Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-03-26
Underneath the Hudson.

Underneath the Hudson.
THE GREAT WORK FROM JERSEY CITY TO
NEW YORK STILL UNDER wAY-How THE
woRKMEN ARE HEMET1cALLY SEALED
UNDER THE EARTH EIGHT HOURS AT A
sTRETcH-THE INGENIOUS AII-LocK-
SHAFTS SIDE BY SIDE LIKE THE BARRELS
OF A FowLING PIECE.
[From the New York SUM-
All that can be seen of the North river
tunnel thus far Is q tremendous well,
smoothly lined with brick, 60 feet deep,
and wide enough TO admit an ordinary
dwelling house This well is covered by
Il clumsy wooden shanty, high enough to
admit derrick 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. 1t is close to the rivers
edge. two city blocks distant from Pro-
vost 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 a terminus
of the tunnel. 1t is simply a starting
point which the tunnel shaft is to pierce,
and it was sunk because that was deemed
the better way to begin the 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 tins
well NAV 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 be-
meath the bed of the river. As the river
channel is nearest the New York bank
and there is q wide stretch of shoal water
on the Jersey side, there will be a con-
tinuous slant from the Jersey shore near
" across the river when a short incline
upward will bring the tunnel TO the sur
face in this city At its lowest point the
top of the tunnel will be 102 feet below
the surface of the river and about 90 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 n tunnel
through the silt that was encountered at
the outset. and must be fought the great
er part of the way President Haskins
devised the plan OF sustaining the earth
above the excavation by 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 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 well
as separated by a central partition.
These tunnels will each contain a single
railroad track, and will be % feet in dia-
meter, 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 from the well on the river
side, and extending Is feet towards the
centre. There is a platform of boards
around it, and there are many tubes and
pipes, heaps of bricks, and one steam
pump upon the platform. Beneath the
platform, which appears to be the bottom
of the well, which is really only half way
down, there is n 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 to the
tunnel is accomplished without destroy
ing the even pressure Of the 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 were lowered into 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
20 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 i'll the
lock with that IN the tunnel, and then the
inner door was opened and the workmen
passed into the tunnel 1t took 10 min
diseases could not work under these con-
ditions, 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 signaled the engineer. The com
pressed 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 out from the
lock, and rs il thinned out the forms of
the workingmen passing through were
distinguishable. The reporter was III
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 candles are consumed by them
in a 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 well 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 and spend
half all 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 1t has
reached certain depth and consistency 1t
is blown out into the great brick well by
the air pressure in the shaft through
pipes that lie at the bottom of the excava-
tion, and that are built out to follow the
workmen as they extend the shaft.
Whenever it is necessary tins mud is
bailed out of the bottom of the well to
make way for more As the tunnel is
now it has the shape of a gigantic bottle,
the air-lock taking the place of cork i'll
the bottles neck The neck Of the bottle
is formed by the narrow bore that was
gradually widencd until the permanent
diameter of q feet was reached. As the
excavators work they are closely followed
by men who line the shaft with plates OF
riveted iron, and these in turn are follow
ed by masons who construct the arched
brickwork that forms the tunnel wall.
Nearly 100 feet of the permanent tunnel
have been completed. No date is set for
the beginning of the work on the New
York side of the river.
The more we do, the more We can do
tho ,,ora bucv xre arp the more leisure we