>> NARRATOR: Today on<i> Mega</i> <i> Movers,</i> this giant of a bygone era, an 85-ton, gothic-roofed barn must be moved 26 miles. Neither snow, ice or deadly roads will stop this determined crew from getting the job done. >> I really don't know how he's going to make that. >> NARRATOR: And in Texas, it's a wild sight as a relic from the Old West is cut up, hauled in pieces to a new location, and then reassembled. >> If anything goes wrong, I'll be right up there in the middle of it. >> NARRATOR: Butler County, Nebraska. This gothic-roofed barn, towering high above an endless expanse of America's Heart, is being moved 26 miles along slick, icy, unpaved country roads to a new home. Vernon Curtis, a local farmer, recently purchased the barn, which was built in the early 1920s. >> CURTIS: And it's all original. Nothing has been torn out. A lot of these old barns, you know, the insides have all been gutted out and then made over over for a modern purpose. >> NARRATOR: To move the barn, Vernon has called in Dave Scribner, owner of Scrib's Moving & Heavy Hauling in nearby David City, Nebraska. Dave's family has been in business for more than 50 years and has moved large objects all over the United States, including three Carnegie libraries. But moving a barn of this size will be one of the most challenging jobs Dave and his crew have ever faced. >> DAVE: It is a large barn. Just looking at it, it's got to be about 50- or 60-foot tall before we even put it up on the wheels. >> NARRATOR: The height is imposing, but it's the width of the barn that has Dave worried. The barn is 40 feet wide, nearly ten feet wider than most roads. >> NARRATOR: The barn is being moved so far away that it has to pass through three separate power districts, requiring an army of workers. The final challenge will come when the 85-ton barn reaches Vernon's farm. It must maneuver off the country road and across a steep alfalfa field. >> CURTIS: We hope we get it moved without it falling off the truck or anything disastrous happen, but you never know. If we get a big wind that day, it could be a problem. >> NARRATOR: To move this barn, first the crew will insert two 42-foot steel I-beams. Next, 12-inch-wide channel iron will be bolted along the outer walls. Then, because the barn has no floor to reinforce it, they will bolt timbers to all of the outer walls and each of the interior structural braces. The barn will then be jacked up seven feet, eight-wheeled truck dollies will be rolled into place, and the barn will be hauled 26 miles to Vernon's farm. It's day one of the project. >> I'm cold, man. >> NARRATOR: December 4. Temperature, zero degrees. This is one of the coldest months on record. >> We should've got skis for this. >> NARRATOR: Dave and his crew bring in the steel I-beams to lift the barn, but the front loader won't start. >> BILL SCRIBNER: It's so cold, the batteries don't want to turn the engine over. >> NARRATOR: Bill Scribner is Dave's son, the third generation working with Scrib's Movers. >> BILL: I know I'd rather be in a warm place. >> NARRATOR: Despite the cold, winter is still the best time to move a barn. >> CURTIS: It's the time that works for us, because we just got done with harvest about a month ago, so we had to get that out of the way first. >> NARRATOR: Built for one of Nebraska's most prominent horse breeders, this barn is a historic relic from a bygone era, when teams of horses were hitched to plows to tend to the large fields. The entire second floor of the barn was built to store loose hay. >> CURTIS: The way the horses were fed was you had these alleyways on this barn, on the outside of the manger, and then there are trap doors up above in the hay mount, where the hay would've been pitched down. And then it was thrown over in the manger for the horses. >> NARRATOR: The loft could store up to 200,000 pounds of hay, stacked right up to the peak of the roof. Metal vents were needed to prevent the hay from overheating in the summer and starting a fire. >> NARRATOR: The front loader finally turns over and the crew begins unloading the dollies and moving the steel I-beams into place. >> This is going to be one of the main cross beams that goes in the back... in the hole in the back of the barn. It'll be holding most of the weight between this one and one more that we put in identical to this one. >> NARRATOR: Dave cuts the holes in the side of the barn where the beams will be positioned. (creaking) >> BILL: That's all I got. >> DAVE: We're gonna put a bunch of steel beams and wooden timbers and channel irons, and attach it to the barn and