The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-09-28
BUSY OAK RIDGE.
The Pequannock River
Diverted from It's Nat
ural Channel.
TO BUILD NEWARK'S BIG DAM
Rapid Progress Of the Work on the
Water syndicate's Contract
Dir. HoxseY's Position.
TO BUILD NEWARK'S BIG DAM
speeial . lAs s..aldag .l1eral,q Nels..


OAK Ridge reservoir when you turn IN
from the main road toward the works. 2
just east OF the reservoir. IF Porter Nor
man or John p. Brown is driving you be
will tell you to alight here and spend half
an hour looking around. A couple OF
hundred men are in sight from the crest
Of the hill which forms ene side Of the
reservoir. The direct path TO them il cut
Off by q chasm blasted through the slate
rock and to be used for the spill-way OF
the reservoir and now carrying the Pc
quannock River Skirting this chasm
you descend the hill, taking care to avoid
slip which would drop you forty or fifty
feet into the river. and break your neck
incidentally. At the foot OF the hill you
are at the centre of activity. The work
Of building the dam is expressing atten-
ton. That carriage over the fat Is Frank
Hox5ey's and the white house half-a-miie
up the road, with half-a-dozen children
playing about it, is the chiefs present
home. A big man talking to Hoxsev is
Davenport, assistant boss. There are lots
of other bosses. little and big, who have
charge of gangs Of men numbering ten
or Dozen
MR.. HoxsET AND THE COMPANY.
II you are Newarker and are polite,
either Mr.. Hoxsey or Mr.. Davenport will
answer sensible questions frankly and
give you good deal of information
They are a little prone, perhaps, to try to
convince visitors that Newark has made
very good bargain, but that is, of course,
quite natural. They are mp to their busi-
ness and are doing II as well as they
know how. Mr.. Hoxsey's relations with
the East Jersey Water Company are
somewhat mysterious He is the q COM
pany's agent and does all the hiring Of
labor aud has full charge Of the work,
Herschel, so far as the engineering is in
volFed, and independently when other
matters are concerned. The money
comes from the Office Of the COMPANY
over the First National Bank in New
York. and the bank provides it on
crafts Dy the company, Of
members ami, There are CLERKS and treasss ,s
ers. etc, in New YORK; but for all praeti-
cal purposes the company consists of
Frank Hoxsey, the Man who Does the
Work; Engineer Herschel, the Man who
Shows How the Work Should be Done;
Garrett A. Hobart. the Man who Runs the
Machine. What Mr.. Hoxsey SAYS goes
But what Mr. Hobart says Mr. Hoxsey
makes go, whether he really approves it
or not, though Hobart and Hoxsey are so
nearly identical that noboay can tell
where one begins and the other leaves of
The main point that the work is pro-
gressing.and that the men get their nay
once In two Weeks-Is indispuUable The
pay Is 81. % a day for ordinary labor, g
day for man and wagon and two horses.
and from 81 day upward for horses.
What Mr.. Hoxsey get sneither you nor /
will ever know.
RAPIDLY PUSHED.
To return TO Oak Ridge reservoir. The
for some special reason. The Golfer dam
which stretches across the valley has
turned the river into the narrow chasm,
and 200 feet lower down the actual dam
is in course of construction. The dam
viii stretch from hillside to hillside and
the work looks strong enough The
'.core" of the dam rests on bed rock, of
course. This was found thirty-tive feet
below the surface, although il was ex-
pected to be found not lower than
twenty-five feet. The excavation is pre-
cisely like that Of deep sewer, and is
hardly wider. The core consists of
well Of cement mixed with broken stone,
looking about dozen feet wide, and on
either side of this bulwark the earth is TO
ne piled up. To make it firm, and to pre-
vent the water undermining the cement
wall, is q slow and laborious task The
earth is brought from the hillside or
from the excavation for the core, = and
spread in a thin layer over each side Of
the core" for couple of hundred feet
Then IL is wet down and a corrugated
roller is driven over it until every square
yard of it has been tanned down and made
as firm and smooth as cellar floor. Then
another layer Of earth is scattered over
the surface, and the process is repeated.
In the deep excavation for the core of
the dam the water flows constantly. Two
four-inch pumps keep it low enough for
the men to work, and seventeen pump
is ready to relieve the surplus collected
during the night ana at the noon hour
The excavation has been mostly through
gravel. but on the western side loamy
sand has been encountered. The work IS
wet and unhealthy, and the men COM
plain of it somewhat. Last week the
company bought q case OF rubber boots
and lends them to the men who work in
the excavation. The water which is
botheFing the engineers and contractors
at the bottom of the excavation appears
60 filter through the river above the cof-
fer dam, but this is not the opinion of
some of the men. They say the water IS
cold and different from the river water,
and that IL probably comes from large
springs The difficulty can be remedied,
but it needs careful work to make the
dam entirely sound.
IN TIE CHAsM.
The gateway in the chasm which is
called the spillway is being constructed
and the overflow of the stream, when the
reservoir is built, will bS governed here.
The river flows through this gorge with
powerful current. Ii is, perhaps, two feet
deep and the gorge does not carry it very
easily. Il ID question whether a heavy
storm will not cause the water 10 over
flow the Golfer dam ana make a good deal
OF 4rouble with the work. so .dashy'' is
the stream. A Call man waded through
the gorge the other day and the expert
ence in the rushing water and with an oc-
casional rock falling from the top of the
chasm was not unexciting. A new spill
way further up the reservoir will soon be
constructed This Will be used when the
reservoir is finished TO carry off the sur
plus water that can neither be stored nor
pass through the present spillway.
Don't linger too long around the works
unless you are not afraid Of fieas. The
pests are all around the works, and they
come from the Italian and Hungarian la
borerA These energetic but unSayory
persons do most OF the digging, while the
carting Is done by men who live in the
neighborhood and who, by the way, are
growing poor at the work. the foreign
ers are mostly fresh from the other side
of the Atlantic. The Hungarians are
larger than the Italians. bat both work
about the same, doing what they are told.
and not grumbling much so long as they
have their beer regularly. They take 3
day OF quite frequently. and they are ex-
tire meIr fond Of game of cards. They
behave themselves very well. They are
Taxi.