if you can, Josh.
17:31Over narrow bridges and past countless power lines.
17:44With 16 miles completed and 10 more to go,
17:47the barn will stay here for the night.
17:49Good first day, but it's going to get a lot worse.
17:53That was, I didn't think, was going to be a bad corner.
17:55It wasn't too peachy.
17:56And I know this is a bad one, and I've
17:57got a worse one than this coming up.
18:07It's the final day of the move for the 1920s barn.
18:11But rain during the night has made the country roads even
18:14more slick with mud and nearly impassable.
18:17I want TJ to put his chains on, too.
18:20This is the worst turn on the whole trip.
18:24And it's not a very big intersection.
18:26As you can see, you're going into a mud road
18:28here coming off the gravel.
18:30So it's going to be slag.
18:34That's fine.
18:36You'll have to do that a bunch of times.
18:38I really don't know how he's going to make that.
18:40Stop a minute.
18:42Everybody stop.
18:43Let down cable.
18:44A bunch more cable, TJ, and winch him.
18:49No, let's stop and let down your cable.
18:52Copy that, TJ.
18:53OK, you can start toward the middle, Josh.
18:55I might need help just climbing the front end out of the,
18:58you know, towards the middle of the road.
18:59Try it a little bit and see what we got.
19:05The barn finally makes the turn.
19:07We made it.
19:09Wasn't too pretty, but we made it.
19:13Since early this morning, utility crews
19:16have been working on the largest set of power lines
19:18along the route.
19:19They run from Sear, Nebraska and feed the west half of Lincoln.
19:24The bottom three carry 115,000 volts.
19:30The top two are static wire, which keeps lightning
19:32from getting down to them.
19:34These lines are too big and heavy to lift,
19:37and the barn is too tall to pass under them,
19:40so they must be lowered.
19:42Workers struggle to pull the lines low enough to allow
19:45the wheels to pass over the cables.
19:48I think you're going to make it.
19:51That's good.
19:53We're going to make it.
19:55Now the barn approaches one last difficult turn
19:58before Vernon's farm.
20:00Stop, stop.
20:02Suddenly, the crew find themselves
20:05in a frightening situation.
20:07The back two dollies have begun to tip over.
20:10They must act quickly before 85 tons come crashing down.
20:16We need to straighten them out.
20:17That's what it needs to do.
20:26OK, if you can straighten out, Josh, just pull ahead slowly.
20:30The barn again moves forward and at long last
20:34turns down onto the alfalfa field towards Vernon's farm.
20:37Well, we made it, Vernon.
20:40After a muddy two-day, 26-mile journey,
20:43the barn pulls into its new home.
20:46Is this good enough, Vernon?
20:48OK.
20:50Well, this is where it's going to sit.
20:53Well, it's a big relief, I can say that,
20:55because I was imagining all the things that could go wrong
20:59but didn't.
21:00We had a good mover, and he did a good job,
21:03and it's here safe and sound now.
21:05So I guess I can start relaxing.
21:08Not only has this historic barn been preserved,
21:12but so has tradition.
21:14Vernon will raise Belgian draft horses in the barn,
21:17just like its original owners.
21:21It's a good feeling knowing that you can
21:23keep an old building like this, and it's
21:26going to be restored to its original condition.
21:38In Salado, Texas, another piece of American history
21:41is being moved.
21:43This church, built in 1890, is one of the town's
21:47most cherished structures.
21:50The Salado United Methodist Church
21:52has outgrown its facilities.
21:57There's a problem, though.
21:59The streets of Salado are so narrow
22:01that the only way to save this historic gem
22:04is to cut it into four pieces, a very risky technique.
22:08The four pieces will be hauled two miles through town,
22:11across a bridge, and up a hill to a new site.
22:15And hauling it might be the easiest part of the move,
22:18because then they have to make sure it all
22:20fits back together again.
22:21The structure of the facility is older,
22:24and we are spending a lot of money here.
22:25We don't want to lose part of it along the highway.
22:27Yeah, take that.
22:29Where it's got the arch in it.
22:30Pastor Britton gave his blessings
22:32to Dick Stewart of A&D House Movers to get the job done.
22:36We move a lot of old and historical buildings
22:38because we kind of like to do that.
