The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-10-07
ToWAN TICS BoTToMLEss PIT.
Futile Efforts of Railroad Company to
fill a Hole in the Ground.
(Fron the Hartford Times.)

VII Oku uiS I1dl pLOlo LAbiSo.J
AT Towantic, village on top of the
mountain ten miles west of Waterbury,
the New York and New England Rail
road Comapny is endeavoring to fill in
what is apparently bottomless pit. This
pit is exactly ON the top of the mountain,
at an elevation of fully 1000 feet. When
the route for the railroad was surveyed it
was run directly across this swamp, the
nature of the marsh, of course, not being
known 1t is only about 200 feet from
one edge to the other, but what it lacks
in width it makes up in depth. and 1t
has proven to be practically without bot
tom.
When this point was reached in con-
structing the roadbed, it was decided to
build trestle across the swamp as the
quickest and most practical way of geJ-
ting over. The first piles that were
dropped endwise in the mud preparatory
to driving them down to solid FONDA
ton sank nearly out of sight of their own
weight. Other piles were placed on top
of the first ones and easily forced down TO
depth of nearly sixty feet. Upon these
piles the br Idge, which is about 200 feet
long was built, and it has been a thorn
in the side of the company ever since.
Eternal vigilance has been the price of
keeping the railroad from sinking out Of
sight and 1t was finally determined to
fill in the hole But this is proving to be
formidable feat.
Before the work of putting in gravel
was begun a new track resembling q
horse shoe was constructed around the
edge of the swamp, to be used while the
old bridge was being filled in, This was
done from fear that the gravel would
settle and force the structure out of place,
and the precaution was well taken. Work
was begun early in the summer by put
ting in hundreds of old ties to serve as a
foundation for the ground. Already
into the swamp from the bridge and it
settles out OF sight nearly as fast as it can
be put in.
Engines are not permitted to cross the
bridge any longer. A train load of gravel
is pushed out on the bridge, the wire
cable of big iron plough is attached to
the engine, and the plough drawn over
the cars, forcing the gravel off on either
side This material is loaded upon the
cars by big steam shovel in a nearby
gravel bank, and the lading and unload
ing is but the work of few minutes.
But the porous and false bed of the pit
has an enormous appetite for the material
that is dropped into Ii, anG 1t Will be
some time before the Yielding soil is made
firm enough to hold the heavy trains that
must pass over it,
1t is curious freak of nature that such
a place should be located at the Peak of a
mountain, but it is not without parallel.
An almost identical difficulty was en-
countered by this same company when
building it's road over the chain of the
old FishkiIl Mountains in New York
State. The road here skirts a large lake
known as Whaley's Pond, which covers
several hundred acres. Gravel and rocks
that were dumped in the road bed here
during the day would disappear in the
night, and at one time when train load
of soil was being unloaded, the filling
slipped from under it, carrying several
cars into the pond. These were nerve re-
covered, as they went completely out of
sight in the mud. While gravel was be-
ing fed into this apparently bottolnless
pit without interruption it was noticed
that an island was gradually rising out
in the lake fully 1000 feet from the shore.
This phenomenon continued just SO long
as the road bed continued to settle, and
was caused by the pressure of the soil and
rocks that were disappearing as fast as
they could be unloaded. This island
grew to considerable proportions. and
when it stopped thesroad bed became solid
and has ever caused any trouble since.
This will probably be the result of the
attempt to fill UP the hole at Towantic.