Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-01-06
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
Various Metropolitan Tunnel
Schemes That Have Failed.

which Was begun Nearly Thirty
Years Ago, hut Never Finished-Ar-
cade HnilVOy--COrbin's Tunnel.
NEW YORK, Jan. 5.-[Special despite
opposition, which Is bad enough, and the
indifference of the public to their schemes,
which is worse, the rapid transit commits
sionors do not seem yet to have been
effeotually downed.
They still hope to see Manhattan Island
pierced from end to end by n railroad tun-
mel through which trains furnishing real
rapid transit shall run. The commission
srs' latest soheme-to help pay tho ex
penses Of the underground road by selling
electricity for lighting and heating pur-
poses-has caused moro talk than any
thing else they have proposed in long
time. 1t Is, of course, directly opposed to
MIR. Cookers scheme, indorsed n few days
ago by Comptroller Coler, to have the
tunnel dug by private parties.
Tunnels That Failed.
Although New York is less advanced in
tunnel transit than tho many other great
cities, it is hero and nowhere else
that the first intramural tunnel road was
projected. Reference is not now made to
the tunnel under Murray Hill, through
which the Fourth avenue surface road
passes, but to n genuine underground sys.
tenn of transit laid out beneath Broadway,
the principal thoroughfare of the town.
Had 1T been completed as begun there
would never have been an elevated road
in New York, or Mt most it would have
been only an aftcrthought
The Broadway tunnel railroad was pro-
jected nearly 30 years ago, when the first
extended agitation for improved transit
sprang up. New York was much small
er city then than now, yet the facilities for
travel on this island were so much inferior
to those we at present enjoy that the stu.
alton must have been decidedly worss
than that from which we now suffer, bad
as 1t Is. 1t was not purposed by the pro-
Jectors Of the scheme that the city should
build the road, but that 1t should he CON
structed by private capital.
OF course there was strong opposition,
some of 1t from persons who honestly be-
loved the building of an underground
road i'm Broadway would weaken the foun-
datlons of the buildings fronting thereon
and some Of il from those who favored the
construction Of aerial or elevated roads
In 1870, i'm order to demonstrate the fall
sity Of the idea that foundations would be
damaged an experimental Underground
section was put down between Warren and
Murray street. rails were laid and car
was put upon them. Access to the line
was had through station under the side
walk Mt the corner of Warren street and
Broadway
To enter the station you had to go
through the basement of the building long
occupied rs clothing store, but destroyed
by the recent big fire that damaged IL tall
life insurance building and tested the fire
proof qualities of the so called SIX yscrapers
The top of the tunnel, which was circular,
was 81 feet q inches below the pavement
level quite low enough TO avoid all gas
and water pipes. The car which was put
on WAS operated some time by pneumatic
pressure. 1t worked well. Nobody claimed
otherwise, yet for some reason, probably
the greater hustling qualities of those who
backed the elevated project, the under
ground scheme finally fell through, and
the car was taken off. But for years
thereafter the tunnel entrance was kept
open, and visitors were allowed to inspect
tho tunnel. In 1891, however, the en-
trance was bricked up, but the tunnel is
still undoubtedly intact and in as good
condition as ever, for none but the best
work was put in, and the best work lasts.
Brought Ont a Great Invention.
Ouo vi luo TtdSoHS lOT slDklDR tne ROAD
so far below the surface was furnished by
the desire to bore the tunnel without stop.
ping the traffic Of Broadway. Down to
that time no practical device for rapid
tunnel machine boring had been perfect.
ed; but, it being obvious that such a con
trivance would be needed II the road were
to be built, one Of Its projectors gathered
his wits about him and invented the ma
chine. 1t may interest the reader 10 know
that, though the machine has not yet been
allowed to scoop out % route for a railroad
under Broadway, It has netted its inventor
good many thousand dollars in royal
ties, having been utilized in the excava-
ton of some famous railroad bores.
Most of the projectors of the Broadway
tunnel road that was begun in 1870 but
never has been finished, are now dead.
They fought as we'll as they knew for the
success of their project, but they failed ex-
actly as most careful observers Of the situa-
ton here now think tho projectors of the
present tunnel scheme will fail.
Other Underground Schemes.
After the failure of the Broadway sub.
road scheme there was another one for the
building of "A socalled Arcade railroad I'M
der Broadway. IL was virtually plan to
build subterranean street as wide as
Broadway itself between curbs At first
blush 1t would appear that this project
could not have been carried through with
out obstructing the traffic of the thorough
fare, but its projectors had an ingenious
plan by which they felt certain this could
be avoided. The Arcade railway, though,
never got 1.-THE as far along on the way
to completion as the Broadway tunnel
Both these underground plans collapsed
80 long ago as virtually to belong to a
generation that has now passed away, but
the woods have been full OF tunnel schemes
here In New York ever since. On one of
these-the proposed railroad tunnel to
New Jersey under the Hudson river-dol-
lars to the amount of millions and men's
lives by the hundred have been squandeF
ed. 1t is now nothing but a couple Of
abandoned holes under the river bed, one
raAChinR the snrfana In Hnhnkan md thu