raise it up. >> BILL: Is this pretty lined up? >> NARRATOR: Next, 12-inch channel iron will be secured to every stud along the outside wall of the barn to support its 85-ton weight. (rattling) >> DAVE: Hep! Went too far. >> BILL: See this nail pattern going down? All the way down? There's a stud on the inside wall, right there. See, I'm trying to get the lag screw to screw into that stud. >> NARRATOR: These barns were built with mill floors. Consequently, when lifted there's a danger of them buckling and collapsing. So to provide additional support, five 8-foot x16-foot wooden timbers are bolted to the barn. By the end of the second day, the barn is prepped and ready to be lifted. The crew is one step closer to saving what was once one of the most popular style barns in America. The gothic barn was a radical change in construction from the European style of heavy timber, mortise-and-tenon construction. With the gothic barn, stud walls were built of lightweight, machine-sawn wood, held together by nails. One of the biggest changes was in the design of the roof. The earliest barns had simple gable roofs. But following the Civil War, they were commonly rebuilt with gambrel roofs, slanting in two different pitches to allow for more storage space for hay. But gothic barns, with their curved arched roof, provided even more storage space than the gambrel roofs. >> CURTIS: The design of the roof was so that there were less center supports up there, so you got more room for hay and less obstacles to work around. >> NARRATOR: Another factor that fueled the popularity of gothic barns was the low cost of constructing them. By the early 1900s, farm materials began to be mass produced, so farmers could actually purchase everything they needed to build a barn-- for $500 to $2500-- through mail order companies. Among the superstitious, gothic-roofed barns were especially popular. They thought the curved shape eliminated the corners under the roof, where they feared the devil liked to hide. >> NARRATOR: The next morning, they're ready to lift the barn. The crew positions hydraulic jacks beneath each cross beam and the front and back support timbers. The placement of each of the jacks is critical. >> BILL: The first jack we're going to set right here on this timber, which is connected to all these studs, and it's all connected as one. >> NARRATOR: Each "toe jack" is capable of lifting 15 tons. >> DAVE: You got another hose? >> BILL: Yeah, I got three of them here. >> DAVE: We're going to put two jacks in on this steel I-beam here, two more on the next one. >> NARRATOR: It's time to lift-- but the central jacking unit struggles in the cold. >> DAVE: How come it's running so rough? Is the choke on or what? >> No. >> BILL: To give you an idea what 2500 PSI is like, if you have a car, it's usually about 32 PSI to fill in your tire. There's 32 pounds per square inch. We're pumping 2500 right now into each one of these jacks. So it's quite a bit of pressure. >> DAVE: What kind of pressures do you have? >> About 3,000. >> NARRATOR: It finally generates enough pressure-- but the building won't budge. >> DAVE: Josh! Billy said hold it a minute. >> Okay. >> DAVE: What's the matter, Bill? >> BILL: I don't think it's coming up here. >> DAVE: What? Are you all right back there? A bolt? Okay. The sill plate's not coming with the barn. It's wanting to pull off. We can't find a bolt. >> NARRATOR: This barn isn't going anywhere until the crew finds the bolts that are holding down the back corner. >> DAVE: You find the bolt? >> Yeah. >> DAVE: Oh that... that's wonderful. >> BILL: It's in this. There's no way to get to it. They just stuck it in when they built it. >> NARRATOR: Today, the crew is using a Sawzall reciprocating saw, with a speed of up to 2800 strokes per minute to cut away the bolt. But when this barn was built, electricity wasn't available in this part of Nebraska, so the crew used a brace, a bit hand drill, a draw knife, and a hand saw to construct this barn. A bolt, a well-built barn, and frigid temperatures are too much-- they destroy the saw. >> DAVE: We'll see if we can find you another blade. >> NARRATOR: Work comes to a stop while Dave and Bill head out to buy a new Sawzall. The nearest store is 30 miles away. >> DAVE: Then we can get the bolts cut off and be able to get this thing raised up. >> NARRATOR: By afternoon, the crew cuts the final bolts, and they're ready to lift the monster. >> DAVE: You're getting it! It's coming. I think it's free. >> NARRATOR: Despite record low temperatures in Nebraska, Dave Scribner and his crew are ready to lift the 