National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1884-01-03
TIE vANpEnB1Lr TUNNELS.
How the Southern PennsyivRnia Rail-
road Makes Its Way Through the Noun

SDccint Letter.
SHfPpENsBURG, PA, Jan 1.-The Wander
bilt Air line from Harrisburg to Pittsburg
cuts diagonally across the Cumberland val
ley, enters the North mountain some three
miles from Roxbury, and goes through all
the mountains which IL encounters by means
of tunnels. There will be seven tunnels av-
eraging mile in length and three shorter
tunnels, ten in all. The contractor for the
North mountain tunnel Is Mr.. Patrick Keat-
ing, of Detroit Mich Ho has force of sixty
or eighty Italians, Hungariaus and Swedes
at work erecting shanties and cleaning away
tho timber from the side of the mountain.
This tunnel will be 1890 feet in length; its
width will be "a feet mt the bottom and the
height from the roadbed to the top Of the
arch 22l feet. The cost will probably DO
about half million dollars. Where the bore
is made through solid rock there will be
neither arching nor side walls. At the en-
trance and other places where the arch needs
to be supported six courses of brick will be
put in. In order to avoid the cost of long
transportation IL is considered highly desira-
bic that the brick should be made rs near to
the work as possible, and the quality Of the
clay found in the vicinity of the tunnel is
now being tested.
The second of the twin" tunnels goes
through the Kottatinning mountain, which is
bcphrhNeu from Une NOrJn IuOuHIuln ny huolby
little creek and valley scarcely 100 yards in
width. 1t is about 300 feet longer than its
twin brother, and opens on the west side into
Amberson's valley. Messrs. Evans and Ack-
erman are the contractors for the Kittatin-
ming tunnel During the present month they
expect to got their machinery for boring
through the mountain into position. The
transportation of tho powerful engines
for COMPRISING air to the points at
which they are to operate Is no
small matter. They will be brought from
New York to Shippensburg by rail, and from
here they must be taken to the tunnels on
wagons. An engine Of 140.horso power will
be placed on each side Of tho mountain at the
points where tho engineers have located the
openings and the two horizontal shafts will
be carried toward each other until they meet
in the center The engines remain station
airy, and rs the shaft advances the india-rub-
Der tube by which the motive power is con-
1 veyed to the drills is heightened by screwing
on additional sections.
With tho bost appliances the average
progress in working a tunnel through a
mountain Is about ten feet day in each shaft
1t requires about forty men to manage the
drills, shape the arch, and remove the debris.
In these tunnels work will be prosecuted day
and night, so that eighty men will
be required for each shaft, ono.hali
the force resting while tho Other
half is on duty. Surprising that tho two hOri
| zontal shafts can DO carried toward each Other
at the rate of twenty feet day, it will re
quire about 2l5 working days to get-througl
the North mountain, and about 230 days TO GO
Though tho Kittatinning mountain. TIL,
other long tunnels are to be cut through thu
'Tuscarora mountains, Lideling hill Ray
hill, the main Allegheny ridge. and Laure