The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-05-22
HARLEM AND IT'S RAILROADS

tinuous rush OF more exciting local events 1t will
be remembered how 1t was said that life was lost
every day by the steam cars and the locomotives
running on the level roadway at the Forty second
street depot and to the Harlem River and how
public Indignation was aroused to demanding in
very fierce and angry tones that something should
be done. grievance felt by the public has gen.
orally loud and boisterous cry, but the quiet
work that follows the remedy OF that grievance
and which silences that public clamor is compare
lively unheeded. 1t is to this quiet work that we
beg to direct the attention OF those OF our read
ers who are interested in the general
question OF uptown transit This work is,
however, worthy the attention OF every
taxpayer for the Legislature OF last year appropri
ated $500 600 Tor the work OF sinking the track
and widening the bedway of the New York Central
Railroad from Forty-ninth street to Harlem. Mr..
Vanderbilt was also, on his part, to furnish an
equal sum. Under legislative authority, them a
work Is gong on in the locality Just named
that is scarcely second in Importance and extent
to the excavations at He'll Gate. The traveller in
the steam cars from the Central depot ana the Pc
destrian who takes stroll along Fourth avenue
from Fiftyelghth street will gang after gang Of
men at work, excavating rock, levelling roadway
ascending and descending tunnels, and will
form very little conception OF the vastness OF
the work that is going on before him. The
ultimatum OF all this labor is to level bedway Tor
four railroad tracks at an average OF twenty feet
lower than the present bedway. For two Of the
tracks new bedway will be made. The other
two win be simply the old tracks lowered to the
level OF the new road. The present grade, at GER
tain points, from Forty-ninth to Eighty-sixth
street. Is the heaviest the road, and the
incline is siXty-sx and half feet to the mile
When the proposed work Is completed the grade
will be from twenty-five to forty feet to the mile.
The contractors Messrs. Dillon Il Clyde. They
have, however, sub-let the work to about
TWENTY DIFFERENT CONTRACTORS,
with the exception of the tunneng at Ninety third
street, which is done by themselves, Mr.. Brinknel,
who has Tor the last nine years been engaged in
railroad tunnelling, experimenting the contract
Tor this part of the work, and having third inter.
in it. 1t here that the interest OF the observer
OF this excavation work centres. on nearly every
other part OF the road the men are working on the
surface, and II Is easy to see what Is DONE but here
men are at work hlty-five feet below the surface,
and they descend and ascend on an elevator, work
ing in darkness that is only Illuminated by a
covering. Mr. Brinknell has eighty men ut work,
and the writer saw them come up on the elevator
out or the gloom, with fckering name on
the top OF their heads; arms, face and clothing
all grimly black, and rs they stepped on TO the
green sward and made tracks Tor their boarding
house. it was difcult not to believe that you were
at the mouth of coal pit in Pennsylvania The men
looked happy cheerful and contented, glad to see
the daylight again. but on their return after their
hours rest equally well pleased to descend again
| into the bowels of the earth. Near this elevator
three shafts are at work, two are worked By hand
and one by
A SIXTY HORSE POWER
air COMPRISING engine 1t Is said that this engine
| Is somewhat of novelty, and many persons IN
terested in mechanics, Journey as lar as Ninety
third street for the purpose Of inspecting it, The
Brooklyn and drives eight or Burlings'
drills, as well as furnishing men, pure air
or Fourth avenue, few feet south OF Ninety third
street. All the drilling and hosting Is done by
the ala Of machinery. The work was begun in No
vember last, and 255 feet OF the tunnel has been
excavated; in January next the contractors ex-
pect to have daylight clear through. The rock is
very hard, and now ana then there are water diff
culties to be contended with. In addition this
more than usual care Is absolutely necessary mas
much as the old tunnel is on either side, through
which every day and night nearly two hundred
trains pass As cautonary measure 1t was stipu-
lated by the Legislature that powder, and not
nltrO-gycerine, should be used for blasting. 1t re-
quires about five times more powder than glycer-
Inc Tor charge, and the charges are
FIRED BY ELECTRICITY.
About eighty tons, or forty yards day. Ia taken
out VI the tunnel and the material brought up Is
kind OF gneiss, which will be crushed and used for
ballast. Ii the visitor to this part OF the work will
walk up the roadway, along the side Of the exca-
vation, from Ninety-fourth to NinetySeventh
street, standing little way beyond the mouth OF
the old tunnel on the north side, far as the eye
can reach will be seen gangs OF men clustered on
the works, cutting and drilling the rock for blast
+,
the depth OF the rock varies from forty to sixty feet
short distance from the old tunnel O large gang
overhangs the line. They work one above another
in galleries, and they have to be careful that no
pieces of rock fall on the tracks, for trains are
passing underneath them, in the open cutting,
every few minutes. On the west side q clear space
has been made, and some idea may be formed or
the magnitude OF the work when it is remembered
that IT has taken more than month to clear that
space OF rock. From this point to
HARLEM RIVER
fha y0rE Ia Ynnr lasa hrt
cipitous as at Ninetythird street to Eighty-eg
street, and will, therefore, present fewer ifcul-
the residents on each side are mole or less neon
venienced; sidewalks are taken up, and walking
along the track is incumbent upon every pedes-
trian who, II he is anxious to preserve himself
alive, has to keep sharp lookout for trains OF
cars AT Eighty-sixth street and a lew blocks be-
low several neat iron bridges have been placed
across the road and the new bedway
is there complete; but all the rest or the
road is In q state of apparent chaos, and
From l25th street to 13Oth street the new road
Is also near completion. The mode OF covering the
different points wherever practicable; but there
will be along the entire work large number OF
bridges For example, from l02d to 10TH street
there VIII be bridges at each street, and also at
11tn, 9th 125th, both and l3lst streets 1t not
the pedestrian only that Is made conscious OF the
changes that are going on in the bedways or the
tracks. The railroad passenger will find on reach
ing Ninetyseventh street that the train OF cars IN
(which he Is travelling makes
A SLIGHT CURVE.
and proceeds very slowly to 10th street. The rea
son OF this Is that the contractors found 1t
sary to divert the original roadway for the prose-
cution or the new work. and therefore, at cost 1t
is said, OF $50, 000 raised timber tresework, at
some places more than forty feet from the ground,
upon which was laid double track for the transit
OF the regular traffic OF the railroad company.
When the permanent roadway Is completed this,
or course, will be removed; but in the meantime
some OF the more nervous Inhabitants OF Harlem
who make use Of the way trains are very nervous
about travelling orer this trestlework, and use the
horse cars to go down town. In three years 1t Is
expected that this great work will be completed;
then there will be four tracks from Fftyeighth
street to Harlem River, for steam car purposes. on
Fourth avenue, and thus a contribution made
towards the solution Of the difficuty That besets
our citizens now as to uptown transit
THE MUTUAL BANK.