The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-15
Will COST S4O,OOO,OOO
DETAILS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA IN
DERGROUND RAILWAY SCHEME.
Tunnel and Station Beneath New
York City and the Rivers Will
Take Five Years to Build.

NEW YORK, Dec 1.-THE mammoth
character of the Pennsylvania Railroads
plans for securing an entrance to Greater
New York by gigantic underground cleo
trio railroad passing under the Hudson
river, Manhattan island and the East river
is just beginning to be appreciated.
The company, in conjunction with the
Long Island Railroad which it controls.
proposes TO tunnel the North river and
Manhattan island with two single track
steel tube subways supported by piers, to
hard pan to a site centering at Eighth ave-
nue. and Thirty-second street, Manhattan,
to establish at that point a great under
ground passenger station three blocks long
and three blocks in extreme width and
from there to run three single-track tube
subways, a block apart, to the East river,
and beneath it to Long Island City. The
three tube subways will converge on reach
ing Long Island City and will reach the
surface at point quarter of mile back
from the river, where the Long Island Rail-
road owns a large acreage. Its sponsors
and hackers hope to complete the undertake
ing in five years.
The detailed plans Of this great enterprise
have been made public. 1t remains for the
companies concerned to obtain State and
municipal sanction to carry out the plans
The financing of the project is already as
sured and difficulty in obtaining for it
the sanction of the authorities is expected.
Trains will be moved through the subways
by means of electric motors, and for the
present the plans provide only for handling
passenger traffic, but they are capable of
indefinite expansion.
The whole project, as laid down in the
plans, with its twin and triple steel tube
speedways, its underground station with
two miles of platforms, and it's electrical
motive power, reads like a chapter from
some Utopian novel of the Looking Back
ward stamp dealing with a future when
New York's traffic and much of its bust
ness life will be underground, when there
will be no soil at all left on Manhattan
island, and when most of the population
will have moved their homes across the
East river. Inc cost of the undertaking
may be $40OO0.0 OO possibly more.
The Pennsylvania double tunnel he
meath the North river will be PRACTICAL
submerged bridges of steel supported on
pillars running down TO the solid rocks and
surrounded by steel tubes Is feet inches
in diameter the inside.
The subaqueous bridge" as President
Baldwin, of the Long Island Railroad
Company. called the new construction in
telling about the tunnel scheme TODAY. Is
the invention of Charles NJ. Jacobs of the
firm of Jacobs & Davies, consulting en-
gineers of the Long Island Railroad. Ii
has never yet been tried. and as was said
application to patent it was made in Wash
ington only five weeks ago. but il has been
adopted as it's principle of construction
by the Pennsylvania and New York Exten-
sion Railway Company, the concern or
gained to build and operate the tunnels
and Mr.. Jacobs has been appointed chief
engineer of the company
William II. Baldwin, jr., president OF
the Long Island Railroad Company, said
to-day: 1.-The building of these tunnels
will mean that Manhattan will no longer
be an island and Brooklyn will be put in
direct communication with the transcon-
| tinental railroad lines. 1t will mean that
a passenger can arrive in the heart of the
city from any part of the United States
without change of cars. 1t will mean fOr
| Brooklyn that from a great central station
somewhere in East New York a passenger
| can take a train to San Francisco or any
| other part of the West or South. 1t unites
/ the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Ions
| Island Railroad so that passengers from
| far inland will be able to go direct to the
| summer resorts on the Long island Shores