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"  The abracadabra moment comes late on a winter afternoon, when Jay Thompson pulls a lever on the Jahns Structure Jacking System. As pressurized hydraulic fluid surges to carefully positioned jacks, the shingled cottage on New Jersey&amp;#039;s Long Beach Island parts ways with the brick foundation that has held it earthbound for the past 120 years. A barely perceptible gap grows until daylight is plainly visible under the house. Thompson, of Atlantic Structure Movers, has performed this levitational act thousands of times. There&amp;#039;s no magic to moving a house, he claims, just lots of gritty labor. But while watching 25 tons of historically significant lumber hovering several feet in the air, it&amp;#039;s tempting to credit him with some degree of wizardry. &amp;quot;Everything we do is based on moving principles used since the ancient Egyptians,&amp;quot; Thompson says. Even the most gigantic load can be skidded a short distance, rolled over a long one or levered the last fraction of an inch until its position is perfect. Lighthouses and airport terminals have been transported that way. Those big, bold moves grab the spotlight, but a small relocation like this cottage is standard fare for structure movers, who suddenly find themselves basking in a green glow. After all, what&amp;#039;s more environmentally friendly than reusing a house rather than scrapping it? While it&amp;#039;s physically possible to move almost anything, it isn&amp;#039;t always economically feasible. The cost of disconnecting power lines, moving traffic signals and streetlights and trimming overhanging tree limbs mounts quickly. In the congested eastern U.S., a move of more than a few blocks is often impractical. In the less populated Midwest and West, a move of 40 miles can make sense. It costs $12 to $16 per square foot to move a house. Of course, that price doesn&amp;#039;t include a new building lot, a new foundation or building-code-related improvements. But there are times when history trumps economics. Known locally as the Fisherman&amp;#039;s Cottage, the little wood-frame structure was completed in 1880 and is among the last of the island&amp;#039;s simple, original dwellings. It stands in sharp contrast to the rambling Victorians that wealthy summer residents were already then building. The house&amp;#039;s owner sold it to the local historical society for $1, and it will get a new lease on life as a small museum. The task for Thompson is straightforward: Transport the cottage a block and a half to a prepared site. The real action occurs once the house has been cut loose from water, sewage, electricity and other utilities. Thompson and his crew punch holes through the foundation, slide steel beams under and alongside the house and use hydraulic jacks to lift the structure on this steel frame. &amp;quot;Our methods are easy on the house,&amp;quot; Thompson says. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve moved homes with all the furniture inside and pictures hanging on the walls.&amp;quot; Since the jacks are not tall enough to raise the house in one pass, it&amp;#039;s jacked up and supported on cribbing, then the jacks are positioned on the cribbing and the house is raised again. When the house rests on cribbing piers of adequate height, Thompson takes the wheel of a 2\u00BD-ton truck--a former Army &amp;quot;deuce and a half.&amp;quot; He backs its trailer under the house, which is then lowered onto the flatbed. Thompson coaxes the structure forward, unfazed by its tilt even though the only thing holding it in place is friction. &amp;quot;It appears more dramatic to onlookers than it does to us,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;A small angle at the trailer is enough to produce quite a lean on a tall building.&amp;quot; Then the trailer crawls down the street to the house&amp;#039;s new location. It&amp;#039;s not the cottage&amp;#039;s first move. In 1890, mules hauled it a short distance over logs to where it remained until today. At the new lot, Thompson again positions the house on cribbing. Then he resorts to a trick that only a structure mover would know. To fine-tune the cottage&amp;#039;s position, he uses tilted jacks that rest on rolls of foam padding. As the jacks take on weight, they straighten and shift the house into place. &amp;quot;If I get all four jacks tilted in different directions,&amp;quot; Thompson says, &amp;quot;I can rotate the house.&amp;quot;  At last, the cottage is oriented. Once the foundation is completed inside the cribbing perimeter, Thompson will jack up the house again to remove beams and cribbing, then lower it on the foundation. There it will remain--until its next move.  --&amp;amp;gt; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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