The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-10-18
a BOTTOMLESS PIT.
Futile Attempt of Connecticut Railros
Company to Fill 1t.

Futile Attempt of a Connecticut Railroad
Company to Fill 1t.
At Towantic, a little village on top
of the mountain ten miles west OF
Waterbury, the New York & New En-
gland railway company is endeavoring
to fill in what is apparently bottom
less pit. This pit is exactly on the top
of the mountain, at an elevation OF
fully one thousand feet. When the
route for the railroad was surveyed 1t
was run directly across this swamp
the nature of the marsh, of course, not
being known. 1t is only about two
hundred feet from one edge to the
other, but what it lacks in width it
makes up for in depth, and thas prov
en- to be practically without bottom.
When this point was reached III con-
structing the rOadbed it was decided to
build a trestle across the swamp as the
quickest and most practical wav of
getting over The first piles that were
dropped endwise in the mud prepara-
tory to driving them down to a solid
foundation sank nearly out of sight of
their own weight. Other poles were
placed on top of the first ones and cas-
lily forced down to a depth of nearly
sixty feet. Upon these poles, the
bridge, which is about two hundred
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 sink
ing out of sight, and it was finally de-
termined 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 a
horseshoe was constructed around the
edge of the swamp, to be used while
the old bridge was being filed 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 putting in hundreds of
old ties to serve as a foundation for
the ground. Already two thousand car
loads of gravel have been dumped into
the swamp from the bridge and it set
ties 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 a big iron
pillow is attached to the engine, and
the pillow drawn over the cars, forcing
the gravel off on either side. This ma
terial is loaded upon the cars by big
steam shovel in a nearby gravel bank,
and the loading and unloading is but
the work of a few minutes. But the
porous and false bed of the pit has an
oil
that is dropped into it, and it viii 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 place should be located at the
peak of mountain, but it is not with
out parallel. An almost identical diff
Guilty was encountered by this same
company when building its road over
the chain of the old Fishing mountains
in New York state. The road here
skirts large lake known as Whaley's
pond, which covers several hundred
acres. Gravel and rocks that were
dumped in the roadbed here during
the day would disappear in the night,
and at one time, while a train load of
soil was being unlOaded, the filing
slipped from under it, carrying several
cars into the pond. These were never
as they went completely
out of sight in the mud. While gravel
was being fed into this apparently bot
tomless pit without interruption, it
was noticed that an island was gradu-
ally rising out in the lake fully one
thousand feet from shore. This phe-
nomenon continued just so long as the
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 IT, considerable proper
tons, and when it stopped the road
bed became solid, and has never caused
any trouble since. This will probably
be the result of the attempt to I'LL up
the hole at Towantic. Hartford Comm
Times.
TovaI Suhiecf