The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-06-30

outside; but not hard frost; if bricks were we
in water kept at the mouth of the sewer, ant
immediately laid and covered, it might BIO safely
done as matter of necessity, but he would rathe
| not have brick wet at that season; would rattle
have them sprinkled, not soaked it would be
pretty difficult matter to tell what the effect of open
ing the sewer in the freezing weather Of April would
be, unless they knew how it had been treated dur
ing it's construction; had not built any of the Muir
ray Hill tunneDg in the cold weather; that wa!
| all exposed to the weather.
! Cross examined by Mr.. Willard-The effect oil
frost on green cement would be to make it crumble
to destroy the life of it; ii necessary in order
| to secure the best hydraulic masonry, to exclude
the frost altogether; if the temperature of the brick
below freezing point he should think the cement
would not adhere; in the best hydraulic cement
work, or masonry, it was not possible to knock oil
the cement without injuring the surface Of the
brick, though he had taken up piece of what was
said to be the best in New York, and had done so;
it was work built by the Croton Aqueduct Depart
ment, from distributing basin through Forty-se
cond street. from westerly side of Tenth to be-
yond centre Of Ninth ayenue-about $50 feet; it
was very difficult to get the best hydraulic masonry
in these sewers; the Contractors for that Thomp
son Price, i believe; it was a difficult matter
to get the best cement, and difficult to get laborers
to mix it propery some contractors pay all atten-
tion and some scarcely any; there were several
classes of contractors in this ciy as general thing
the contractors he had had under him paid great
deal of attention; the in Roosevelt street was
built in 1859; bad seen portion Of it taken apart;
into the Bow cry, and that was broken into it; that
part was laid in the winter season-one object being
that the streets, which were narrow, might be made
passable, another, that part was seventeen feet
below the surface, and the frozen ground taken
advantage of to hold up the bank, as there was
heavy building the corner the lower half of it
was laid in hydraulic cement; the cement was mixed
in small quantities in the bottom, the upper arch
put and covered Immediately; the top Of the cut
open most of it was laid between ten and
three o'clock, straight on, without regard to the
cold; the bricks were sprinkled; they were handed
down from the surface as dry as bone; did not
think they were at any time below freezing point,
on account of their extreme dryness these bricks
piled up, and large majority of them shielded
from the atmcsphere-and they took the inner ones
down, saving the surface ones for the spring; the
sewer had subsequently been opened at two points,
in Chatham street and City Hall place, and ex-
amined by witness, and all the work was found
good; that in Chatham street was built in the win
ter; thought there was no danger in building
in the winter, as, with proper CARE the frost might
be excluded he had seen little of the sewers since the
Croton Aqueduct Department had the management;
had portion Of the Tenth avenue sewer and the
work was good; had not seen the portion built after
the LIST December there was high bank which
sheltered part Of it; the cold west wind would
sweep with much greater violence down the streets
than the avenue Cine witness was cross-examined,
in an argumentative manner at some LENGTHY Ha
considered the rule to lay aside work on the lat
December, as a general one, good, but there were
in the city Of New York, where it must often
be departedfrom; was employed as surveyor of the
Tenth avenue, regulating by Mr.. Pollock, and by
the Street Commissioners direction, ordered him to
continue the regulating, irrespective of the sewer;
but he could not do this, as he was bound to put a
bed of macadamized stone, twenty feet wide and
twelve inches thick, through the avenue, and he
could not put that till the sewer was finished, as
it was through the centre Of the avenues there
pressing necessity to get that avenue graded, as
almost AL the other avenues were broken up and
impassable all the merchandising had been laid
from Forty second to Forty. sixth street; below
Forty. second street it was very bad-that was to
say, about Fortieth street; at the north end, at
F0rty-siXth street, 1t was about two feet above
grade, but il was soped off in about ten feet,
to be travelled; there matchmaking out as far
as Fifty-thrd street, and the gravelled,
and good travelling as far as Eighty-sixth street;
there was new grade established last June. to
which the portion from Forty second street to For
tysixth street had been regulated; did not now re-
member how muchwa macadamized beyond Forty
sixth street, the ordinance for the grading was
passed before that for the sewer, and 1t was found
necessary to build the sewer, and the Street Com
missioner, on the Sth October, 1850, presented
solution for building the sewer and the contract for
the grading was held back, Zone was entered into,
it appeared, the 9th August and the other on the
26th, or ten days after,) and the Street Commits
sioner said great deal about it, and wished him
(witness) to 60 ahead, and get the avenue in ira
Yelling ORDER witness did not represent to him that
this particular one should be proceeded with more
than the others he was engaged on; his (the Commits
sioners) orders applied to this one alone witness
did not receive any Of the compensation usually
paid till the work finished, and the assessment
list confirmed and lodged in the Office; had told
Mr.. Craven il was very desirable that that sewer
should be completed that the regulating might 60
on: the was all stakei out and his work done
before that portion Of the sewer was put down; it
was then the business Of the inspector to that
the sewer was laid to the proper grade; it was
that of the surveyor: there was some blasting went
on after the stakes put down; was on the work
more than once week before the LIST December, but
was not there afterwards; at the time he put down
the stakes there were about eight working days
under the contracts they were put in for the joint
purpose of the sewer and the grading. Q.-Were
they not put there with direct view of enabling
the contractor to 60 on after the LIST December
A.-No, not on my part; ! should have put
them there if l had thought or known he was
going to stop on the LIST December: that was no
business Of mine; should have compelled him to go
ON with the grading, and they were necessary for
that; the contractor might have gone on and COM
pleted his matchmaking and grading, bat then the
effect would have been, that instead of having it
the lst of April or May, we should not have had it
in travelling condition now; 1t would not have been
worse than the avenue between Fortieth and Forty
second streets but then Broadway, and the Seventh,
Eighth. and Ninth avenues were in good travelling
order to Fortysecond street, which is broad lead
ing street, hence the necessity OF having this avenue,
above Forty second street, graded soon as pos
sible had mentioned the matter to Mr. Craven;
knew nothing about it being laid before the Board
Of the Croton Aqueduct Department; had orders
from the Street Commissioner TO have all the blast
ing done daring the winter and to get as quickly
as possible they not ready to receive the ma
cadamizing until lst April if the trench had been
all open and ready, the POO feet Of masonry might
have been laid with men enough, in a week; after
the lst January, he had ridden over the trench Of
the sewer; it was notpaved; it was not really fit for
travel in the winter; it was pretty good travelling
in April. and the contract finished in the latter
end Of May beginning on 18th March, the day when
the contract allowed the work to proceed it would
have been done in three four weeks: the masonry
could have been completed in week, if all were
ready; the contractor could by commencing the
matchmaking on the 9th March, have completed
it by the middle Of April; it would, however, have
required thirty or forty good laborers, and he
doubted if they could be procured without paying
enormously high, but they could have been pro-
cured by extraordinary exertions the contract
might have been finished at the time it actually
was finished, without laying masonry between the
Ist December and the 18th March ; Mr.. Denman
remarked to witness that he very anxious to
get at the facts-that was, before the meeting OF
the committee very few words had passed be-
tween them on the subject the alderman mention