[Grammar] Across Office Buildings and Sidewalks

[CaseyA]

Post-quake, West teases East on social networks - Yahoo! News

The magnitude 5.8 quake, centered outside Richmond, Va., was felt across office buildings and sidewalks along the Eastern Seaboard — in places more accustomed to snowstorms than earthly rumblings.

Does it mean the quake caused shockwaves that went from one side of the buildings and sidewalks to the other of the same?

 

[Rover_KE]

It's simply another way of saying '. . . was felt in office buildings and on sidewalks'.

Rover

 

[billmcd]

Post-quake, West teases East on social networks - Yahoo! News


Does it mean the quake caused shockwaves that went from one side of the buildings and sidewalks to the other of the same?

Well maybe, but I think "across" is a poor choice of words in that statement. Perhaps it would have been better stated as, "among buildings, roadways and sidewalks primarily across the east coast".

 

[Ouisch]

The writer was making a sweeping statement about the (negligible) effects of that particular earthquake. You see, this quake was a bit of a joke to those who live in areas that get them regularly. Californians (who have experienced collapsed buildings and mass destruction from various earthquakes) openly mocked the East Coasters who described their momentary, initial terror when "the building shook and then some books fell off of the shelf! I didn't know what was happening!" Earthquakes are just not very common at all east of the Mississippi River. When that tremor hit and the buildings shook ever so slightly and some pictures fell off of walls, terrified people fled to the streets in fear - what was happening? Was it a bomb? A plane crash? Thanks to Twitter, however, the news spread quickly that it was "just" an earthquake and folks relaxed a bit. :-D

 

[CaseyA]

Hypothetically then, "across office buildings and sidewalks" is agrammatical?

 

[Rover_KE]

It might be, but what can you do?

:up:

 

[Tdol]

Why would choosing an inexact or incorrect preposition be a grammatical error- the grammar would require a preposition at that point in the sentence, but choosing the wrong one doesn't make it grammatically incorrect. If I say I'll see you on eight o'clock, what is wrong with the grammar? I have put a preposition in where it should be but have chosen the wrong one.

 

[CaseyA]

I have always thought (possibly incorrectly) that an earthquake could be felt "across a single landmass", not individual buildings and sidewalks.
I have also always thought (again possibly incorrectly) that "across", when used in the sense of having an major effect on a large scale, must be followed by a noun phrase denoting a SINGULAR entity. I could be wrong on both counts :-(

 

[Tdol]

Which sources did you use to arrrive at this?