Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-09-08
miscellaneous,
Last Days Of Flood Rock.

Last Days OF Flood Rock.
NINE ACRES OF II WILL BE BLOWN OUT
OF WATER ABOUT OCTOBER l.
People who have travelled up East river
and through He'll Gate to the Sound have
noticed during the last eight or nine years
that Just before the vessel that carried
them made a sharp turn to the right of
Astoria to enter He'll Gate, she passed Oh
the right of a little island, with wooden
bulk heads and maidstone walls around
IT.. that supported heterogeneous mass
of shanties and buildings, from which
ar yse a tall smoke stack and huge wood
en- derrick with Two big wheels on top of
il. From big trough on one side there
flowed a never-failing stream of water.
To one coming down through He'll Gate
toward the city the li.le island seemed to
be directly in the middle OF the channel.
and just how the vessel was TO get around
it as ques' ion which the passenger was
likely 20 puzzle over. Very often the
pilot himself failed to solve the puzzle.
for with a current running at ten miles
an hour and the swirls and eddies caused
bv the crooked channel. it was no easy
task to steer vessel through. On the
point around which the channel makes
bend at right angles there has been for
year or more huge but graceful iron
tower that supported mass OF electric
lights, which illuminated the whole dan
gerous locality, but very often the light
served only to enable the unfortunate
sailor to see where he was doomed to
strike. Sometimes as many as four ves-
sells have struck the little island in one
day, and it was a cold week when one
was not brought to grief The island is
known to pilots as Flood Rock, and the
point as Hallet's Point.
Bad as it has been during these nine
years the channel through He'll Gate is a
mill pond now to what it was IS years
ago. The shanties and smoke stack and
derrick on the little island were erected to
complete improvements begun in 1851.
These improvements contemplate, under
the plans made by Gen. Newton, chief of
Engineers the entire removal of the little
island so that the water shall be every
where rs feet deep aross the whole chan
mel, from the foot OF the electric light
tower to the long island with little cot
tage on it, quarter of mile off toward
New York that is known as Big Mile
Rock
Work on the little island began in 1875.
about one year before Gen. Newton blew
out OF water the reef that projected from
the point where the electric tower stands.
Two big wells called shafts were sunk
down in the rock TO depth of 60 feet
and the bottoms were connected by tun-
mel In one shaft stairway was tuilt
and pipes were set to carry fresh air to
the bottom. and steam to work the big
pumps that were needed to lift the water
that flowed in through the assures in the
rock. From these shafts the workmen
blasted out tunnels running parallel with
and at right angles to the current of water
that flowed al"ng the east side of the
rock 1t was not particularly dangerous
work. but it was difficult. because the en-
tire formation was the same obdurate
rock that crops out all over Manhattan
island Very often he drill would be at work
tor hours on hole and then charge of
dy namite exploded,in it would bring down
only as much debris as would load a
wheelbarrow. The work has been con-
tinued ever since 1875 at intervals. which
were long or short. according as Congress
furnished the means Some idea of the
work involved can be obtained
from the figures furnished by the engineers
in charge. If by any means the island
could have planed off at depth of twenty
six feet below low-water mark, the floor
remaining would have been nine acres.
This plot is irregular. its boundary making
a rough outline of a rabbit sitting on it's
launches with ears erect. The ears pro-
iect toward the insane asylum on Wards
Island. the head points toward the Harlem
river, and the rabbits back is toward the
New York landing of the Astoria ferry at
the foot of Ninety second street.
In all. twenty four galleries or tunnels
have been run from north to south through
this island. the longest of which is l 200
feet long These are intersected by forty
six others, running nearly east and west.
the longest one being 625 feet The tun-
nels are on an average. ten feet from floor
to ceiling, and six or eight feet wide. The
roof of rock they support is from ten to
twenty FIVE feet thick. The rock taken
from them measured 1000 cubic yards as
1t Law in its original bed. The huge pillars
and roof that remain measure 275 900 cubic
yards as they stand.
In making these galleries assures of
water were met with. but they were all sue
cessfully plugged with wood, the use of
cement being out OF the question under the
great pressure of water After the CALLER
les were completed the next work was to
drill the roof and the pillars full of holes in
which to put cartridges of dynamite
These holes were drilled aroundthe tops of
the pillars and in the root only. They are
l-2 inches in diameter. and they average
feet in depth They are from 4 to 5 feet
apart. They run up through the pillars
at an angle of As degrees. and up through
the roof at an angle OF 60 degrees with
the horizontal. They have all been COM
pleted at last, the appropriation which be.
came available in July of last year being
sufficient to complete that work, supply
and put in place the explosives. and clear
away the debris after TIE island has been
blown out of water about October |, next
Two kinds of explosives will be used.
| dynamite and rackarock The rackarock
is made on Little Mill Rock island, under
the supervision of Lieut.. G.. Nice. Derby,
Gen. Newtcn's assistant. who has imme-
date charge of the work at the island
Chlorate of potash is mixed with yellow
ish black oil. called di-nitro. benzole. in a
lead-lined tank by men who use wooden
| hoes and work as men do in miyipp NOR