22:40They don't build them like that anymore.
22:42Dick has been moving historic structures for 20 years,
22:45including the nearby Hearn Train Depot in 2001,
22:49and a 473,000 pound Santa Fe steam locomotive.
22:56This is a fairly difficult move
22:58because it's intricate about getting the roof off
23:00in one piece and figuring out how to get the bell tower down
23:03and separating it with keeping the integrity
23:05of the building together without just cutting everything.
23:08It's not going to be a cakewalk.
23:10To move the church, Dick and his team must remove
23:13and number 600 boards in the walls and floor,
23:17build a web of framing inside the roof,
23:20then lift off the bell tower and 20,000 pound roof.
23:24Next, they will insert beams under the church,
23:27cut the church in half down the middle,
23:29lift each side up with airbags, insert dolly wheels,
23:33and transport the pieces to a new site
23:35where the entire church will be reassembled.
23:40There's always something new to us when you get into it.
23:45If not any of them built exactly the same.
23:47The church is a carpenter Gothic sanctuary inspired
23:51by the Gothic stone structures popularized
23:53in England during the Middle Ages.
23:56Builders in America used wood,
23:58which was in abundance instead of stone.
24:01The church was designed and built by its members
24:04using wood hauled by wagon from Austin, 50 miles away.
24:08It was constructed of hand-sawn fir and longleaf pine.
24:13It stands 36 feet tall, 54 feet long, and 36 feet wide.
24:19The floors are red pine.
24:21It's interesting how they built it back then
24:23with the vaulted ceiling and no support walls
24:26from the cross walls inside.
24:28And yet it hasn't bulged out, but just very little.
24:30The old timers did everything with hand saw.
24:34Everything fit before they put the covering
24:36on the interior wood or the exterior.
24:38It's just amazing how much labor it took to do that.
24:41To take apart the church without damaging it,
24:43they must carefully cut the nails and remove
24:46and number the exterior and interior boards.
24:55In order to separate the roof and steeple,
24:57the crew needs to cut all the nails
25:00where the top plate of the roof meets the walls.
25:02Like right in here, put a wedge in between
25:04and cut all the nails loose.
25:07That way, when it sets back in place,
25:09they'll go right back together.
25:12As we number them, we go underneath there
25:14and we loosen them with a flat bar
25:16and we take the saws off the pine blade,
25:18cut the nails off.
25:21While the boards are being removed,
25:23the crew places horizontal and vertical beams in the roof
25:27to create an intricate web of bracing
25:29to support the roof when it's lifted.
25:31You don't brace it, it just starts to wobble and move
25:35and pretty soon you've got a pretty good size mess,
25:36I would think.
25:45It ties the roof together.
25:46It'll hold our upright braces and our X braces.
25:49So when the crane comes and picks it off,
25:51we set it down on a set of beams,
25:53just like floor joists of an upstairs house.
25:58There's a sense of urgency and uncertainty
26:00on the site today.
26:02Hurricane Rita, a category five storm,
26:05is bearing down on Texas.
26:08Yeah, hurricane prediction about like moving over buildings
26:10you don't know until you get there.
26:11Right.
26:13With the church in a vulnerable state,
26:16bracing the roof has become even more critical.
26:20You get a hurricane and it spawns tornadoes
26:22and you never know what's gonna come out of it.
26:24Salado has a long history of wild weather.
26:27This area has been hit with hurricanes,
26:30floods, and tornadoes that have destroyed buildings
26:33and other structures.
26:35In 1997, F5 tornadoes flattened the town of Jarrell, Texas,
26:40only eight miles down the road from Salado.
26:43And in 1900, a massive storm washed away dozens of homes.
26:50These are anxious moments for Pastor Grady Britton.
26:53Doing all right today?
26:54Good.
26:55You know, we've got this storm coming in
26:56and it's got me kind of worried.
27:00September 23, 2008
27:0710 a.m. September 23, in less than 24 hours,
27:10Hurricane Rita will unmesh its fury on Texas
27:14and Salado is dead on in its path.
27:19My concern right now is, of course, strong winds,
27:22but we've also had tornadoes in this part of the world
27:26and this building has withstood those for many years.
