Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-10
Underneath the Hudson.

The Great Work from Jersey City to
 Now York We'll Under Way-HONv the
 WOrkmen are HeFmeticalIy Sealed
 Under the Earth Eight Hours at .
 Shafts Side by Side Like the Barrels or
 Rowling Piece.
 From the New York sun.l
 All that can be seen of the North River Tunnel thus far is tremendous well, smooth ly lined with brick, sixty feet deep, and wide enough to admit an ordinary dwelling house. This well is covered by clumsy wooden shanty, high enough to accommodate a 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 quarters of the way from the Pennsylvania ferry to the Hoboken line. It is close to the rivers edge, two city blocks distant from Provost street, the thoroughfare 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 terminus of the tunnel It is simply starting point which the tunnel shaft is to pierce, and it was sunk because that was deemed the better way to begin the great work. The tunnel will be worked back be- heath the city more than half mile, break ing through the surface beyond Erie street, and having it's absolute terminus and depot in Jersey avenue. Eventually this well 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 it's course. The tunnel when completed will be two miles long, and three-quarters of mile of it's 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 8 continuous slant from the Jersey shore nearly across the river when a short incline upward will bring the tunnel to the surface in this city. At it's lowest point the top of the tunnel will be 102 feet below the surface of the river and about twenty feet beneath the river bed. The New York terminus 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 g tunnel through the silt that was encountered ct the outset, and must be fought the greater part of the way. President Haskins devised the plan of sus- taining the earth above the excavation by @ pressure of air. A powerful pumping engine supplies this force. For safety's sake, there is duplicate engine, and there are three boil CTS, 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 to bore one shaft sufficient ly wide for double railroad track, and high enough to admit of the passage of railroad cars. It was found necessary, however, to alter this, and Eow the tunnel is composed of two shafts. side by side, like the barrels of a fowling piece, and strengthened as well as separated by a central partition. These tun- nels will each contain single railroad track, and will be 21 feet in diameter, which gives room for directors palace coach, the tallest of railroad vehicles.
 A visitor to the edge of the great brick well sees what looks like large boiler protruding