The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-11-02
UNDER HUDSON RIVER.
WORK ON The GREAT RAILROAD
TUNNEL TO BE RESUMED.

~Ohh ON j hE GdEA hA-LaO A
TUNNEL TO BE RESUMED.
Il W,n Connect the Eastern Metropo-
lis y it'll All the West and South.
Present Operations Beneath the Wa
ter to Secure the Safety OF the FIX
cavstions - Nsllie's Fight With the
Observation-Disclosures Locx.
Copyright
NEW York, Oct 3L-DAy and night for
eighteen weeks big engine has been mark
ing of IN two piston beats a second the
hours required TO pull SS,OO1.OOO out
Of the pockets Of some English capital
lists with which to finish the grea; railroad
tunnel under the Hudson river. When one
Of the French line steamships backs out
from it's pier at the foot of Morton street,
before it can turn around TO start on its
course toward the ocean It Is over
the spot where the work on the river
tunnel stopped when the money
gave out last July The point down under
the water is 1900 fees from the rough
wooden building in Jersey City that
covers the only entrance 70 the excavations
and the engine whose unceasing motion is
keeping up the heavy pressure Of air he
yond the bulkhead that makes close cham
Der OF the last COO feet OF the tunnel.
When the work stopped Contractor Pear
son said he would keep the engine going
for three months. This was giving the
members OF the company who went 10 Eng-
land TO pull the purse strings Of the capital
lists a month for each million they we're ex..
pected to bring back. The three months
have gone by and the compAny's men are
still in England. Word, however, has
come from them recently that they are
meeting with success in their hunt for gold
and the contractor is keeping his engine
going in tine expectation Of soon proceeding
with all the otaer work of the tunnel.
One who visited the tunnel house in Jer-
sew City last summer when the operations
were at their hight would now detect little
evidence above ground that the work is not
still going on below. Half dozen men are
kept busy about the big air compressors and
a daily inspection is made of all parts Of the
long galleries under the river. Fifty feet
down the wide shaft which one descends to
reach the excavations a miners candle is
burning at the mouth OF the tunnel. At
the bottom of the shaft also lies a huge
engine boiler having a door at each end
lt is hauled TO one side TO be ont of
the way. This iron cylinder is monu-
ment of the tragic event Of July, 1850, when
ten men lost their lives. 1t was then the
doorway to the tunnel All air lock through
which the men passed to enter the excava-
tons under the water. then charged to tue
entrance with compressed air. Now the
approach to the Gunnel entrance from the
shaft is by a siG-foot cutting through the
earth. This leads into wide, lofty and
roughly built chamber dimly lighted by the
candle. The first object visible, score OF
feet away, is very wide low arch wittIsa
heavy facing OF brick. 1t is the north
tunnel III which the recent work has
been done. In the center the arch
is hardly seven feet above the soft mud that
forms the flooring of the chamber At the
right is rough wooden shed with cor
rugated iron roof on which the condensed
moisture from the ceiling is dropping like
rain. In this shea are two stalls for mules.
Holding the candle over one of these stalls
the visitor discovers that he Is about in the
center Of the vaulted chamber, and dimly
in the darkness beyond he can 500 the
arched entrance to the south tunnel This
tunnel extends GOO feet out under the river.
No work has been done in 1t during the last
ten years. IL is separated from the north
tunnel by a three-foot wall OF brick work
at the entrance.
For the first several hundred feet the two
tunnels are piled more than half full of silt
so that nothing is to be seen of the lower
brick work OF the great tubes. In the newer
section Of the north tunnel all the silt has
been removed, but this au the entrance has
been left until the last and the tracks for
the mule carts lie deep in the clayey soil
Though all the working parts of the
plant at the tunnel are kept up in first-clas.
order, ready for an immediate resumption
Of operations on the signal from London
one thing is lacking to render the view into
the cutting as strikingly picturesque as when
the work Is going on at the heading. The
| electric lights that cast an illumin tioI
through the extended prospective of tht
tunnel are now shut off Stumbling alons
the muddy tramWay over the ,00l
feet to the first air lcck by the uncertain
light of a candle, visitor to the tunnel il
| likely to wish that an able-bo0ied, Willing
mule would come along with cart strong
enough to carry him and his rubber boot
back into daylight.
Everything about the Hudson river tuu-
mel Is English excepting the mules. A very
important adjunct Of the tunnel since Great
Britain captured it year and half ago has
been Nellie, the little English bull dog
Since the work shut down she has continued
ca duty and any one who wishes to know
the color, and consistency of the silt
through which the big steel cutting shieIC
has been pushing, can save himself tb,
trouble of padding through three-Quarter
of a mile of mud and darkness and the dis
! comforts of entering compressed cir by OK.
aiming Nellie's paws. Nellie continues *
| spend half her time in the tunnel She il
not dependent upon English sovereigns, bu
collects her pay in rats. She has fought
them tooth and nail for year and half
driven them back beyond the last lock-
whore the air pressure is from thirty Il
forty pounds TO the inch, and now sht
misses no opportunity to follow ever person
who enters the tunnel, and to scratch fol
admittance at one of the two heavy iroI
doors that leads to the last gallery AnC
Nellie feels the discomforts of thu
compressed air Her ears {" like a hu
man beings when she comes within th,
fearful pressure, for she will stop and paw
them and look knowingly as the men seizt
their noses, close their mouths and grow
purple in the face in their efforts TO force
the air against the diaphragns Of their ear
for relief from the roaring. Nellie will b.
glad when the money is got and the work i
resumed. Then the mules will come bacl
| and with them the rats Before Nellie came
the tunnel was infested with these rapaciou
vermin. They ate the oats out from unds
the very mouths of the mules. They WERE
increasing rapidly in numbers, and whel
| cut Off from food in one of the further
chambers OF the tunnel they threatened t
become almost dangerous to the lives of tht
men. 1t is impossible to speak OF the recen
and future work under the Hudson rivel
and to omit Nellie. Every new visitor a
the mouth Of the tunnel sees dirty, little
| long-bodied, square-nosed creature. She i
| on the elevator when it descends the shaft
! aud from that moment 10 watching ever
| advance that is made toward the blacl