Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-08-22

p. r. Il. Samuel Rea is the engineer
in chief The work is virtually COM
pleted now, but the dressing up of the
line will defer the opening until Sep
tember 10. After that date through
West bound freight will leave the
main line at Boliver and continue over
the West Penn to Sharpsburg, where
a traffic arrangement with the Pitts
burgh & Western railroad allows the
use of its river front tracks through AL
legheny to Woods Run, where the
Pittsburgh Ft. Wayne & Chicago
tracks are entered upon. The present
passenger service over the West Penn
road will be continued.
A branch of the West Penn railroad
extends from Freeport to Butler, But
ler county. On Thursday evening,
August 8, the extension of the She
mango and Allegheny railroad from
Hiliard to Butler was completed. The
Shenango & Allegheny is now road
running from Shenango, on the Erie Il
Pittsburgh and the New York, Penn
sylvania & Ohio to Butler, and will
give through cutoff from Pittsburgh
between Northwestern Pennsylvania
and the East.
VANDERBILT'S HAND.
The second great trunk system as
sured to Pittsburgh is the Vanderbilt.
The Philadelphia & Reading railroad
gives entrance to New York and Phil
adelphia and Harrisburg. The Pitts.
burgh & Lake Erie railroad passed in
to Vanderbilt's hands during the year,
and gives him connection West with
his Lake Shore & Michigan Southern
railroad. The Harrisburg & Western,
220 miles long, will be built by the
Vanderbilt- -Gowan syndicate, who
promise the contracts for grading will
be let by September Is. This road
will run direct from Harrisburg to a
junction with the Pittsburgh, McKees-
port & Youghiogheny railroad near
Broadford. A half million dollars
bridge will cross the Susquehanna at
Harrisburg, and ten tunnels between
Harrisburg and Broadford will run
the cost of the road up to 100000
per mile. This road has been described
so frequently of late that more extend
ed notice is unnecessary. 1t is the
last link remaining to be constructed
of the system, as the Pittsburgh, Nc
Keesport & Youghiogheny is practic-
ally finished and will be opened before
the end of the present month. The
Pittsburgh, McKeesport Il Yougho-
gheny railroad has its Pittsburgh ter
minus at junction with the Pittsburgh
& Lake Erie tracks at the foot of South
Twentieth street, and follows the river
bank to Twenty-sixth street, where it
enters peculiar tunnel or covered
way This tunnel passes under Jones
& Laughlin's great iron works and is
,625 feet in length. 1t is built en-
tirely through cinders and other mill
refuse and at no place is the summit of
the covered roof more than eight to
eleven inches below the surface of the
ground above. Overhead the mills
are working day and night and fifty
lOu chg luC Will Vi puoCCo O'Oi ohic
thin partition hundreds of times daily.
The tunnel is forty feet in depth and
thirty feet wide, double tracked. The
tunnel was built by first bracing the
crumbling sides by timbers and as the
borings proceeded 'bulk-heads were
placed to hold up the cinder. The side
walls are twenty-five feet high and =
feet thick at the base, resting on a bed
of concrete q feet thick. The tracks
rest on an inverted arch of concrete
covered with eighteen inches of ballast.
The work is supported with heavy iron
girders, arched with double lines of
brick and covered with concrete. Work
was commenced on the tunnel August
l, 1882, and it is about finished. 1t is
built on q two-degree curve and re-
quired the removal of 80, 900 cubic feet
of cinder. In it's construction $4,000
cubic yards of masonry were used, 468
iron girders, 1000, 900 bricks, 1000
barrels cement and 1000 yards of con-
crete The tunnel cost $400, 900,
which includes the cost of repairs to
Jones & Laughlin's mills.
THE b. 4 o. SYSTEM.
The relations between the B. & O. and
the Pittsburgh Il Western are the most
cordial The first named sees in the
latter q short through route to the
northwest, and the last named in the
b. & o. direct through line to the
east. These peeps into the future have
so far crystallized that the building of
the Pittsburgh Junction, railroad is
now in progress. Anticipating the
construction of the Junction, an in
clined plane to the river is being built
by both roads to connect them by
water transfer Until the Junction is
completed This transfer will be COM
pleted next month. The Pittsburgh
Junction railroad will connect the
Pittsburgh a. Lake Erie on the south
bank of the Monongahela by bridge
across the river at Glenwood with the
Il. & o. Four mile run is then fol-
lowed across the country lying between
the Monongahela and Allegheny riv-
ers. When Neville street is reached
the tunnel, fraction over six thousand
feet long, is encountered. This fol
lows the line of Neville street, sixty
feet under ground, and emerges short
distance from the Pennsylvania rail
road at Millvalc. The Junction passes
under the Pennsylvania railroad tracks,
and the sight of the Pittsburgh East
End railroad passing the Pennsyl,
vania railroad overhead will be seen
when the latter road is built. The
junction continues down Skunk Hol-
low to the conner of Thirty-third and
Liberty streets, where it takes to a
bridge, crossing Penn avenue overhead
and continuing to the Allegheny river,
crossing that stream on the same struc.
ture to the Pittsburgh Il Western
tracks on the north bank.
THE JUNCTION BRIDGE.
This bridge will be more than one