Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1890-11-21
A BIG ENGINEERING FEAT.
GREATEST BRIDGE IN THE WORLD
TO SPAN THE HUDSON.
A Forty Million Dollar Steel Struc-
ture Will Connect Jersey City and
New YORK

world is to span the Hudson River from
New York to New Jersey, says letter
from New York to the Chicago Herald.
1t will be bigger and longer than the
enormous structure in Scotland which
crosses the Firth of Forth and is the
most extensive structure in existence
built on the cantilever principle: 1t will
be one-third longer and much wider than
the suspension bridge which unites New
York and Brooklyn, and will cross the
water at greater elevation by twenty
feet than does the East River bridge.
It's cost will be about $40, 900, 900 and
five years will be required to construct
the work. As the new acqueduct is the
marvel of the nineteenth century in hy-
draulIc engineering, SO in bridge con-
struction will the proposed structure be
the wonder of the age.
The engineers, Thomas G. Clarke and
Charles B. Brush, have practically deter
mined upon the location of the approaches
on the opposite shores, but of course they
decline to make that knowledge public
as yet.
The law says that the bridge must
land in the metropolis between Tenth
and 1S1st streets, on private property, to
be acquired under the right of eminent
domain. In New Jersey it will prob
ably start from the lower part of Palissde
Ridge in Jersey City, where the ground
is 100 feet above the level of the Hud-
son, and a natural grade to the ap-
proaches of the bridge would be secured
without the building of an elevated via
duct. If this proves to be the site Sc
lected the most reasonable assumption
would be that the New York terminus
will be in the region of Broadway and
Forty-second street. Thus passengers
from the South and West will be
whirled into one grand union station.
Into this will also run the trains of the
Long Island Railroad, which will cross
the East River by tunnel that will be
continued under Forty-second street to
the Grand Central and also to the great
union station, similar to that of the
Northwestern Railway in London.
Being built upon the cantilever prin-
ciple there will be but single span
over the river, with tower on either
shore. Grain storehouses will be under
the bridge and also under the tracks
along the Palisades. The freight cars
will unload by chutes extending to the
tops of these warehouses. The bridge
will be of steel, and 2400 feet from span
to span.
1t will have six railroad tracks, Its
bottom will be $50 feet above the
rivers surface and its top will be fifty
feet still higher. After the granite piers
and approaches are constructed the
bridge will be put together section by
section, the steel being brought to the
spot on floats from the mills ms needed.
The latter part of the stupendous un-
dertaking will be the easiest of accom-
plishment.
When the Herald correspondent called
at the office of the bridge commissioners
he found ex-Judge George w. Green, the
father of the bridge project, with Secre-
tary Swan both busily engaged in the ex-
animation of mass of plans and esti-
mates. Judge Green SAID: "The cost
of the bridge itself will be about $15,-
600, 900 and the total cost including ap-
proaches and stations about $40, 900, 900.
OF this sum $40, 900, 900 will be raised
by sale of stock and $50, 900, 900 by the
issue of bonds. The passenger stations
will be built of steel, and large enough
to admit all trains that now enter New
York, New Jersey and Brooklyn. 1t
will have twenty tracks, side by side,
and be 1900 feet in length The grade
in and out of the city over the bridge
will be forty feet to the mile. The roads
accommodated by the bridge are the
Pennsylvania; Central Railroad of New
Jersey; Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western; New York and Erie; New
York and Greenwood Lake, New York,
Susquehanna and Western; New York,
Ontario and Western, and the West
Shore, with the smaller roads operated by
or having connection with these corpora
tions. The roads enumerated reach
every section South and West Their
passenger traffic is about sixty millions
year, and the freight reaches the enorm-
Gus sum of S0,000,0 900 tons yearly.
When this bridge is constructed the dis
comfort and delay passengers now ex-
perience in crossing to New York on
ferryboats will be at an end, and the cost
of transportation of baggage and trans
shipment of freight will no longer exist.
''It is evident that New York is reach
ing the limit of its resident population.
While the latter can extend north and to
Long Island, it will also naturally ex-
tend to the west of the Hudson, where
is an inviting field for residence. While
this territory in New Jersey will grow in
population it will not take from New
York any of its population which it can
more favorably accommodate. There
will have to be provided system of
rapid transit over the bridge to accom-
modate those living within short dis.
tance of the metropolis. Within twenty
years the beautiful region all about the
Palisades will contain the homes of thou
sands of those who will seek this quar-
ter to avoid the high rents and excessive
cost OF living in this city. In every as.
pect the bridge will be blessing to the
METROPOLIS and TO the commercial inter.