27:29We just hope it'll make one more storm.
27:31Whoa, I can't go down that fast.
27:35To further protect the structure,
27:36the team puts in angle braces
27:38that attach to the floor joists.
27:40The braces will hold the walls in place
27:43when the roof is removed,
27:45and it will also secure the church against hurricane winds.
27:54It takes the rest of the day to put up the angle braces,
27:57and more importantly, to cover the beams in plastic
28:00in case the big storm hits.
28:03We're gonna prepare for it best we can,
28:04because we can't keep all the water out,
28:06but we can keep it from getting on the floor,
28:07and we can keep it from standing in the ceiling.
28:09So we'll do that to save the building.
28:156 p.m., the crew calls it quits,
28:18and the site is shut down.
28:23The next day, Hurricane Rita,
28:25a Category 5 storm, slams into Texas,
28:28pounding the region well into the night.
28:32Rita is tracking further east of Salado
28:35than originally anticipated,
28:37sparing the church.
28:439 a.m. the next morning, everybody is relieved.
28:46Hurricane Rita was one of the most powerful hurricanes
28:49to strike the United States.
28:51It killed 119 people and caused $9 billion in damage.
28:56Fireworks!
28:58Ended up with like 20 or 25 mile an hour winds and no rain.
29:01I could have done without the wind.
29:02I'd have liked to have a little rain,
29:04but that's the way it went.
29:05We didn't get anything out of it.
29:07Salado dodged another bullet,
29:10but that's nothing new for this Wild West town.
29:14In the late 1800s, bullets were often flying everywhere
29:18as gunslingers fought it out on the streets of Salado.
29:22Infamous outlaws Sam Bass and the notorious Jesse James
29:27had hangouts here.
29:29Despite the threat of outlaws and Indians,
29:32settlers poured in.
29:34And like most towns in the heartland of America,
29:36one building in Salado rose to prominence
29:39amongst its residents, this church.
29:45Work presses on.
29:46The team prepares the steeple and bell tower
29:49to be lifted by crane.
29:54We cut that plastic that's on this side,
29:55get it out of our way.
29:57That way if we have to crawl up there right quick,
30:00you don't slip on that plastic
30:01because it's a long ways to the ground.
30:03It's perilous work teetering 30 feet in the air.
30:07Falling isn't a bad part,
30:08it's just that sudden stop at the end of the fall
30:10that usually gets you.
30:11Keith removes the siding and cuts the bolts
30:14at the bottom of the bell tower floor.
30:16The crane's slings will run underneath the tower
30:19to pick it off.
30:20The trickiest part of moving old buildings is the unknown.
30:24One or two, you can take the outside boards off,
30:26the interior boards off and see what's actually inside it
30:29before you know how you can go about taking it apart.
30:34The bell tower is 27 feet tall.
30:36It's about a foot wide.
30:39The bell tower is 27 feet tall and weighs 2,500 pounds.
30:43The plan is to remove it from the roof,
30:45lower it by crane and lay it sideways on a flatbed truck.
30:49It's too tall to haul the way it is
30:51so we can load it on a trailer
30:52and haul it over to the new location.
30:56The design of the Salado Bell Tower,
30:58like most in America,
31:00can be traced back to the British architect,
31:02Sir Christopher Wren.
31:04When he redesigned St. Paul's Cathedral
31:07to include a bell tower and steeple
31:09to encourage church members to look toward the heavens.
31:14In a small town like Salado,
31:16the bell tower served two purposes,
31:19to announce worship services and to signal an emergency.
31:25The key to moving the bell tower are spreaders
31:28which are laid in the base of the tower.
31:30You want me to forward it a little bit?
31:32Each spreader has a load capacity of four tons.
31:35Put it down.
31:36Okay.
31:39We got it up here, now what do we do?
31:40We got it up here, now what the hell do we do with it?
31:43These beams will end up right against here.
31:47And then we'll have a sling that goes from those bottom ears
31:50around this floor and back up
31:51that'll hold support this floor and the bell.
31:55The crane arrives
31:58and Dick works quickly to hook up the cables.
32:01Meanwhile, the crew rigs the straps to secure the steeple.
32:06With the rigging complete,
32:08it's time to remove the bell tower.
