Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1880-03-25
UNDERNEATH THE HUDSON.


THE GREAT WORK FROM JERSEY CITY TO NEW
YORK WELL UNDER WAY.
All that can be seen of the North River
Tunnel thus far is tremendous we'll, smooth
ly lined with brick, sixty feet deep, and wide
enough to admit an ordinary dwelling house.
This we'll is covered by clumsy wooden
shanty, high enough to accommodate der
rick, and big enough to hold the two engines
and three boilers, the coal heap. brick pile,
clothes, closets, and office for the workmen
and the company's officers. This shanty is
at the foot of Fifteenth street, three quar-
tiers of the way from the Pennsylvania fer.
ry to the Hoboken line. 1t is close to the
rivers edge, two city blocks distant from Pro-
vost street, the thoroughfare nearest the riv-
er bank. The river originally flowed where
the shanty is, and underneath the filling is
the original silt The great we'll beneath
the shanty is not to be terminus of the tun-
mel. 1t is simply starting point which the
tunnel shaft is to pierce, and it was sunk be-
cause that was deemed better way to begin
the great work. The tunnel will be worked
back beneath the city more than half mile,
breaking through the surface beyond Erie
street, and having its absolute terminus and
depot in Jersey avenue. Eventually this
we'll may or may not be closed up, but in
either event the tunnel will pass along through
it as it passes any other point in its course
The tunnel, when completed, will be two miles
long, and three quarters of mile Of its length
will be directly beneath the bed of the river.
As the river channel is nearest the New York
bank, and there is wide stretch of shoal
water on the Jersey side, there will be con-
tinuous slant from the Jersey shore near y
across the river, when short incline upward
will bring the tunnel to the surface in this
city. At its lowest point the top of the
the river bed. The New York terminus will
be in the neighborhood Of Washington square,
and work in this city will be begun at the
foot of Leroy street, which is almost exactly
opposite Fifteenth street in Jersey city.
By ordinary means it would have been
next to impossible to excavate a tunnel
through the silt that was encountered at the
outset, and must be fought the greater part
of the way. President Haskins devised the
plan of sustaining the earth above the exca-
vation by a pressure of air. A powerful
pumping engine supplies this force. For
safety's sake there is duplicate engine, and
there are three boilers, because an accident
that removed the pressure of air in the shaft
would bring about certain disaster and pos
sible loss of life. The original plan was to
bore one shaft sufficiently wide for double
railroad track and high enough to admit Of
the passage of railroad cars. 1t was found
necessary, however, to alter this, and now the
tunnel is composed of two shafts, side by side,
like the barrels of a fowling piece, and
strengthened as we'll as separated by a cen
tral partition. These tunnels will each con-
tain single railroad track, and will be twen-
ty one feet in diameter, which gives room for
directors palace coach, the tallest of rail-
road vehicles.
A visitor to the edge of the great brick
well sees what looks like a large boiler pro-
truding from the we'll on the river side, and
extending sixteen feet toward the centre.
There is a platform of boards around it, and
there are many tubes and pipes, heaps Of
bricks and one steam pump on the platform.
Beneath the platform, which appears to be
at the bottom of the we'll, but is really on
ly half way down, there is sheet Of muddy
water covering the silt that has been thrown
from the tunnel. The protruding boiler is
what is known as the air-lock, by which the
egress and entrance of the workmen in the
tunnel is accomplished without destroying
the even pressure of the air in the shaft. The
Sun reporter saw six men enter the tunnel
yesterday to 90 to work in it, and presently
he saw four leave it. The six men were
lowered in wooden bucket, which was
swung over the pit from the arm of a derrick.
The door of the boiler like air lock, was open !;
but there is an inner door that was shut, and
beyond it, in the tunnel, the pressure of
twenty pounds of air to the square inch was
maintained. The men entered the air.lock
and closed the outer door, the engines equal
lied the air pressure in the lock with that in
the tuunel and then the inner door was open
ed and the workmen passed into the tunnel.
1t took ten minutes to do this Men with
heart or lung diseases could not work un'
der these conditions, but healthy young
men are said to experience no harm from
them. When the work progresses further,
this pressure will have to be doubled. The
four men who desired to come out, stepped
into the air.lock, closed the door behind them,
and signalled the engineer The compressed
air was allowed to escape with deafening
roar, like the escape of steam from a thousand
locomotive safety valves, and presently the
door opened. A dense cloud of brown smoke
rolled ont from the lock, and as it thinned
out, the forms of the workmen passing through
were distinguishable. The reporter was in
formed that this was the smoke of the candles
by the light of which the men work in the
shaft. Fifteen or eighteen pounds of can.
dies are consumed by them in day, and the
smoke they create is great hindrauce to the
work, although only the very best adamantine
coach lights are used: The electric lights,
which emit neither smoke nor heat, will soon
be used in the place Of candles. One light
over the we'll and one in the shaft will supply
all the illumination that is needed. Work
in the tunnel never ceases. 1t is prosecuted