@arch_xray
Instagram · Faceless
@arch_xray In 1948, President Harry Truman's daughter Margaret was playing the piano on the second floor of the White House when one of the legs went through the floorboards, bringing plaster down on the room below. Engineers investigated and found the timber beams beneath had rotted through. Parts of the interior were being held up with wooden props. One assessment famously described the building as standing "only from force of habit," and the residence was ruled unfit to be lived in. The Truman family moved across the street to Blair House for more than three years. Between 1949 and 1952, the entire interior of the White House was carefully taken apart — every floor, room and staircase removed — leaving only the four original exterior sandstone walls standing. A modern steel frame was then constructed inside that historic shell, with 660 tons of steel, 126 reinforced concrete columns and two new basement levels added below. Congress approved $5.4 million for the work, roughly $60 million in today's money. Only the outer walls of the White House are original. From the outside, you would never know. #whitehouse #history #architecture #engineering #truman #1950s #restoration #washingtondc #construction #historicpreservation #shorts #xray
