Largest Vaults?

wylk

A friend asked me where the largest (by volume) bank vault is. This is tough to answer because even if a vault is known to exist, the dimensions are seldom stated. For example the 1902 vault at 25 Broad Street in NYC (now Bobby Van’s Steak House). Here’s what I was able to come up with:

1 - Trinity Place, NYC. Two levels; one is 85×20×8 feet, the other is 108×31×8.5 for a total of 42,058 cubic feet.

2 - One King West, Toronto. Two levels though the size is simply stated to be 33×33×25 for a total of 27,225 cubic feet.

3 - Boston Stock Exchange. The vault is stated to be 66×40 (outside dimensions); assuming 8 feet high and ignoring wall thickness, 21,120 cubic feet.

4 - San Francisco, Diebold, Norris & Co., 1874. No doubt long gone, it was stated to be 27×32×12 for a total of 10,368 cubic feet.

5 - San Diego, Marriott Hotel. The vault is stated to be 27×39×8 for a total of 8,424 cubic feet.

What large vaults can you come up with?

Dean Nickel

No contest…. Chehyenne Mountain. 4.5 acres.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_Mountain

wylk

Though Cheyenne Mountain is an amazing secured space, the request was for the largest bank vault. Still worth mentioning!

Dean Nickel

Sorry… I was reading “Largest Vaults?”. Missed the part down below about bank. What about the NY Gold depository?

wylk

Yes, the NY depository as well as Federal Reserve Banks are probably quite large but I don’t remember seeing any numbers.

darryl.k

The is one big vault with 72 little vaults which are all shops. Although I don’t know how big.

http://www.thesilvervaults.com/history

Dean Nickel

http://cryptome.org/eyeball/gold-vault/gold-vault-frbny.htm

Well if this is right it is quite large to be 5 levels and about the area of the building above. 90 ton door is also bit big.

wylk

Halflock wrote
http://cryptome.org/eyeball/gold-vault/gold-vault-frbny.htm

Well if this is right it is quite large to be 5 levels and about the area of the building above. 90 ton door is also bit big.

The article states there are 5 “basement” levels in the building but it’s likely that each vault occupies one floor. And while they imply the lowest one holds the gold, the blueprint page they have on the web site is of the highest one (with one, possibly two rotary doors). From that blueprint page I estimate the vault has around 8400 square feet, so assuming it’s ten feet high, that would be 84,000 cubic feet which is double the Trinity Place vault.

[unknown]

wylk

The former home of the Western Canada HQ of long-defunct Canada Permanent Mortage Company in Winnipeg Canada is now home to a payroll service called TelPay. The vault door is a well-preserved, beautiful specimen of the craftsmanship of the J & J Taylor Toronto Safe Works. The vault occupied a wide strip the full length of the south side on all five floors of the building with the main floor door the only access point. The floors are connected by narrow, steep iron staircases. I have no way of ascertaining the total square footage but this is my first exposure to a five-storey vault. Sadly, a precedessor to TelPay broke open the vault walls on all but the main floor so what’s left are a series of four balcony-style levels from which the main floor can be viewed. The spaces are used for file storage, offices and meeting rooms. The building dates back to 1909 and has an attractive red sandstone facade that has been lovingly maintained. Were it’s original use not disclosed, the main floor interior could be mistaken for the banking hall of a turn-of-the-(20th)-century main bank branch with all marble walls, columns and counters faithfully preserved.

wylk

GordR45, thanks for pointing this one out. I did find some history on the company, and images of the building. I was not able to find any images of the vault door. Any chance you could take some pictures?

wylk

Hi back,

Last weekend was Winnipeg’s annual ‘Doors Open Winnipeg’ event and the TelPay Building was one of those open to the public for the event, though otherwise NOT. A friend with a real camera took some pics for me and I think I used my iPhone as well. It was a whirlwind weekend with many, many sites of interest on our itineraray. Got a few shots of the safety deposit vault of the Main Branch of Bank of Montreal, as well as some of the many vaults in the Millenium Centre, the former Western Canada Main Branch of the former Bank of Commerce.

I’ll post one or two of the TelPay door.

I don’t see a ‘Gallery’ or ‘Photos’ tab anywhere where members can simply put up pics of interesting vaults and safes unrelated to specific forum Q & A or topics for discussion.

Cheers,

Gord

Arcade Al

Hello!
Photos can be attached to individual posts - click on “Manage Attachments” in the Additional Options box underneath where you enter text.
Would be good to see them.

Dean Nickel

http://www.antique-locks.com/showthread.php/754-How-to-upload-images-into-your-posts

keyedup

I get a kick out of collecting pictures of vault doors that I come across on the net.
I consider a lot of them to be works of art.

I worked on modern doors that had no character - look at this latest acquisition…

mechanical & aesthetic beauty >>>

That double door seems redundant or could the main door lead to other rooms ???

wylk

keyedup wrote
I get a kick out of collecting pictures of vault doors that I come across on the net.
I consider a lot of them to be works of art.

Ditto. Remington & Sherman are among the most impressive. The door you posted the image of is also visible in other Adam Crowley images at http://adamcrowley.photoshelter.com/gallery/Bank-Vault/G0000bTVhJzA2ZVs.

[unknown]

Doug MacQueen

Late in the 1800’s it was felt that splitting up the protection by having a second set of doors to be a good idea in protecting against nitro. Eventually in the 1900’s, as the outer doors got heavier to the point of being too thick to successfully blow open, the fairly heavy inner doors morphed into thin day gates. In the case of this Remington Sherman, I think the thick inner doors was a holdover to prior accepted practice. But then again the goal was to make them appear to be impenetrable to the point that you don’t even try, because even a small nitro attempt could easily result in a lockout and/or ruining the the door. Doug

Parautoptic

Not strictly on topic but these claim to be vault doors and they are rather large.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Huge-Bronze-Doors-Former-Bullion-Vault-Doors-by-Sir-Charles-Wheeler-RA-/160948796197?pt=UK_Antiques_Architecural_RL&hash=item25794bbb25es&hash=item4d0db2e546

wylk

I finally found an image of what I think is the largest bank vault, located at 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza. I recently bought a set of Mosler’s newsletter “Mosler Messenger” and in the November 1961 issue is an article:

Other sources claim the vault is 100×350 feet or 35,000 square feet. In older times you could get a tour of the building including the vault but I can’t find any mention of this today. The building does not seem to have a web site which is somewhat common for larger buildings these days.

The building was recently purchased by a Chinese company: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/nyregion/chinese-company-buys-1-chase-manhattan-plaza.html?_r=0

Huw Eastwood

wylk- I think you’re onto the right one with this- it was listed in an old Guinness book of Records I had and Chase Manhattan sounds right- try the 1980 edition or possibly 82 or 83- can’t remember exactly which one it was, but can remember it made reference to the total floor area and number and weight of the doors etc. The layout of the Guinness books changed drastically afterwards- in favour of the growing number of entries by eating 6000 hamburgers in an hour or bouncing a tennis ball non-stop for 73 years etc, so they lost all of the ‘reference’ format and appeal- since the record for the ‘largest bank vault’ is a pretty obscure one I would doubt it’s been listed in recent editions, but I haven’t looked at one in years so could be worth a try.