Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-10-16
BLOWING UP HBLL-GATE.

Last Saturdays Great ExpISsaon.-.Nine q
Acres OF Rock Shattered by 400 900
Pounds Of Dynamite and Rack-a-
Rock.
The greatest blast ever exploded, whether
on land or under the sea, destroyed Flood
rock, the principal remaining obstacle to nav.
igation In the entrance 10 Long leland Sound,
at quarter past IL last Saturday forenoon
Upon the exposed portion Of this great reef
an artificial island was built, and then shaft
was sunk Ga feet below sea level, and at that
depth the rock was pierced with radiating gal
leries, over four miles in total extent. The
roofs Of these galleries were pierced with
holes three inches In diameter and averaging
nine feet In depth, and In these 13, 2s6 pook-
cts we're placed great cartridges Of explosives,
consisting Of $4,000 pounds Of dynamite and
240, 600 pounds Of rack. q. rock--a compound
OF ohlorate Of potash and dinitro- benzole, the
most tremendous combination OF explosives
ever used. From these galleries electric ca
bles were led through 10 the surface and con-
neoted with batteries on the Astoria shore,
where Gen. John Newton, the engineer Of the
work, stood with his assistants and friends
and family, including his little daughter, II
years old, who had as baby touched the
button that conveyed the current TO Hallett's
Point reef nine years before. When the mo-
ment came, Saturday, the child again assumed
the chief role Of the important scene, pressed
the key with ber tiny finger, and With q sud
don jar and a choked roar, the waters along q
course of 1900 feet rose nightly In q range
OF jagged, snow-wbite, foamy peaks 100 feet
into air, hung there for an instant, and then
plunged down, crashing and Kissing into the
river, and writhed into yeasty waves three
yards high outward from the rock. II was a
magnificent and imposing spectacle, though
so brief and all we're amazed 10 see, when
the waters had subsided, Flood rock still visi-
ble-lowered, TO be sure, but not apparently
destroyed. Gen. Newton regards the explo-
sion a. undoubtedly a complete success the
great reef, he says, is cracked into fragments,
which are now 10 be removed by the dredges
and when this is done there will be q clear
channel with 26 feet Of water In place OF the
dreaded danger of He'll Gate The current
Of the East river will still be turbulent, but II
will be safe, and the great ocean steamers
may pass that way to Europe or return with
out trouble.
The event was witnessed by many thous-
ands Of spectators on the New York and
Long Island shores, every point of vantage,
even TO the house roof and chimney tops
the trees and telegraph poles. being occupied.
There was no such apprehension felt as in
1876, when Gen. Newton blew up Hallets
Point reef with 80, 900 pounds of dynamite,
rend-rock and vulcan powder, and 1t was
thought that buildings must be wrecked and
lives endangered all around Little was
known then about the resistant power Of wa
ter, but there was more shaking Of buildings
than on the present occasion, because expe-
rienoe had not then achieved proper food
ing Of the galleries. Yet there was some ex-
pectation Of trouble on Blaokwells island,
only 1900 feet from Flood rock, where the
old gray prisons and Rsylums Of New York
city stand and all the prisoners, lunatios,
idiots and sick folks we're taken out Of doors
and given free sight Of the spectacle, out
Of consideration for their safety This must
have been very singular exhibition in it.
self for those who could see 1t. But the old
buildings we're not much shAken-a flower
pot fell, pile Of loose bricks tumbled, but
nothing more. The windows had all been
removed from the Blackwells island struc-
lures and from many buildings on Long
Island, but none OF the windows that were
left In we're shattered. The shock Of the ex.
plosion was felt strongly all over New York
city, in Princeton and elsewhere in q vester-
ly direction, and at East New York, College
Point and Flushing the other side Of the rock,
but much less in Brooklyn or at Rockawsy,
and not at all at Staten Island, showing that
the vibration was communicated through the
rock and in the line of its direction. Regu.
lar seismic observations we're taken at Prince
ton college observatory, at Yonkers and on
Wards island, and at other places where ar
rangements had been made for them. The
farthest distance at which the vibration was
reported Is As miles