New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-01-15
THE GREAT HARLEM CANAL.
GENERAL NEwrovs CURIOUS OVERSIGHT.

GENERAL MENTIONS CURIOUS OVERSIGHT.
DILEMMA OF OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES ACROSS
DYcKMAN's NECR-AN ENGINEERING PROBLEM
The beginning of actual work on the great Harlem
Canal last week has made prominent iact VINE" "o
not add much lustre to the Official CAREER OF 'cn0'a
John b. Newton as Commissioner Of Public WORKS OF
This city New-Yorkcrs refer with pride to the fact
that broadway is the street In the world Ihey
sneak of It as beginning at the Battery ana eho'"s a.
Albany $50 miles up the Hudson River. ihe'e 'nas
se some ignorant people who live on VINO sun can
the old Albany Road or the kings0rdgo h"a"' pu' W
tho metropolitan 1t is Broadway clear up !"
Albany. plans for its widening and grading so as to
make IL in keeping throughout with its weil-pavcd
southern end arc tanty going on In the minus Oh
his city's public officials Work on IL also Is Coh-
stantIy going forward Sometimes when the appro-
priations run short the work slackens mp, but al
Iesst once q year, usually Just before election time,
large gangs Of put TO work on this grand
street, and the broadening and grading goes Oh WIN
prodiglous strides.
The last contract given out includes that part OF
Broadway called Kingsbrdge Road and the WORK Vi
improving IL will be pushed vigorously next year "hch
the Presidential election will open way to the en-
Mo, ment of many The great street Will cross
the great just south of Kingsbrdge not lar nom
,he Harlem The limo of the canal is at present
Dycknlans Creek, q shallow, narrow stream. mhcn
General Newton the work To the street
the contract called for bridge over DSchhian'
Creek. having forty foot span and to cost Sio'ooo
Instead Of such small affair as this shallow t'oai
strcam to cross, the unhappy contractor mus nSoA
49, tn face with a huge canal $50 feet wide over
which be must throw bridge having I'll d" ioo ioe'
vide 1t will him nearer $loO'oOo than Sio'ooo
General Newton as head OF the Government engineers
having the Harlem Canal in charge. had better oppor
tunlty than any one else In the countiy lor knowing
that such estimate was to use the language Vi d
,ara con,raetor ridiculous and indefensibe over
sight"
WHAT THE CONTRACT r QUIREs
Tho contractor who is to dig the great ditch across
Dyckman's Neck is John ttery. His contract TO
60 thar a. shall eAcavaie Vt less than 20 OOO cubic
wards a month. 1t is estimated that In the stfoDn
rom Iohnson's rolling MILL where the canal leaves
spuytep luyvil Green the Neck to the Hariem
striking the latter stream In the sail meaao"s aoo"'
Q quarter a mile east OF kingsbridge staIoh' 'hefc
viii tie 10000 yards OF material to DO eAca'a'oo' Va
which onIy about 10000 yards only are oil oarth
the rest being solid rock Under his agreement win
the Government Mr.. Saterly Is to receive DO ceh's
n cubic yard for all excavations above mean low
water and al 10 a cubic yard for all below mean 10"
Tie contractor had twenty teams at work all this
week. and is pushing his CONTRACT forward vigorously
Brand new white piue shanties for his Worhlheh anu
rude stables for his horses now dot the picturesque
Slope of the big hill back of Kingsbridge Village ana
cause wondering comment on the part OF the pas
sengers who flash up and down the Harlem on INC
AVER a'id New-i ORR and Nor'helh i.dinoais
PicIs and shovels have made fine opening ON inc
banks OF Spuyten Duyvil Creek opposite tho rolling
mil he timber has al. boon cleared away anu .lo
dirt Is being hauled the NECK ana dumped lhto
the meadow the Harlem side OF the hill on ground
loasei from }. NJ INchnlan Iol ~ speciai PURPOSE
Mr. Sattery has until june 1852 to complete his
contract The canal the Neck VIII DC 80
feet wide with depth of eighteen feet at mean low
Where 1T runs in the bed OF the Harlem or
OF spuyten Duyvil Creek 1t will be 400 feet wide .
feet deep. The engineers are curious 10 Know
what will be the effect OF the
tv higher than at the East River end of the bridge
than at the HUDSON River cad They conhdc MY
count however, on good securing current Vi i'"r
or five miles an hour
PECULIAR IN ISEERING FEATURES.
This great work is in charge of Ueutenan'-Colonel
Walter Mcfarland, U. 6. A VIC has general sdpervis
ion of all the Government improvements arplUd New
York bartcr. The immediate work on tho Canai Is
uh6tr charge of II. II Talcott. George McTaylor, E.
Goodwin and C. T. Mddlebl ook tr Tho engineers are
local little bicwn building overlooking the Har
They have found the engineering features of the under
taking easy With one exception HOY to get s11 una
meadows by the rolling mill sound ngs have shown
the mud TO be from seventy to 100 feet deep and
through this canal will have TO be put for three
qrarters of m'e: Just low TO get solid 9ot1m In
sticky is tOting The abilities Ct the englneers TO
tho ntmost SO faf they way ont of he trouble
II has suggested n at bundles Of os cs lore down
and rock thrown on Them Night mako su'aDe chanhc
in the end
INCREASE OF PROPERTY VALUES.
The effect Of putting through the Canal VIII be TO
mako the land adjoipng It immensely valua be. One
who will profit than anybody else is the venerable
j. Dyckman. whose ancestors settled on tn. lls''ni
wren New-York a trading post of Dutchmen Just
nvsr from Holland II las beel sometime coming but
the march of improvement has made the family wealth
al and caused the pl sent members 10 bless DO
wisdom of their old Kn'ckei booker ai'eitn when he
picked out his home at Kinesbridge OF the thousands
Of acres that he pre-emptod Mr. INchhan sun has
eighty In his possession Eighty ac eS In New
York city Is modest little property Mr. Dyckmans
ueighboIs think 80
There has been heard some bitter criticism OF the
Dock Department because of its action IA casi ing
large par the meadow around its Ono hundred and
fifty fth-st station to the Manhattan Elevated Railroad
for a years term with privilege of two renewals
This privilege of thirty years occupancy of what will
be extremely valuable water front tie Canal, II Is
asserted. obta ned for entirely inadequate con
-sideratlon
~ A WllRTHY MILY