1920s Gothic-roofed barn. >> DAVE: Real temperature is like five and seven below zero, and the chill index is 20 below, and you just can't hardly stand it outside. (drill whirring) >> NARRATOR: The jacks raise the right side of the barn 12 inches. >> DAVE: Let's make a line and crib it in. >> Jammed tight over here. >> BILL: Coming down! >> NARRATOR: With the weight of the barn resting on the cribbing, the jacks are lowered and repositioned on the other side. They lift again. >> DAVE: Is it okay yet? >> NARRATOR: The other side of the barn breaks fee. The crew is shooting for 18 inches, high enough to bring in two 80-foot-long support beams that will run the length of the barn. >> DAVE: That's an 18-inch beam, and we've only got about a foot, I think. Okay, we're ready, Chad. >> NARRATOR: The crew slides the 13,000-pound beam into position. >> DAVE: That make you happy, T.J.? All right. >> BILL: Right now, we're trying to get all the snow and ice off the bottom of the beam, and... so we can roll it on a roller. >> DAVE: You want to adjust the roller? I can lift it up. >> BILL: Okay. >> DAVE: You push down at all? >> BILL: Okay! >> NARRATOR: With both main beams in place, the crew will jack up the barn seven feet in the air to roll in the dollies. With a structure this big, this old, and this heavy, there's a danger of it falling, putting everyone at risk who are working in and around it. >> DAVE: We're gonna bring it up, then we'll start putting our wheels in. >> Ready over here! >> DAVE: Didn't creak a bit, did it? It's happy. Nothing better than a happy barn. >> NARRATOR: Next, four sets of truck dollies, each with eight wheels, will be positioned beneath the barn. The most critical component built into each dolly is a seven-inch hydraulic cylinder. >> BILL: Allows us to float the building when we're going down the road. You know, if the road does this, it'll work to make sure it stays level as you're going down the road. There's the mark, huh? >> DAVE: I can always pull it over with the cable hoist, too. Just pull it in there. Now, you want to go forward with it Bill? >> BILL: That's centered. We're on our mark. There's a hydraulic pump built into the truck, and when it's snapped in here, we'll be running hydraulic lines all the way back here, and that controls the dollies. >> NARRATOR: The dollies are connected by tie rods. >> BILL: You don't want these wheels to go down the road and split and start doing different things. They're connected together. They have to do the same thing. >> NARRATOR: A system of steering cables controls the dollies like a team of horses. >> BILL: This is, uh, vital. If you don't have this, and you're trying to go down the road, you can be in a lot of trouble. >> NARRATOR: Finally, the crew attaches the front harness, or bolster, to the two main beams. This bolster attaches to the truck to pull the barn. >> BILL: All this chain is doing is keeping the bolster attached to the beams until we get the truck snapped in. (clicking) There it is. >> NARRATOR: Now, after nearly a week of work, the barn is ready to be moved 26 miles to its new home... but there's a problem. The temperatures are hovering near zero. >> DAVE: The power companies can't shut the electricity off when it's this cold, because a lot of people are depending on electricity to run their furnaces. The long range forecast says it'll be up in the... about 30 degrees, which is will be 30 degrees warmer than it is now. >> NARRATOR: The frustrating thing is that nobody knows when it will be warm enough to complete the move. The team is shut down indefinitely. Eight days later, the cold front passes, and temperatures have warmed up enough to make the move. >> DAVE: We got her, good buddy. >> NARRATOR: Dave Scribner's 300-horsepower, big, red truck pulls gently forward, and the barn begins to move. >> BILL: It's going pretty good. He's spinning, though. Gonna have to hook a boom truck up and pull him. See his tires up there? He's gonna start spinning on that ice. >> NARRATOR: The warmer weather is melting the frost, and the 85-ton weight of the barn causes the dolly wheels to begin sinking into the mud. >> DAVE: Now, the dollies have went through the frost, is what the problem is. >> He could just start going backwards and veer forward, you know. >> DAVE: I think it's just the front dollies went, didn't it? Or are the back ones up? Hasn't went down bad, but it's just enough-- the longer we set, the more it goes down. >> NARRATOR: But the barn is sinking so fast that it's pulling a 300-horsepower tow truck off the ground. >> Tires are already off the