The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1885-10-08
A WONDERFUL TUNNEL.
Eight Thousand PerspiTfDg Miners-Drill-
inEa Huge Hole Through Twenty
eight Miles of Solid Rock.

| eight Miles OF Solid ROCK
| Deep down under the rustling corn
fields. green meadows. and peaceful
woods by the faint yellow light of in
Vulnerable smoky lamps, and the inter-
mittent cold cleaning from white
electric lights. six thousand grimy,
men are toiling night and day so that
the water supply of New York may
flow through twenty-eight miles of
solid rock. 1t never ceises, this grind
ing and cranking and whirring and
dull booming of powder explosions,
save for two hours out of the twenty
four, when three thousand men drows-
lily crawl out of the dim shafts on the.
| surface of the earth to eat their bread
and meat and go to sleep. while three
thousand other men take their places
Since the first of the year these cold,
trickling caverns and shafts have been
drilled and blasted continuously. Hun
dreds of powerful steam drills driven
by streams of compressed air, from
wonderful, shining engines, eat into
the hard rock like so many steel par
asites, and mountains of torn gneiss
and shining mica have been piled up
around the shafts as the work went on.
In two years a 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 distinction of owning
the longest rock tunnel in the world,
the city will have to paw at least $685.
OOO,O or perhaps $50. 900, 0JO. The
| Mount Gents tunnel is - miles long,
and cost about $15.000,OOO while the
Gothard tunnel is st miles long, and
cost very little more. Few people in
the 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
attention of miners all over the coun-
\ try, for nothing even approaching to it
has ever been seen before. The work
is divided into two parts. From High
| Bridge to Tarrytown it is in the hands
of o. Brien q Clark, the contractors,
and from thence to Croton lake it be-
longs to Brown, Howard & Co. These
| contractors farm out the tunneling to
subcoutractors. On the whole line
there are twenty-six shafts. These
| shafts are punched up into sections of
two or three shafts each, and the SUBJ
! contractors are under agreement to
tunnel out the rock in their respective
sections at so much yard. and to
build the brick and stone waterway in
side OF it at set prices. Over eight
thousand men are employed in the
work six thousand underground and
two thousand on the surface. At the
bottom of each shaft the miners work
HI
of men are drilling southwark there is
a set OF men in another shaft drilling
nOrthward to meet them. These shafts
are about mile apart, and yet so del
icate and accurate are the plans of the
| engineers that in no case, they declare,
will the line of the tunnel be more than
an inch out of the way when the
miners in the different tunnels meet
each other underground.
The reporter put on a rubber suit
and descended the shaft with Engineer
Parker. Water rained down the rocky
walls from all sides until it poured
from the rubber hats. Then picking
his way over little pools of water and
huge, scattered masses of rock, the
engineer led the reporter along the
| tunnel southwark. Electric lights
WCLO AkOA LILO IOOA vi tAO CttoEn
all along the way, but even they could
not dispel the thick gloom that dwelt
in the damp place. Here and there
were little lights suspended in line by
| wires from the roof so that the fore
men might sight from one to the other,
and SO keep drilling out the tunnel in
straight course At the end of the
cavern was a crowd of men working at
| ..,I,r.roarff 1,.;ll,
| terrific sound that the hearing became
dulled and the sledge-hammer blows
which brawny miner shoWered upon
hand"drill sounded like the strokes
of a velvet hammer upon featherbed:
Perspiration poured down the faces OF
the men as they hung to the drill or
poured cups of water down the drill
holes to keep the dust from binding
them. Each drilling-machine emitted
such powerful snorts of cold air that ut
times they created a strong breeze,
which swept away the smoke curling
up from the oil lamps on the minersl
hats.
There you see our method of work
ing" said Mr.. Parker. 1.-The upper
half of the tunnel is drilled before the
lower half 1t is called the heading.
I lie lOW6E ndll Tic DOACAf
First, two holes are drilled in the head
ing from the side of the tunnel The
holes slant inward toward each otherJ
so that when the powder put in them
is fired wedge is blown out OF the
heading. The holes are drilled straight
along the sides, and the remainder OF
the rock, forming the wedge-like cav
ity is blasted out. When the heading
is tuuneled out twenty or thirty feet a
gang of men drill holes straight down
into the lower half, or bench, and
clear that out. The heading is always
fifteen feet ahead of the bench. When
the holes are charged with powder the
men carry the electric light to the
shaft, and go up to the surface them
selves. The charges are fired by cleo
tricity from the surface, and the eXplo-
sions are sometimes SO powerful as to
twist up the iron tracks laid in the bot.
tom of the tunnel. After the explc-
sion gang of men called muckers &c
down and remove the wreck. The
men at the drills have nothing to do
with this work.
Contractor Farwell, a sinewy, clear
headed young western man, took
the reporter down shaft No. p, where
( lI6 WAS Nv INCt
each way. Here everything was IL
slick shape, and almost every mechau
ical contrivance known to miners was
in use.
1--WE have over S25, 900 worth of ma
chinery and appliances exclusive OF tiit
sluooer drills" said Mr.. Farwell, ''auC
we are getting in more every day
Next week we will have our mules
! had gray mule offered TO me very
cheap, but l wouldn't have it as a gift
They are unlucky. We bought a gray
mule once and put it on one OF oui
Mississippi river steamboats,. The re
, suit was that the boat was sunk anC
we had strike among the men. Fol
r the sake of the safety of the aqueduc
wouldn't put gray mule to worl
here for any sum OF money"
After an inspection of the work Mr.
Farwell said:
The rock which is excavated is, il
q great many cases, very fine. 1t be