The Black range. (Robinson, Socorro County, N.M.) 1882-1897, 1894-07-06
A TREMENDOUS BLAST,
One Hundred Thousand Tons Of
Rock Displaced.
It Took Seventy-Flve Men Six Weeks 70
Prepare the Blast-A Dinhcult
and Dangerous Under
,A. 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 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
skillfully planned that, when the mine
was exploded by the electric spark,
the quarrymen stood within three hum
dred feet of the spot without feeling
the shock unpleasantly. People living
on the summit of the Palisades, who
had been warned to forsake 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 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 confused and confusing
wilderness of bowlders.
Superintendent Harvey A. Banks
was busy in preparing for it for six
weeks with gang of seventy-fve
men. 1t was slow work and needed
careful engineering. Mr.. Banks
planned the thing himself, and was
much gratifed 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 its course downward
and obliquely for distance of sixty
feet.
Then it was carried back again
straight through the rock wall until 8.
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 a distance Of some thirty feet or
more, and in a commodious chamber
almost wholly modelled by nature the
workmen prepared nest for the pow
der.
1t 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. Aftey
it was all in position it had to be
tamped in and covered up with earth
and logs, so that there might be no
waste of the force. After this, con-
rections were made with an electric
battery which was placed far above on
the summit of the cliff.
When the charge was fred there was
moment of suspense, and then the
ground trembled under their feet, and
dull rumbling seemed to rise out of
the very bowels of the earth. The big
column of rock could be seen to sway
a moment and then rose up almost bod
ilySas if propelled by an engine work
ing at it's very foundations, and fell
out towards the rivers shore, breaking
into many fragments in its career and
filling the slope with rock deposit
reckoned at Qne hundred thousand tons
at least.