Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-05-24
A TREMENDOUS BLAST.
One Hundred Thousand Tons of
 Rock Displaced.
It Took Seventy-Five Men Six Weeks tc Prepare the Blast-A Difficult
 and Dangerous Under
 taking.

One of the largest and most success full blasts on record was recently made in the Palisades two miles north of Port Lee ferry, and about opposite Port Washington on the Hudson river. The blast removed about a thousand feet of the face of the cliff, tearing it off to the depth of three hundred feet.
 The beauty of the blast, says the Boston Globe, was that, although two tons of dynamite was used, it was so slxillfully planned that, when the mine was exploded by the electric spark, the quarrymen stood within three hun dred feet of the spot without feeling the shock unpleasantly. People living on the summit of the Palisades, who had been warned to forsalxe their houses at the moment of the blast, didn't even report a window glass broken.
 The report of the four thousand pounds of exploding dynamite was less noisy than that of the ordinary blast ing operation familiar to the residents of the uptown district. All that was noted was a grumbling as of subter- ranean thunder, and then the great column of rock known as Washington's head rose gracefully and in a solid mass, and fell crumbling on the slopes below, where its fragments now lie dis tributed in a confused and confusing wilderness of powders.
 Superintendent Harvey A. Banks was busy in preparing for it for six weeks with a gang of seventy-fve men. It was slow work and needed careful engineering. MT. Banks planned the thing himself, and was much gratified that his calculations proved so near the actual results achieved.
 In the first place tunnel was drilled near the base of the big rock, which lowered up three hundred and fifty feet above the heads of the miners. This tunnel was extended about thirty feet into the solid rock, and was made just large enough for man to crawl into. At that point the tunnel was made to change it's course downward and obliquely for distance of sixty feet.
 Then it was carried back again straight through the rock wall until a vertical seam or split in the formation occurred, which offered an admirable resting place for the destroying dyna- mite. This seam was followed down for distance of some thirty feet or | more, and in commodious chamber almost wholly modelled by nature the workmen prepared nest for the F 1w- der.
 It took several days to carry the dan gerous stuff through these tunnels and load it into the rock chamber. This was ticklish work, and the men, mostly Italians, didn't relish it much. After it was all in position it had to be tamped in and covered up with earth and logs, so that there might be nc waste of the force. After this, con nections were made with an electric battery which was placed far above on | the summit of the cliff.
 When the charge was fired there was a moment of suspense, and then the l ground trembled under their feet, and dull rumbling seemed to rise out ot the very bowels of the earth. The big
 column of rock could be seen to sway | a moment and then rose up almost bod fly, as if propelled by an engine work
 ing at it's very foundations, and fel
 out towards the rivers shore, breaking
 into many fragments in it's career ant
 filling the slope with rock deposi
 reckoned at one hundred thousand tom | af 1aaSt