ground. It ain't gonna get no more. I'm stuck. >> DAVE: We have several options. We can set the dollies up, put plywood under them. That would be the quickest way to go. >> NARRATOR: The crew places wood blocks and timbers in front of the dollies. >> DAVE: Let's just keep her rolling, see if we can come off. Keep right on going. We got out of our hole there, didn't we? >> NARRATOR: Utility workers begin taking down the first set of power lines. >> We'll kill this, and we'll start cutting it down then. >> DAVE: Okay. The first power district that we're in is Butler County Rural Power District. About ten miles down the road, w we switch into another county. You can start your turn. >> NARRATOR: At the end of the driveway, the 85-ton barn makes its first turn, south onto State Highway 15. >> DAVE: I'm going to loosen this one up. We can't afford to let that one go out, can we? It's pretty clumsy when you start turning corners. >> NARRATOR: The barn rolls down the highway. >> NARRATOR: Cruising speed: five miles per hour. >> BILL: It's slow when you're on a major highway like this in Nebraska. We got to let traffic come by, and, as you can see, it's already building up. >> NARRATOR: The barn heads towards Ruby, Nebraska, along country roads... and around tight corners... >> BILL: I think I'm gonna have to steer him to the right to miss this light. >> Got a wheel off the ground. >> DAVE: I know it. Straighten out if you can, Josh. >> NARRATOR: ...over narrow bridges... ...and past countless power lines. With 16 miles completed and ten more to go, the barn will stay here for the night. >> DAVE: Good first day, but it's going to get a lot worse. That was, I didn't think it was going to be a bad corner, and it wasn't too peachy, and I know this is a bad one, and I got a worse one than this coming up. >> NARRATOR: It's the final day of the move for the 1920s barn. But rain during the night has made the country roads even more slick with mud and nearly impassable. >> DAVE: I want T.J. to put his chains on, too. >> CURTIS: This is the worst turn on the whole trip. And it's not a very big intersection. As you can see, you're going into a mud road here coming off the gravel. So it's gonna be slick. >> I have to back up one time here a little bit. >> DAVE: That's fine. You'll have to do that a bunch of times. >> CURTIS: I really don't know how he's going to make that. >> DAVE: Stop a minute. Everybody stop. Let down cable, a bunch more cable, T.J., and winch him. >> You want me to start driving when my cable gets tight, Dave? >> DAVE: No, let's stop and let down your cable. >> Copy that, T.J. >> DAVE: Okay, you can start towards the middle, Josh. >> T.J.: I might need help just climbing the front end, you know, towards to the middle of the road. >> DAVE: Try it a little bit and see what we got. We made it. Wasn't too pretty, but we made it. >> NARRATOR: Since early this morning, utility crews have been working on the largest set of power lines along the route. >> DARYL HANSEN: They run from Seward, Nebraska and feed the west half of Lincoln. The bottom three carry 115,000 volts. And the top two are static wire, which keeps lightning from getting down to them. >> NARRATOR: These lines are too big and heavy to lift, and the barn is too tall to pass under them. So they must be lowered. Workers struggle to pull the lines low enough to allow the wheels to pass over the cables. >> DAVE: I think you're gonna make it. That's good. We're gonna make it. >> NARRATOR: Now the barn approaches one last difficult turn before Vernon's farm. >> DAVE: Stop, stop. >> NARRATOR: Suddenly, the crew find themselves in a frightening situation. The back two dollies have begun to tip over. They must act quickly before 85 tons come crashing down. >> DAVE: We need to straighten them out. That's what it needs to do. Okay, if you can straighten out, Josh, just pull ahead slow. >> NARRATOR: The barn again moves forward, and at long last, turns down onto the alfalfa field towards Vernon's farm. >> DAVE: Well, we made it, Vernon! >> NARRATOR: After a muddy two-day, 26-mile journey, the barn pulls into its new home. >> DAVE: This good enough, Vernon? >> CURTIS: That's good enough. >> DAVE: Okay. Well, this is where it's gonna set. >> CURTIS: Well, it's a big relief. I can say that because I was imagining all the things that could go wrong but didn't. We had a good mover, and he did a good job, and it's here safe and sound now. So I guess I can start relaxing. >> NARRATOR: Not only has this historic barn been preserved, but so has tradition. Vernon will raise Belgian draft horses in