The New York herald., 1878-10-21
FALLEN AGAIN.
Another Break in the Arch Of the Forty
Second Street Tunnel.
CRIMINAL INDIFFERENCE.
The Work Prosecuted Without Regard to
Criticism or Public Safety.

II win be remembered that on June 20 a portion Of
the brick arch in OF construction by the De-
parsment OF Public Works. between First and Second
avenues, East Forty-second street, fell, burying
two under ss ruins searching investigation fol-
lowed, inwhich IL was amply demonstrated that tho
plan on which the work was progressing waS detective
in many PARTICULARS; that tho material used Of
the very poorest. and that the work was being done
in an unscsntinc manner Yet the two victims OF
tho so-sallsd accident buried, the debris
cleared away, ana the WORK continued In almost
exactly the same manner In which It had been begun
Attention was called and again By the HERALD
70 tho manifest danger 10 tho public, but the city
officials which the responsibility rested disre-
garded tho warnings and kept with the work. On
Thursday iast tho HERALD published . careful state
nent, made by welI-known bridge engineer. In re-
gard 10 the plan OF the work and the amos; absolute
certainty that the whole would fall sooner
or later Yet the work was continued, the contrac-
tor, well the city officials stodly disrogardng
all warnings
TIE DANGER REALIZED.
Yesterday morning q lttle before five O'Clock the
predicted tall occurred. or At least portion or 1t did
large hole, almost exactly circular In shape and
thirty fees In diameter. made in the root OF
the arch by the giving way OF the brickwork, about
twenty-five foot from the eastern end OF the tunnel
The skeleton of the still stands but liable
to fall at any moment and II It Is not taken down
must Inevitably fall Of It's own weight. Fortunately
NO one was under she arch yesterday, 50 far AZ is
known No search for bodies was made, as the
Waterman who saw It fall said that under.
meath. rumor, indeed, spread In the morning that
one had been killed, but tho police denied this
The previous tall occurred at little after two P.
M. on Juno 20. The workmen employed by contrac-
+ hvv hn hndn Mai nd ~ sa{onv
city Of building tho arch, had just flushed taking
away the timber moulding from under the second Sec
OF that had been built As soon as this
was removed, without moments warning-without
even q premonItery crack-the entire section tell
Two men, not employed on ths work, were killed
Thomas joyce. labsrsr, and Patrick Lynch, an old
who lived and in the habit Of sitting un-
der thearch to enjoy tho cool breeze from tho water
both buried under the ruins. Joyce's body was
dug out at once, but Lynch was not missed immc-
diately. and his body not recovered until the
evening or the next day.
r. ~ ,.t t.ta, sArIsFIxD OFFICIALS
The porgien-shat fell at that time was the second
section ol the arsh. The first secten-some seventy
feet In lsngth--haL been position tor q con-
siderable tims ana although both mad psen built
alike the contractor and the ofhctaIs OF the Board OF
Public Works united In declaring that the first sec
tion perfcoty safe. They said that the dumping
the dirt filing the arch I'D been i'm
properly done the second section and an unoven
had been laid upon it. They also said that
the mortar had not sset" In the second secsion
though II was abundantly shown by . number
Of experiments that the mortar Was not used but
simply vet sand. The ssuG picked out with the
fingers crumbod the hands OF rless Spec
tators, and II had ne trace Of lime cement in II,
That one claim Of the contractor was a. bassIsss
the other 10 shown BY the fact that the portion
which fell yesterday Of the rs section built
and had been "anished" for months Engineer
Campbell said that "Of q great misfor.
tune that some people were KILLED. but dent see
how we could have avoided It. Tho people who
walked under the arch had bosiness there any
way. They were only In the way OF the labor
sra" Al the inquest Commissioner Campbell
said that In hts opinion the contractor did his
faithfully, and he that specncatons
had bcen honestly complied with. Engineer Camp
beil the other hand testified that the was
poor and badly mixed. Patrick OBrien, the inspec-
tor whose duty it TO see that the specifications
were carried out and who was at once discharged
after the disaster. testified that the mortar
class. Tns coronar's jury rendered verdict In when
they ocnsursd Byron for careesly loading
the arch unsvcny chat being the accepted theory OF
the cause OF the fAile They censured inspector
O'Bren Tor notorderng the Immediate removal OF the
loading, and they csnsured the system which per
mtted the inspector 10 be absent from the work at
any time while u was In progress.
The forms OF law having thus been complied with
and the Victims, buried the work resumed. Tho
Department Of Public Works did not deem any
animation uccessary, but were satisfied by the fact
that the loss occasioned by tho fall came on the
tractor A new inspector placed the work,
and ~ went on until Saturday night The condition
OF the older part Of u may DO explained by refer
encs to the following diagram OF the
The WALL FACING on FIRST AVENUE