In an earlier picture [id=285720322] I mentioned that a number of businesses along the river front were located in old cotton warehouses. I took this picture of the dining room of the River House Restaurant, where we had a late dinner. In fact, we closed the place.

Note the heavy and closely spaced joists supporting the floor above, and the thick masonry walls. This was clearly designed to support many hundreds of pounds per square foot.

www.cotton.org says that a cotton bale should contain at least 28 pounds per cubic foot. If they were stacked 10 feet high, that would be a static floor load of 280 pounds per square foot, which has to be increased at least 50-100% to accommodate a live load from dropped or thrown bales.