32:25Up some more?
32:25Yeah.
32:30Rope on?
32:33No, I think he scared the hell out of me.
32:34You scared the hell out of me.
32:35I got it, King.
32:36Down low?
32:37Yeah.
32:38The steeple is carefully laid on its side for the move.
32:39We're not far enough forward.
32:40Still need to go that way.
32:41And was transported the two miles to the new site.
33:02The next day, the crew clears the limestone foundation under the building to insert the
33:09main beams, which will support the structure during the lift and move.
33:15Much of this limestone was quarried along the Salado Creek.
33:22Once all the limestone is cleared, the mains, as they are called, are installed.
33:28They're 50 feet long and weigh 1,000 pounds.
33:33But when the beam hits a snag, the crew uses a high-tech house mover's secret.
33:38Put soap on the block to slide the beam on, make it slide easier.
33:45Once the main beams are placed, the team prepares for the 20,000-pound roof to be picked off.
33:55Dick's crew builds a dolly.
33:58It's the roof to the church that the roof will be lowered onto.
34:02These pieces of steel here, that's what we're going to tie the chokers to off of these little
34:1180-inch I-beams underneath the pearling, and that's what we'll pick the roof off with.
34:15Yeah, that's good.
34:17We're supported on six different points of the church, so we'll have six separate points
34:23that we're actually picking the roof from.
34:26With the rigging complete, it's time to raise the roof.
34:30We're going to pick it up just a little bit, get it all clear.
34:33What he's doing right now is putting a little tension on it.
34:36Yeah, hold it right there.
34:37It's got one spot that's sticking right up there.
34:43The roof is made of shaped cedar shakes commonly used in 1890.
34:48Because of their durability, they're still popular today and are pressure-treated with
34:53fire retardant.
34:54If anything goes wrong, I'll be right up there in the middle of it.
34:57Hold it!
34:58Got to come up some more.
34:59Yeah, it's clear.
35:00Everything's clear.
35:01We're going to have to swing the roof around somehow.
35:02Here we get to the trees.
35:03Keep on pulling.
35:04I'm pulling.
35:05Hold it right there.
35:06It's like a big-ass kite, man.
35:07It's ready to be loaded onto the dolly and moved to its new home.
35:21The pick went great.
35:22It couldn't have been any better.
35:23Dick did an excellent job of planning.
35:24The roof come up nice and level.
35:25Stay together.
35:26Come to me.
35:27Come to me about a foot.
35:28Cable down.
35:29Cable down.
35:30Cable down.
35:31Hold that.
35:32I just got to check and see if we're on here square, is all.
35:33That's what we wanted.
35:34We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:35We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:36We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:37We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:38We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:39We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:40We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:41We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:42We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:43We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:44We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:45We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:46We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:47We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:48We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:49We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:50We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:51We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:52We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:53We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:54We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:55We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:56We're going to have to do a couple of things.
35:57The final step before the move.
36:00Well, today we're going to cut the seal at the front wall,
36:03cut the seal at the back wall.
36:06Oh, look at it go now.
36:14Alright, that one's in too.
36:16Now I guess we'll go to the front.
36:17Cut the front one apart.
36:19Next, the crew is going to cut all the nails
36:22down the center of the church.
36:25Cut all the nails between the floor joists
36:27so that when we start pulling it apart
36:29that they will be able to slide by each other
36:32as it comes apart.
36:35Houston, we have separation.
36:44The crew jacks up the church six inches
36:47and inserts oak timbers.
36:49The timbers are soaked so that the church
36:51can slide across them smoothly when it is separated.
36:55Next, steel cables are secured to each end of the main beam.
36:59One cable is attached to the bobcat.
37:03The other cable is attached to a truck.
37:06Put the bobcat on one end, put the truck on the other end
37:08and slowly make it slide apart.
37:10The 115-year-old structure is now ready to be split in two.
37:22Y'all ready to move a little bit?
37:24All right.
37:25I'm going to go up to the front, get in the truck.
37:29Tighten the cable up on the winch line up.
37:32Then we'll see if it will pull apart
37:33just a little bit at a time
37:34until we make sure everything is going to slide apart correctly.