the barn, just like its original owners. >> DAVE: It's a good feeling knowing that you can keep an old building like this, and it's going to be restored to its original condition. >> NARRATOR: In Salado, Texas, another piece of American history is being moved. This church, built in 1890, is one of the town's most cherished structures. The Salado United Methodist Church has outgrown its facilities. There's a problem though. The streets of Salado are so narrow that the only way to save this historic gem is to cut it into four pieces, a very risky technique. The four pieces will be hauled two miles through town, across a bridge and up a hill to a new site. And hauling it might be the easiest part of the move, because then they have to make sure it all fits back together again. >> GRADY BRITTAIN: The structure of the facility is older, and we are spending a lot of money here. We don't want to lose part of it along the highway. >> Take that where it's got the arch in it. >> NARRATOR: Pastor Brittain gave his blessings to Dick Stewart of A&D House Movers to get the job done. >> STEWART: We move a lot of old and historical buildings because we kind of like to do that. They don't build them like that anymore. >> NARRATOR: Dick has been moving historic structures for 20 years, including the nearby Hearne Train Depot in 2001 and a 473,000-pound Santa Fe steam locomotive. >> STEWART: This is a fairly difficult move, because it's intricate about getting the roof off in one piece and figuring out how to get the bell tower down, and separating it with keeping the integrity of the building together without just cutting everything. It's not going to be a cakewalk. >> NARRATOR: To move the church, Dick and his team must remove and number 600 boards in the walls and floor, build a web of framing inside the roof, then lift off the bell tower and 20,000-pound roof. Next, they will insert beams under the church, cut the church in half down the middle, lift each side up with air bags, insert dolly wheels and transport the pieces to a new site, where the entire church will be reassembled. >> STEWART: It's always something new to us when you get into it. Because not any of them built exactly the same. >> NARRATOR: The church is a carpenter gothic sanctuary, inspired by the gothic stone structures popularized in England during the Middle Ages. Builders in America used wood, which was in abundance, instead of stone. The church was designed and built by its members using wood hauled by wagon from Austin, 50 miles away. It was constructed of hand-sawn fir and longleaf pine. It stands 36 feet tall, 54 feet long and 36 feet wide. The floors are red pine. >> STEWART: It's interesting how they built it back then with the vaulted ceiling and no support walls from the cross walls inside. But yet it hasn't bulged out but just very little. The old-timers did everything with handsaws. Everything fit before they put the covering on. The interior wood or exterior, it's just amazing how much labor it took to do that. >> NARRATOR: To take apart the church without damaging it, they must carefully cut the nails and remove and number the exterior and interior boards. >> NARRATOR: In order to separate the roof and steeple, the crew needs to cut all the nails where the top plate of the roof meets the walls. >> KRIENKE: Like right in here, put a wedge in between and cut all the nails loose, and that way when it sets back in place, it'll go right back together. >> STEWART: As we number them, we go underneath there, and we loosen them with a flat bar. And we take a Sawzall with a fine blade and cut the nails off. >> NARRATOR: While the boards are being removed, the crew places horizontal and vertical beams in the roof to create an intricate web of bracing to support the roof when it's lifted. >> STEWART: If you don't brace it, it just starts to wobble and move and pretty soon you've got a pretty good-sized mess, I would think. It ties the roof together. It'll hold our upright braces and our X-braces. So when the crane comes and picks it off, we set it down on a set of beams, just like floor joists of an upstairs house. >> NARRATOR: There's a sense of urgency and uncertainty on the site today. Hurricane Rita, a category five storm, is bearing down on Texas. >> STEWART: Yeah, hurricane predictions is about like moving old buildings. You don't know until you get there. >> NARRATOR: With the church in a vulnerable state, bracing the roof has become even more critical. >> KRIENKE: You get a hurricane, and it spawns tornadoes, and you never know what's going to come out of it. >> NARRATOR: