The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-03-18
UNDERNEATH THE HUDSON.
The Great Work from Jersey City to New
York well Under Way.

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, smoothly lined with brick, sixty feet
deep, and wide enough to admit an ordi-
nary dwelling house. This we'll is COW
cred by a clumsy wooden shanty, high
enough to accommodate q derrick, and
big enough to hold the Two engines and
three boilers, the coal heap, brick pile,
clothes, closets, and Office for the work.
men aud the company's officers. This
shanty is at the foot of Fifteenth street,
three.quarters of the way from the Penn
sylvania ferry to the Hoboken line. 1t
is close to the rivers edge, two city blocks
distant from Provost street, the thorough
fare nearest the river bank. The river
originally flowed where the shanty is,
and underneath the filling is the original
silt. The great well beneath the shanty
is not to be a terminus of the tunnel. IL
is simply starting point which the tun-
mel shaft is to pierce, and it was sunk be-
cause that was deemed the better way to
begin the great work. The tunnel will
be worked back beneath the city more
than half a 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 Jer-
sey side, there will be continuous slant
from the Jersey shore nearly 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
tunnel will be 102 feet below the surface
of the river and about twenty feet be-
meath the river bed. The New York ter
minus will be in the neighborhood of
Washington square, and work in this city
will be begun near 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 de-
vised the plan of sustaining the earth
above tho excavation by q pressure of air.
A powerful pumping engine supplies this
force. For safety's sake there is dupli-
cate engine, and there are three boilers,
because an accident that removed the
pressure of air in the shaft would bring
about certain disaster and possible loss of
life. The original plan was 10 bore one
shaft sufficiently wide for double rail-
road 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 q
fowling piece, and strengthened as we'll
as separated by central partition.
These tunnels will each contain single
railroad track, and will be twenty-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
we'll sees what looks like a large boiler
protruding from the well on the river
side, and extending sixteen feet toward
the centre. There is platform of boards
around it, and there are many tubes and
pipes, heaps of bricks and one steam
pump upon this platform. Beneath the
platform, which appears to be at the bot
tom of the we'll, but is really only 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
air in the shaft. The Sun reporter saw
six men enter the tunnel yesterday to go
to work in it, and presently he saw four
leave it. The six men we're lowered in
q wooden bucket, which Woo 7wung over
the pit from the arm of ick. The
door of the boiler-like air-lt = 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 equalized the air pressure in
the lock with that in the tunnel, and then
the inner door was opened and the work
men passed into the tunnel. 1t took ten
minutes to do this. Men with heart or
lung diseases could not work under 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 thousand locomotive safety
valves, and presently the door opened.
A dense cloud of brown smoke rolled out
from the lock, and as it thinned out the
forms of the workmen passing through
were distinguishable. The reporter was
informed that this was the smoke of the
candles by the light of which the men
work in the shaft. Fifteen or eighteen
pounds of candles are consumed by them
in day, and the smoke they create is a
great hindrance 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 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 by three gangs,
each gang working eight hours. Some
times the men eat their meals in the
shaft, but as often they come out aud
spend half an hour on the earth's surface.
Theirs is not dainty work. The earth
that they dig out is mixed with water in
the bottom Of the shaft, and when it has
reached certain depth and consistency
it is blown out into the great brick we'll
by the air pressure in the shaft through
pipes that lie at the bottom of the exca-
vation, and that are built out to follow