The evening world., 1894-07-14
EAST RIVER TUNNEL THROUGH.
A Gas Company Accomplisbes q
Big Engineering Feat.
Shaft Extends Through EartI, and
Rock for Over y, 800 Feet.

The Ereat tunnel Of the East river Gag
Company is finished through from r,at
Scventyhrst street to RavenswocI
Long Island CIV. aud ON Monday next
at noon. President Emerson Mcmillan.
secretary GEORGE q. liavrn, Chicr En-
sinecr charles VI. JNouHa aud IN" Board
or Directors "lll give an invitation
promenade through ths tupucl I, the
representatives OF the press. followed by
lunch in the Generator house Of The
gas works, at 80
boat win carry the prom"nad"
party 10 tn" tunnel. leaving Ia. foot OF
Wall street At ll.ic A. NJ. SIM" May,
lh'2. with short rrsrit"s, gangs IT thirty
itre workmeu each have been working
night and day, one from the Ravens
wood end, the other from tn" New York
end of the hrl" IN the ground. and at II
o'clock last Wednesday night. Loo tr"t
from S"vcntv-iirst street, and $50 feet
rror1 the Hav,uswuod shaft the. drills
&, TIA" two gang" clash"d together. and
I'VE minutes later a workman ,rIwlei
thr'Lrl "A hol" IN the hchdiuE Just bis
rh3"i,n to admit the passage OF his
Toe seventy worNmen cheerel and
then they knocked uif long enough to
ascend 10 terra hrma az S"vcnty-iirm
street and luam two kegs OF lager beer
IN waiting there
This morning ia" hole was cleared ont
So that tn" tunnel was completed SO far
as IN" excavation Is concerned.
IL is a stup"rdous piece OF work. To
begin with. two shafts, each nine feet
square, wer" sunk, one at the foot ~
SevSnty-iir,t street. nn tn. hluff that
n,veIhnnss East River there: tn" other
Innt at IuN,ngVDnl These shafts "a ~
rugged With elevators. They descend to
the level OF the floor Of the tunnel
That IA l@ feet down in the bowels Of
the earth ON the New York side and Ia
fe"t a. RaNenswood. To Illustrate. 1t
may Ice stated that the floor of BROOKLYN
Fridge Is lII feet from the water. and
that in the fifteen years since the spans
were stretched across the river only
seven vessels nav" appeared in New
York harbnr with mnsts too tall TO pass
unler the bridge.
The tunnel IL g.54i4 feet long. 10 feet
wide and $ J." feet high IN the centre Of
the arch. There were tons ~ solid rock
to blast out, and altogether about $4,000
cubic feet OF solid matter to he removed
Prominently from the place where nature
had placed It, and all this had to be
toted in little cars on Il miniature rail-
way to the shafts. hoistel 10 the surface
on tha elevators and carted away to "A
place where 1t would be more useful:
The men working down in the hole
had TO depend for air To- breathe upon
a battery of high pressure air-pu,nps
that forced pure air down into the tun-
mel through pipes tina, had to be length
ened each day as the work advanced
further into the earth.
The tunnel IL almost n half mile long,
and passes under Blackwella Island the
west and the east channels of the East
River The work was begun in May,
1892 vet SO carefully and accurately were
the plans drawn and followed that to the
satisfaction of everybod even President
Mcmillan. who thereby lost two bottles
OF phiZ to the triumphant Jacobs the
two ends of the tunnel met almost eX-
actly, the variation being just half an
inch.
The tunnel has been rooted with heavy
steel plate arches, except where solid
rock made II unnecessary. and when
completed 1t will be noored with solid
concrete.
1t IL designed TO carry three immense
gas mains from the generators at Ra-
yenswood to the mains that will feed
the service pines Of the East River Gas
Company in New York One OF these
mains will he iS inches in diameter
The other two will 81 inches each.