Salado has a long history of wild weather. This area has been hit with hurricanes, floods and tornadoes that have destroyed buildings and other structures. In 1997, F5 tornadoes flattened the town of Jarrel, Texas, only eight miles down the road from Salado. And in 1900, a massive storm washed away dozens of homes. These are anxious moments for Pastor Grady Brittain. >> STEWART: Doing all right today? >> BRITTAIN: Good. You know, we've got this storm coming in, and it's got me kind of worried. >> NARRATOR: 10:00 a.m., September 23. In less than 24 hours, Hurricane Rita will unleash its fury on Texas. And Salado is dead-on in its path. >> BRITTAIN: My concern right now is, of course, strong winds. But we've also had tornadoes in this part of the world. And this building has withstood those for many years. We just hope it'll make one more storm. Whoa, that can't go down that fast. >> NARRATOR: To further protect the structure, the team puts in angle braces that attach to the floor joists. The braces will hold the walls in place when the roof is removed. And it will also secure the church against hurricane winds. It takes the rest of the day to put up the angle braces and, more importantly, to cover the beams in plastic, in case the big storm hits. >> STEWART: We've got to prepare for it the best we can, cause we can't keep all the water out, but we can keep it from getting on the floor, and we can keep it from standing in the ceiling. So, we'll do that to save the building. >> NARRATOR: 6:00 p.m. The crew calls it quits, and the site is shut down. The next day, Hurricane Rita, a category five storm, slams into Texas, pounding the region well into the night. Rita is tracking further east of Salado than originally anticipated, sparing the church. 9:00 a.m., the next morning. Everybody is relieved. Hurricane Rita was one of the most powerful hurricanes to strike the United States. It killed 119 people and caused $9 billion in damage. >> Forward! >> KRIENKE: Ended up with, like 20- or 25-mile-an-hour winds and no rain. I could've done without the wind. I'd have liked to have a little rain, but that's the way it went-- we didn't get anything out of it. >> NARRATOR: Salado dodged another bullet. But that's nothing new for this Wild West town. In the late 1800s, bullets were often flying everywhere, as gunslingers fought it out on the streets of Salado. Infamous outlaws Sam Bass and the notorious Jesse James had hangouts here. Despite the threat of outlaws and Indians, settlers poured in. And like most towns in the heartland of America, one building in Salado rose to prominence amongst its residents-- this church. Work presses on. The team prepares the steeple and bell tower to be lifted by crane. >> KRIENKE: We'll cut that plastic that's on this side. Get it out of the way. That way, if we have to crawl up there right quick, you don't slip on that plastic. It's a long way to the ground. >> NARRATOR: It's perilous work teetering 30 feet in the air. >> KRIENKE: Falling isn't the bad part, it's just that sudden stop at the end of the fall that usually gets you. >> NARRATOR: Keith removes the siding and cuts the bolts at the bottom of the bell tower floor. The crane's slings will run underneath the tower to pick it off. >> STEWART: The trickiest part of moving old buildings is the unknown. Until you take the outside boards off, the interior boards off and see what's actually inside it before you know how you can go about taking it apart. >> NARRATOR: The bell tower is 27 feet tall and weighs 2,500 pounds. The plan is to remove it from the roof, lower it by crane and lay it sideways on a flatbed truck. >> KRIENKE: It's too tall to haul the way it is, so we can load it on the trailer and haul it over to the new location. >> NARRATOR: The design of the Salado bell tower, like most in America, can be traced back to the British architect Sir Christopher Wren, when he redesigned St Paul's Cathedral to include a bell tower and steeple to encourage church members to look toward the heavens. In a small town like Salado, the bell tower served two purposes: to announce worship services and to signal an emergency. The key to moving the bell tower are spreaders which are laid in the base of the tower. >> KRIENKE: Tilt it forward a little bit! >> NARRATOR: Each spreader has a load capacity of four tons. >> KRIENKE: Put it down. >> I got it. We got it up here, now what do we do? >> KRIENKE: We got it up here, now what the hell do we do with it? These beams will end up right against here. And then we'll have a sling that goes from those bottom ears around this