Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-16
PITTSBURG'S RED SEA.
ALI Soho Trembles, Fearing Its Pent-
Up Waters May Escape.
AN ANNOYING DRAINAGE PROBLEM
Charges That Carelessness Caused the
Clogging Up of a Big Sewer.
OFFICIALS MAKE USE OF DYNAMITE

| loose, and that seems to be the great ques-
ton in the So hoian mind. Can it get loose,
and if so, how mucho Therefore, Soho
trembles The Red pond is swollen to the
greatest height within remembrance, and
water is still flowing in from sundry cutters,
and despite vigorous efforts no water per-
colates through the sewer outlet once made
and established by the powers that be.
Here is dam. No mighty and puissant
engineer built it as an imperishable record
OF his greatness. Humble citizens, with
still humber dump carts, caused it to grow
to Its present proportions away back in the
year 1872. No cunning contractor rip
raped the dam with huge fiat stones. But
garbage men studded its outer surface with
unassumlng tomato cans No army of
workmen kept their lanterns twinkling like
| glow-worms as the dam grew in heighth.
The unpretentious scavenger emptied
out his wagon with the consci iousness of
virtue at having found
RECEPTACLE FOR TRASH
removed from the alleys of a great
city. There was' no pudding Of clay to
hold the mass of earth together, but hoop
skirts of bygone generation, and scrap tin
and fotsam and jetsam went to fill the
yawning chasm. There was no rubble-it
was all rubbish. And on the top of this
highly miscellaneous formation Soho street
ran its erratic course, losing itself in the
Older thoroughfare, Center street.
/ Thora oarfaip1x1 &c ,,,,,ob 10
the possibility of Soho being wiped into the
Monongahela river by the water now col
lected in the Red pond. With the purpose
| in view of securing an accurate idea of the
situation, DISPATCH representative clam
bered up Soho street from Fifth avenue YES
terday afternoon, and walked up that pre-
| cipitous and badly washed-out thorough
fare, and reached the Red pond just as a
brisk shower had ceased. To judge from
the number of high city officials on the spot.
there was something serious going on. Chief
Geo. H. Brown, of the Water Department;
Commissioner of Highways Andrews; Sam
uel Paisley, in charge of the district, and
Engineer Brennan, of the Brilliant station,
were all on deck, and discussing means for
relief energetlcally. The Red pond was
quite slzable sheet of water. At least 600
feet long and varying in width from ] so feet
to 40, with depth Of from 10 to 10 feet, it
was certainly of ominous size unless held In
check by very strong dam.
THE DAM IS BIG ENOUGH.
The city had been at work on the Red pond
upward of five weeks, and had at one time
had it entirely cleared of water, but the
sewer outlet became again clogged, and the
water, resulting from Fridays and yester-
| days rains rose rapidly, the Surface of the
pond being higher at o'clock last evening
| than was ever before known. The topog-
raphy of the scene is interesting. The yawn-
| ing gap between Reed street and Center
street is bridged by the embankment which
constitutes Soho street. The earth wall is
immense, fully 700 feet wide on top, 300 feet
wide at the bottom of the ravine and nearly
100 feet high, the dam, com
posed as it is of the most
heterogeneous materials and constructed
since 1872, seems strong enough to Withstand
almost any force. The two streets, Reed
and Center, run together, their junction
forming the eastern end of the pond. Fur
| ther out Center street runs through valley,
| and the watershed is natural and of consid-
erable extent In the middle of the pond is
rink belonging to Robert Arthur, Presi-
dent of the Filth National Bank. There
was two feet of water on the floor of the
| rink at o'clock last evening, and
| fears were entertained that the rink would
float off. The water in the pond was only
| II feet below the Center avenue street-car
| lines, and still rising, as water was pouring
into the pond from innumerable cutters. 1t
seems that we'll feet square and AZ feet
| deep led from the bottom of the pond to the
sewer, 400 feet long, which passes under
Soho street, and drains the pond. This
we'll caved in entirely on Friday, thus
clogging the sewer.
CHARGES OF CARELESsNEss.
ct am astonished at the inefficiency OF the
city officials" said very respectable citi-
zen who formed the center of group of
residents. 'The pond was pretty full sew.
eral weeks ago, and the firm of Thomas
Carlin & Co., of Allegheny, brought over
two engines and pumped the water out,
their tubing being put through the embank-
ment in a trench 10 feet deep. The we'll or
drop was exposed and an outlet actually
open, and the men in charge Of the work
| did not have gumption enough to re-
tain the advantage they had gained.
A Golfer dam could have been
built to protect the drop from rise of water,
and pipe line should have been built to
carry away the big drainage that came into
the pond from the junction of Reed and
| Center streets. AS near as I can see, the
original intention was to fill in the pond
and build up the stone drop SO as to control
the fill, A man under pay from the city
was stationed at the drop, and everybody
was allowed to dump there. But by his in
efficiency the fill was so badly handled as to
press the stone drop out from the bank and
cause its collapse. The big bill paid by the
city for the draining of the water has all
been thrown away, as matters are really
much worse than before"
WHAT THE OFFICIALS SAY.
Commissioner Andrews was hard at work,
arrayed in seven-league gumboots and rough
clothes. When told what the criticisms
upon the work seemed to be, he said: "When
we had the pond pumped dry about ten
days since we endeavored to mend the
broken drop, and we could have kept the
| outlet open as it was if it had not been that
| the bottom of the pond is composed of 10
feet of Shiny mud, which slowly pressed
down into the drop and blocked it despite
our best efforts. We put two men in the
mouth of the drop to clean it out. but they
got stuck in the mud and we had to throw
them rope and work with dozen men to
rescue them for several hours. 1t was really
a narrow escape for their lives. think the
mud must be of quicksand consistency.
| Danger? No, not the least, and even if
there was twice as much water there would
be no danger"
Engineer Brennan, of the Brilliant
Waterworks, said: 'I estimate that there
are about 5000, 900 gallons of water here,
and believe that this embankment would
safely withstand three times that amount
| of pressure. The bank is of immense ex-
| tent and not easily disintegrated, and am
positive there is no danger at all"
Chief Brown, of the Water Department,