The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-04-02
IT WILL Be 1 VALLEY.
The Board of Trade Com
mittee Talks With the
Railroad and Reports.
ABOUT THE TRACK ELEVATION.

There Will Be Hole at Washington
Street Four Feet and a Half
Deep, and Some People Kick.
Humphrey w. Carr and Thomas H.
Williams, Of the Committee Of the Board
of Trade appointed to ascertain from the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company to what
extent the elevation of its tracts will dis
arrange the existing grades of the street.
visited the railroad depot yesterday after
noon and had long conference with
Chief Engineer Brooks. The Chief
Engineer displayed the maps and made
specific statement to the committeeman
of the plans in contemplation by the Road,
The committeeman were astonished by
the information that the company pro-
poses to reduce the grade Of Washington
street at Railroad avenue four feet and q
half below its present level. The in
creased descent is to begin at Montgom-
cry street, on the south; the present grade
of the street is to be reconstructed north
to Steuben street. The distance between
Montgomery street and Railroad avenue
is so short that the pitch of the street to
the four-and- d-a-ha1f- feet depression will be
very steep. The descent on the other
side, from Steuben street to the four-feet-
and d-a-half depression, will be scarcely less
steep.
A HOLE FOUR FEET AND A HALF DEEP.
But this is not the extent of the grade
disturbance at that point. Plymouth
street is to be pitched eastward toward
the depression, so that there will be be-
meath the elevated track at Washington
street a four and half foot hole with
the grades of the streets from all direc-
tions pointing toward it.
At other points the depression will not
be considerable. In fact, it is only at
Warren street that any other depression
of the street grade is in contemplation at
all, and there the street under the tracks
will be reduced only a foot below the
present grade
Engineer Brooks explained to the conn
mittee that much as the proposed reduc-
ton of grade at Washington street may
be objected to, it is an engineering neces-
sity. The company is required to give
thirteen feet in the clear beneath their
trestles and it cannot be done at Washing
ton street unless the street be sco0ped out
four feet deep beneath it,
THE GRADE OF THE TREsTLE.
| The trestle will be level toVarick street,
where it will be slightly bumped, so as to
give the exacted space beneath In the
clear. 1t will be a gradual incline to
Washington street, where there will be o
slight rise into the depot for safety. The
continuance of the descent into the depot
might run the trains into the river, and at
Washington street the tracks will begin
to take an upward tendency to break the
| impetus of incoming trains. The descent
WASHINGTON
street is necessary to the speedy making
up of trains and the shifting of the cars.
Very many business firms do business
north of Railroad avenue, and they are
protesting vigorously against the pro-
posed depression of the pavement at
| Washington street. They say that their
| trucks, which are compelled to go through
| Washington street on their way to the
| ferry with merchandise, will find it diff
| ficult if not an impossible task to climb
| the steep grade proposed to be made be-
| tween Railroad avenue south to Mont
| gomery street. and Railroad avenue north
| to Steuben street; that the wear and tear
| on their teams will cost them nice
penny, and that if it be necessary to drive
! into and out of the valley the company
proposes to dig out or to go up to Warren
| street and escape it. They will be forced
| to reduce the size of their loads, and to
make 100 loads of merchandise that they
| can now carry in eighty-five loads
CANNOT AID BOTH.
| The committee is unable, however, to
recommend plan by which both the COM
many and the business men can be pleased.
1t is feared, too that a hole four and
half feet deep at Washington street will
| uncover one of the city's great sewers,
| and that in wet seasons a lake. that it will
need boats to cross, will be formed IN the
| cavity.
1t was learned also that solid wall Of
masonry, to sustain the tracks, is to be
| built by the company at Green street. 1t
| is doubted if the ssfilled-in" land at that
point will bear this great weight without
| disturbing grades in all the region round
about. The extent to which the filling-ln
| done at the Point of Rocks year or two
| ago for the junction Railroad heaved up
| the streets in that neighborhood is re-
| called, and the effect of the placing OF this
| great weight of masonry at Green street
will, it is feared, be about the same.
| BULGING UP THE GROUND.
| At the Point of Rocks the pressure or
| the filling in forced the soft earth under
meath out of place, and it was driven to
| remote points under the crust. The result
| was that for as many as three blocks
away there were great ground swells that
wrecked some houses and raised all into
| the air.
One man found that during the night
| his back yard had swollen up to the
| height of his back parlor windows. The
! foundations of row of frame buildings
near by were raised and depressed so that
| they were torn apart and their walls
broken as by some powerful hand, and on
one street it is said that a ground swell
| carried lamppost from the south side
walk to the north sidewalk. Fear Is en-
/ tertained that the masonry at Greene
street will produce equally serious and
much more disastrous underground dis
/ turbances.
The committeeman will report what
| thew learned to the whole committee, con-
sisting of, besides themselves, George
| w. Clerihew, Philip E. Martin and
| George r. Hitler. They will report the
results of their deliberations to the Board
| of Trade at the meeting to be held on The
| 18th inst.
| The committee, when sought for infor-
| nation as to what recommendations they
| will probably make to avoid the difiicul-
| ties of the situation, refused to be inter-
viewed
Il