floor and back up and will hold, support this floor and the bell. >> NARRATOR: The crane arrives, and Dick works quickly to hook up the cables. Meanwhile, the crew rigs the straps to secure the steeple. With the rigging complete, it's time to remove the bell tower. >> It's loose. >> Up some more? >> Yep. It's loose. >> KRIENKE: Rope hung? >> STEWART: God dang, you scared the hell out of me. I got it, Keith. >> STEWART: Got it loose? >> Yeah. >> NARRATOR: The steeple is carefully laid on its side for the move. >> KRIENKE: We're not far enough forward, Gonna need to go that way >> NARRATOR: ...and transported the two miles to the new site. >> NARRATOR: The next day... >> KRIENKE: If I find any varmints, they're y'alls. >> NARRATOR: The crew clears the limestone foundation under the building to insert the main beams, which will support the structure during the lift and move. Much of this limestone was quarried along the Salado Creek. Once all the limestone is cleared, the mains, as they're called, are installed. They're 50 feet long and weigh 1,000 pounds. But when the beam hits a snag, the crew uses a high-tech house movers' secret. >> KRIENKE: Put soap on the block to slide the beam on. Make it slide, make it slide easier. >> NARRATOR: Once the main beams are placed... >> Whoa! >> NARRATOR: The team prepares for the 20,000-pound roof to be picked off. >> What you got now? >> NARRATOR: Dick's crew builds a dolly next to the church that the roof will be lowered onto. >> STEWART: These pieces of steel here, that's what we're gonna tie the chokers to off these little tie beams that are underneath the purling. And that's what we'll pick the roof off with. >> Yeah, it's good. >> We're supported on six different points on the church. So we'll have six separate points that we're actually picking the roof from. >> NARRATOR: With the rigging complete, it's time to raise the roof. >> KRIENKE: We're gonna pick it up just a little bit, get it all clear. What he's doing right now is putting a little tension on it. Hold it right there. It's got one spot that's sticking right up there. >> NARRATOR: The roof is made of shaped cedar shakes, commonly used in 1890. Because of their durability, they are still popular today and are pressure treated with fire retardant. >> KRIENKE: If anything goes wrong, I'll be right up there in the middle of it. >> STEWART: Hold It! Got to come up some more! He's clear. Everything's clear. We're going to have to, we're gonna have to swing the roof around somehow. >> KRIENKE: Till we get to the trees. I'm pulling! It's like a big-ass kite, man! >> NARRATOR: It's ready to be loaded onto the dolly and moved to its new home. >> Tell you, the pick went great. It couldn't have been any better. Dick did an excellent job of planning. The roof come up nice and level. It stayed together. >> Come to me, come to me about a foot. >> Okay, go down, okay, go down. Okay, go down. Hold it. >> I'm just going to check and see if we're on here square is all. >> That's what we wanted. >> NARRATOR: It's been one month getting ready for this day. The church is going to be split in half, the final step before the move. >> KRIENKE: Well, today we're gonna cut the seal at the front wall, cut the seal at the back wall. Oh, look at it go now. All right, that one's in, too. Now you have to go to the front. Cut the front one apart. >> NARRATOR: Next, the crew is going to cut all the nails down the center of the church. >> KRIENKE: We'll cut all the nails between the floor joists so that when we start pulling it apart that they will be able to slide by each other as it comes apart. Houston, we have separation. >> NARRATOR: The crew jacks up the church six inches and inserts oak timbers. The timbers are soaped so that the church can slide across them smoothly when it is separated. Next, steel cables are secured to each end of the main beam. One cable is attached to the bobcat. The other cable is attached to a truck. >> KRIENKE: Put the bobcat on one end, put the truck on the other end, and slowly make it slide apart. >> NARRATOR: The 115-year-old structure is now ready to be split in two. >> KRIENKE: Gifford! Y'all ready to move it a little bit? >> Yeah. >> KRIENKE: All right. I'm gonna go up to the front and get in the truck, tighten the cable up on the winch line up. Then we'll see if it'll pull apart just a little bit at a time until we make sure that everything is going to slide apart correctly. >> NARRATOR: The building slowly inches apart. >> What do you think? >> KRIENKE: I think we're almost all. I think we better stop at what we got. Tomorrow we'll