Cast iron is an iron alloy with a high carbon content, poured molten into molds to form structural and decorative building components, strong in compression but brittle and comparatively weak in tension, which shaped how nineteenth-century engineers used it. Its ability to be cast into intricate, repeatable ornamental forms made it popular for columns, facades, balconies and storefronts, especially in mid-nineteenth-century American commercial buildings such as New York's SoHo cast-iron district, while its compressive strength suited it to columns and structural frames in early industrial buildings and greenhouses before structural steel, which handles tension far better, supplanted it for major load-bearing frames by the century's end.
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Source Claridge's (Wikipedia)
Source Big Ben, Wikipedia
Source Gare du Nord - Wikipedia
Source UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Golestan Palace
Source Johannesburg Park Station, Wikipedia
Source Royal Opera House (Wikipedia)
Source Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings - Wikipedia
Prefabricated in 1851 from standardized cast-iron and glass modules, the first large building of its kind.
Source Wikipedia: United States Capitol
Source Villa Merian (Wikipedia)
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Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia: Cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron-carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1-3%.
Wikipedia: Cast-iron architecture, Bridges section, on the Iron Bridge
One of the first important projects was The Iron Bridge in Shropshire, opened in 1781, a precedent-setting structure made almost entirely of cast iron.
View the Source UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Golestan Palace
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the adaptation of European building technologies, such as the use of cast iron for load bearing, in Persia
Wikipedia: United States Capitol
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Instead of repairing it, Latrobe demolished, redesigned and rebuilt the interiors within the existing brick and sandstone walls.
Big Ben, Wikipedia
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It was constructed using bricks clad on the exterior with sand-coloured Anston limestone from South Yorkshire, topped by a spire covered in hundreds of cast iron roof-tiles.
Johannesburg Park Station, Wikipedia
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It was designed with cast iron pillars, ornate olive coloured iron work and a glass domed roof while the offices and restaurant walls were made of carved oak wood.
Villa Merian (Wikipedia)
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The quintessential walls were roughcast and clad with cast iron and iron mouldings.
Gare du Nord - Wikipedia
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The main support beam is made out of cast iron.
Royal Opera House (Wikipedia)
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The redevelopment of the Floral Hall as part of the 1990s redevelopment project involved lifting up the cast iron structure to accommodate new public areas for the opera house underneath.
Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings - Wikipedia
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Its design effectively overcame much of the problem of fire damage from flammable atmosphere, due to the air containing many fibres, by using a fireproof combination of cast iron columns and cast iron beams, a system which later developed into the modern steel frame which made skyscrapers possible.
Claridge's (Wikipedia)
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Red brick with red Mansfield stone, slate roofs and cast iron balconies
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