Hey Guys, saw this in a 109 year old house today, first time I’ve seen it. These cables/straps were streched across the basement (two sets, they were parallel to each other, front and rear of basement) both were bolted into sill plate. Basement had been dug deeper in the past.
Not sure how to attach an image?
Hi Pat,
send it to me
I’ll post it for you
edit-
Pat sent some pictures to me…
Pat?? Maybe a bit more insight to what you saw Pat? These pics show the cables, but hard to tell what they’re doing. Bolts look older… hole in pic xxxxx87 looks fairly fresh.
Thanks! Sent!
Rookie mistake… saddling a ‘dead horse’!
Seen something similar in the past.
Might not be the case here.
The cable is dropped under the center carrying beam for the floor and when turning the turnbuckles, the floor weight is picked up without the use of a column support.
But to work properly, the cable would have to be two feet lower than what is being picked up. 
Thanks guys.
There were two of these cables, about 10 feet apart, stretching across the basement (side-to-side), one in front of main beam, one behind it.
I also thought some of the bolts within the cables looked newer.
There were wood columns that were supported on footings, but it did look like the basement was dug down about two feet to make more head room.
Should I refer structural engineer for further eval?
And alternating clamps 
Patrick,
Its possible when the basement was lowered the outer walls were pushed inward and rotated due to soil pressure. Since the sill plate was attached to the top of the walls the floor joist were starting to slide off? This is just a WAG…
I’ve seen cables like that. They were attached to metal plates holding the foundation together some how. Since I didn’t know much about it I deferred it out for further evaluation.
I noticed that to Jeff. Some people like to saddle a Dead Horse. ;)
Allways good info, good site too!
Great replies, I did note to have further evaluated - thanks!