pick it all up tight. Then we'll take that and slide it on over another three or four feet. And get it completely over where you can walk between the two pieces. We just have to move our sliders, 'cause we slid far enough, we're-we're to the end of our slider on the back. >> NARRATOR: The last slide is a success. The two halves of the church are now four feet apart. The next step is to raise the building with airbags, called Texas air jacks. Made of Kevlar and neoprene, each bag can lift up to 26 tons. >> KRIENKE: Yeah, and we'll put the airbags right here, uh, right here on this mark. >> NARRATOR: The first air bags were developed by the British company, MFC Survival Limited, in 1969. They were originally designed for use by fire departments and other rescue agencies for freeing victims trapped under heavy structures or debris. It wasn't long before they became part of the arsenal of mega mover tools. >> KRIENKE: And as you... as you start putting compressed air into it, it just starts swelling. The more air you put into it, up to 90 pounds, it gets... The taller it gets, the rounder it gets. >> You always wiggle the connectors to make sure that they're on, locked in place. 'Cause if the line comes off, and we're in the middle of a lift, bag'll collapse like that, and it could cause someone or something to get hurt or broken. >> NARRATOR: The crew lifts the building 36 inches. >> Almost! >> NARRATOR: High enough to roll in the dollies. >> I got a problem... >> Let it down some more! >> NARRATOR: And the church is now ready to make its journey to its new location tomorrow morning. 8:00, a.m., moving day. >> I believe we're ready to go. >> NARRATOR: The two halves of the church will be moved first. It's a two-mile journey to the new site and a number of obstacles are in their path. Power lines are raised by the electric company, trees trimmed. And then, there's the narrow main road running through town. Even with the church cut into pieces, there's only a few inches of clearance on either side of the structure. At one point, the church crosses a narrow concrete-and-steel bridge, another potential problem spot. >> STEWART: We've got to hit the bridge just as close to the right hand side as we can so that whenever we start down the hill, the back doesn't catch on the guardrail. >> NARRATOR: Three hours after the move began, the halves safely reached their new home. >> STEWART: Well, we're going to set it down and go get the roof. >> We just want it done. We want it to be over and done and see it all put back together like it was. >> NARRATOR: The roof is 33 feet wide. It clears the bridge. But when they reach town, there's a problem. >> STEWART: We don't have enough room with all the cars parked over here. Find out who owns the cars on this side of the street. >> Do you happen to own one of these cars over here or over here, either side? >> NARRATOR: Too many cars outside the Stagecoach Inn. >> KRIENKE: I thought it was gonna be late enough and lunchtime would be over in downtown, but it's not. And we're just looking for the people that own these cars to move them. And it'll take a little while to get situated around. >> NARRATOR: The Stagecoach Inn dates back to the 1860s when it was a stagecoach and Pony Express stop on the famous Chisholm Cattle Trail. General George Custer and Robert E. Lee stayed here. >> KRIENKE: I believe it'll work. We're going to be really close, ain't we, Louie? Ah, hell, it'll come on in here no problem. I measured it twice. The second time I had my eyes open. >> NARRATOR: 39 days after they began the process of separating the church, it's at its new home, ready to be reassembled. In 1890, it took six months to build this church. Today, it will take one week to put it back together. >> STEWART: The church members that were here were very pleased with what was going on that it got over here without any problems. And now they see progress that their historical church is gonna be coming back together and they can see it as a complete unit pretty soon. >> NARRATOR: During the next week, the A&D Movers crew puts the church back together... >> KRIENKE: But it seems to go back together quicker than it comes apart so it just goes back together and you're done. >> NARRATOR: The church in its new location is ready to continue its legacy in this old West town. >> BRITTAIN: It'll stand out as a crown jewel with beauty and prominence and will continue to be a blessing to our community and to people who come. >> NARRATOR: Two mega structures, two mega moves, two buildings threatened by demolition given a new lease on life.
