West v. City of New York

In September, 1929, during the demolition of the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the construction of the Empire State Building, Starrett Bros., Inc., the contractor, under permit from the city of New York, constructed a sidewalk shed on the west side of Fifth avenue between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets, to protect pedestrians. The posts which supported the structure rested upon a sill four inches in height and eight inches in width, laid upon the sidewalk parallel with and six inches in from the curb. The posts were about nine and one-half feet apart. Except for the posts and the sill…