The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1885-09-19
A WONDERFUL TUNNEL.
Eight Thousand Pcrspirins Miners
Drilling Huge Hole Through
Twenty eight miles Of solid
Rock.
New York Hcrald,l

mlttent cold cleaning from whit,
electric lights, six thousand grimy me,
are toiling night and day so that tn.
Water.supply of New York may Gov
through twenty eight miles of soil,
rock. 1t never ceases, this grindiu.
and cranking and whirring and dul
booming of powder explosions, save
for two hours out of the twenty-four
when three thousand men drowsil,
| crawl out of the dim shafts on the Sur
face of the earth to eat their meat and
bread and go to sleep, while three thou
sand other men take their places
Since the first Of the year these cold
trickling caverns and shafts have been
drilled aud blasted continuously
Hundreds OF powerful steam -drills,
driven by streams of compressed air
from wonderful, shining engines. eat
into the hard rock like so many steel
parasites, and mountains of torn gneiss
and shining mica have been piled up
around the shafts as the work went
on. In two years from next September
d tunnel of thirty-One miles will stretch
from Croton lake to the reservoir in
Central Park, through the brick and
stone lining of which will gush body
Of crystal water more than enough to
supply the metropolis plenteously. For
all these blessings and the proud dis
tinction of owning the longest rock
tunnel in the world the city will have
to pay at least $33 ,OOO, 900, or perhaps
$50, 100000. The Mount Cenis tunnel
is seven and one half miles long, and
cost about $15,0O0,000, whilc the ST.
Gothard tunnel is nine and one fourth
miles long, and cost very little more.
Few people in tho city have any idea
OF the marvellous rapidity with which
the aqueduct tunnel is being made.
Indeed, the speed which is kept up has
attracted the attention of miners all
over the country, for nothing even ap-
preaching to it has ever been seen be-
fore. Tie work is divided into two
parts. From High Bridge to Tarry-
town it is in the hands of O'Brien IL
Clark, tho contractors, and from thence
to- Croton lake it belongs to Brown,
Howard & Co. These contractors farm
ont the tunncling to subcontractors.
On the whole Inc there are twenty. six
shafts. These shafts are punched TN
into sections of two or three shafts
each, and the subcontractors are under
agreement to tunnel out the rock in
their respective sections at so much a
yard, and to build the brick and stone
waterway inside Of it at set prices.
Over eight thousand men arc employed
in the Work-siX thousand under
ground and two thousand on the sur
face. At the bottom OF each shaft the
miners work in two directions, so
while one set of men are drilling south
ward there is set of men in another
shaft working nOrthWard TO meet them.
These shafts are about mile apart
yet so delicate and accurate arc the
plans of the engineers that in no case,
they declare, will the line of the tun-
mel be more than an inch out of the
way when tho miners in the different
tunnels meet each other underground.
The reporter put on rubber suit
and descended the shaft with Engineer
Parker. Water raincd down the rocky
walls from all sides until it poured
from the rubber hats. Then pick ing
his way over little pools Of water and
huge, scattered masses Of rock, the
engineer led the reporter along the
tunnel southwark. Electric lights were
hung from the roof of the cavern all
along the way, but ever then they
could not dispel the thick gloom that
dwelt in the damp place. Here and
there were little lights suspended ia
line by wires from the roof 50 that the
foremen might sight from one to the
other, aud so keep drilling out the
tunnel in a straight course. At the
end of the cavern was crowd of men
working at "slugger" drills which
emitted a terrific sound that the hear
ing became dulled and the slcdgcham-
mer blows which q brawny miner
shoWered upon a hand drill sounded
like the strokes Of velvet hammer
upon featherbcd. Perspiration pour
ed down the faces of the men as they
hung to the drills or poured cups OF
water down the drill holes to keep the
dust from binding them. Each drill
ing machine emitted such powerful
snorts of cold air that at times they
created strong breeze which swept
away the smoke curling up from the
Oil lamps on the miners hats.
"Thcre you see our method of work
ing," said Mr.. Parker. s'Tho upper
half of the tunnel is drilled before the
lower half. 1t is called the heading.
The lower half is called the bench.
First, two holes are drilled in the
heading from the side of the tunnel.
The holes slant inward toward each
other, so that when the powder put in
them is fired a wedge is blown out OF
the heading. Then holes are drilled
straight along the sides, and the re-