The next form of track which would suggest itself is a circular one, in the middle of the building, but this has its own objection. A circular track is sure to produce dizziness, especially if it be a small one. The experience of the past few years has therefore dictated the use of the largest buildings only, with tracks where straight lines and curves are blended into a sort of ellipse; and the proportion of each adopted in Agricultural Hall, London, and Gilmore's Garden, New York, has proved itself capable of giving the best results in time to the men and comfort to the spectators.
These now famous tracks have a center formed by a parallelogram, with the upper and lower ends rounded into semi-circles. This center is longer than it is broad, and leaves about two-thirds of the track—the sides—in nearly straight lines, the circular parts at the ends being each one one-sixth of the whole distance. If only two men are competing, as in the O'Leary matches with Hughes and Campana, the path is broad enough to lay out two tracks, on which the men can walk without interfering with each other's movements. This is the fairest plan; but if there are more than two competitors they use a single eight-lap track, where the man who wishes to pass his opponent has to do so on the outside, before he can take the rail in front of him.
The center around which the track runs is a good place for spectators who wish to see the men closely; and is always occupied by a crowd of people, moving from side to side, and cheering vehemently at the more exciting portions of the race.
To reach this center visitors have to cross the track; but this, though objectionable, has not yet been found to have any very bad effects. All round the other side of the broad pathway are the rows of benches and private boxes where are seated the great mass of the spectators who do not care to stand. The only objection to Gilmore's, now Madison Square Garden, as a place for pedestrian contests, is the fact that the building is cheaply constructed, with a large number of wooden pillars which interrupt the view of portions of the track; but this defect is not serious in a race, where the point of view is constantly shifting.
We give on the frontispiece a diagram of the general arrangement of a building on the same principle as Madison Square Garden.
The model hall is of the largest size used, but gives a longer track. The inside path, shortest of all, measures eight laps to the mile, while a track laid out on the dotted line will give only seven laps to the mile. This line is fifteen feet and a quarter of an inch from the inner rail. The eight-lap track is five feet wide, to give ample room for each competitor to pass the other on the outside if he can. Each track has two straight stretches of 220 feet each, and a semi-circular turn at each end. The diameter of the eight-lap semi-circles is seventy feet three inches, and that of the seven-lap tracks is one-hundred feet and half an inch. In each case the actual measurement of the track will be a trifle over, rather than under the calculated distance, which must be tested by the measuring tape when the rail is set up. If it prove long, the rail is bent in, if short pushed out, till the tape just fits.
Those who cannot secure an engineer or official surveyor to measure their tracks are advised to use brass chains or steel tapes, especially the last, which are very handy.
A hall of the size given will hold thirteen thousand spectators when the whole of the ring is crowded with standers, as it was at the close of every Astley Belt match in New York, while there are good seats for seven thousand people outside the track, in a building 400 by 200 feet. The main path on which the different lap tracks are constructed, is twenty-five feet wide, to accommodate races where the starters are numerous, such as sprints of seventy-five yards or upward.
This size of building and track will be found the best for large cities, on account of the advantages it gives for the meetings of athletic clubs, who always have two or more sprint races and handicap mile or two-mile walks. Hundred-yard dashes on such a track are made down one side, with the least possible turn; and by laying the finishing line on a slant across the curve at the end, the outside men can be favored enough to make all run just the same distance. There is no trouble about starting five or six men at a time on such a track.
The following estimates will show how, by following the same general outline and proportions, smaller buildings can accommodate the greatest number of spectators and the greatest length of track.