37:41The building slowly inches apart.
37:46What do you think?
37:48I think we're almost done,
37:49but I think we better stop at what we got.
37:52Tomorrow we'll pick it all up tight,
37:54then we'll take that and slide it on over
37:56another three or four feet
37:58and get it completely over where you can walk
38:00between the two pieces.
38:11Just have to move our sliders.
38:13If we slid far enough,
38:14we're to the end of our slider on the back.
38:20The last slide is a success.
38:22The two halves of the church are now four feet apart.
38:27The next step is to raise the building
38:29with airbags called Texas Airjacks.
38:38Made of Kevlar and neoprene,
38:41each bag can lift up to 26 tons.
38:44We'll put the airbags right here,
38:45right here on this mark.
38:47The first airbags were developed by the British company
38:50MFC Survival Limited in 1969.
38:53They were originally designed for use by fire departments
38:56and other rescue agencies for freeing victims
38:59trapped under heavy structures or debris.
39:04It wasn't long before they became part of the arsenal
39:07of mega-mover tools.
39:09As you start putting compressed air into it,
39:11it starts swelling.
39:12The more air you put into it, up to 90 pounds,
39:16the taller it gets, the rounder it gets.
39:34The crew lifts the building 36 inches,
39:38high enough to roll in the dollies.
39:46And the church is now ready to make its journey
39:49to its new location tomorrow morning.
39:528 a.m., moving day.
39:59The two halves of the church will be moved first.
40:04It's a two-mile journey to the new site,
40:07and a number of obstacles are in their path.
40:11Power lines are raised by the electric company.
40:16Trees trimmed.
40:18And then there's the narrow main road running through town.
40:22Even with the church cut into pieces,
40:24there's only a few inches of clearance
40:27on either side of the structure.
40:29At one point, the church crosses a narrow
40:32concrete and steel bridge,
40:34another potential problem spot.
40:36We've got to hit the bridge just as close
40:38to the right-hand side as we can
40:40so that whenever we start down the hill,
40:43the bike doesn't catch on the guardrail.
40:46Three hours after the move began,
40:50the halves safely reach their new home.
40:55Well, we're going to set it down and go get the roof.
41:00We just want it done.
41:02We want it to be over and done
41:04and see it all put back together like it was.
41:08The roof is 33 feet wide.
41:13It clears the bridge.
41:18But when they reach town, there's a problem.
41:21We don't have enough room with all the cars parked over here.
41:25Find out who owns the cars on this side of the street.
41:28Do you happen to own one of these cars over here
41:30or over here, either side?
41:31Too many cars outside the Stagecoach Inn.
41:34I thought it was going to be late enough at lunchtime
41:35to be over in downtown, but it's not.
41:37And we're just looking for the people
41:38that are on these cars to move them,
41:40and it'll take a little while to get situated around.
41:42The Stagecoach Inn dates back to the 1860s
41:45when it was a Stagecoach and Pony Express stop
41:48on the famous Chisholm Cattle Trail.
41:51General George Custer and Robert E. Lee stayed here.
41:56I believe it'll work.
42:07We're going to be really close, ain't we, Lewis?
42:09Aw, hell, it'll come on in here.
42:11No problem. I measured it twice.
42:13Second time I had my eyes open.
42:1739 days after they began the process
42:20of separating the church,
42:21it's at its new home, ready to be reassembled.
42:25In 1890, it took six months to build this church.
42:28Today, it will take one week to put it back together.
42:32The church members that were here
42:33were very pleased with what was going on
42:35and got over here without any problems.
42:37And now they see progress.
42:39Their historical church is going to be coming back together,
42:42and they can see it as a complete unit pretty soon.
42:46During the next week,
42:47the A&D Movers crew puts the church back together.
42:52But it seems to go back together quicker
42:54than it comes apart.
42:56So it just goes back together, and you're done.
42:59The church in its new location
43:01is ready to continue its legacy in this Old West town.
43:07It'll stand out as a crown jewel of beauty and prominence,
43:11and will continue to be a blessing to our community
43:14and the people who come.
43:17Two mega-structures.
43:19Two mega-moves.
43:22Two buildings threatened by demolition
43:24given a new lease on life.
43:37.