A building 100 feet by 50 will hold a railed inclosure 72 feet 6 inches long by 17 feet 6 inches across, giving a track 155 feet 3 inches long, 34 laps to the mile, and 8 feet wide, with accommodation for 800 spectators inside and outside the ring, 400 having seats.
A building 200 by 100 feet will hold a 16-lap track and nearly 3500 people, seating 1600.
A building 150 by 75 feet will hold a 24-lap track, and 2000 spectators, 1000 on seats.
With these general data and the diagram, a calculation of the capacity of any given building is easy. The main point is to have as long a track as can be squeezed in, consistently with securing a good view for the largest number of spectators.
Having treated of the best shape for a pedestrian track, the next question comes as to the materials of which it should be made.
Bearing in mind that the broad twenty-five foot track is to be a permanency for the use of athletic clubs and sprint races, it will have to undergo a great deal of wear and tear, and requires a firm smooth surface. Simple dirt will get trodden into ridges or become loose and heavy, while a stone pavement is too hard. An asphalt pavement, laid on the bare earth, gives a mixture of elasticity and firmness that suits sprint races very well, and has the further advantage of being easily repaired. For the main track, a thick covering of asphalt can hardly be bettered.
For six-day walks, however, the main track is altogether too hard. The long continuance of such walks makes the feet of the pedestrians very tender, and they require something softer.
Tanbark and sawdust are the agents used to build a special walking track, and the latter is far the most common. The best kind of track that has been laid in the United States, and one that has served as a model for all others since, was that used in the Astley Belt match, won by Rowell in 1879 from O'Leary, Harriman and Ennis. This track was bordered on both sides with planks, and filled with some three inches of dry sawdust, smoothed with rollers. After O'Leary's retirement, the track was sprinkled with water and rolled all the time, the roller having to keep out of the way of the pedestrians. This path, thus rolled and wetted into firmness, was the perfection of a walking track. The dry sawdust was too soft and slippery, but the wet rolled path was perfection. It made no dust, was always springy and elastic, soft and cool to the foot, and conducive to good time. Such a path can hardly be bettered by any means with which the sporting world is now acquainted, and it is so easily made anywhere that we can heartily recommend it. Open air tracks for summer sprint-racing can hardly follow a better model than a common trotting track, but if a turf surface, level and free from stones, holes or roots, can be secured, it is still better except in a long drought, when the turf becomes very slippery.