Evening star., 1902-04-26

to 42d street, thence over to Broadway
and up Broadway to 1O4th street. From
this point there are two branches, one cx-
tending up or near Broadway to 215th
street the other cutting through a corner
of Central Park, under the Harlem river,
and up into the suburbs as far as Bronx
Park. Over this line all kinds of opera
tfons are being carried from the sink
ing of shafts $50 feet down in solid rock
to erecting high bridges and elevated struc-
lures
The most interesting experience the eX-
plorer of the subway can have is to go
down the 1S1st street shaft and walk up
one of the headings. now each several hun
dred feet long. 1t is like going into mine
me heavy elevators sink slowly out of the
daylight, first into dim haze, and then
into the thick smoke made by the blast
lngS and by the miners lamps which the
workmen carry. At the bottom 125 feet
below the surface, one may go either north
or south. 1t is impossible to see more than
a few feet ahead in either direction. The
writer made the trip one afternoon recent
~ Just after the workmen had gone. The
guide picked path through the mud and
water and related details on the way.
Twenty-six feet high f.ere all along
Two tracks. Look out for this mule stable"
Come here. Jenny" he called out to a
moving shape in the darkness ahead.
There are six of these animals down here,
and most of them haven't seen daylight for
a Year. Right above u.s. pointing upward
through the gloom, there used to be big
boulder. When it fell it caught two men
under it. That's the only accident we've
had up here"
The mules the little dump car tracks,
the drills al the ends of the headings, the
blasts and the caVernous gloom throughout
remind one of nothing so much as a huge
mine. For two miles the work in this sec
ton is carried on by boring. On the surface
no sign of an excavation is to be seen save
at the shafts, but next to the Hoosic tun-
mel this piece of the New York subway will
be the largest piece of single tube boring
in this country.
These scenes are not familiar to MANY
New Workers. because they are SO far up
up Manhattan. There has just been com
pleted, however, another section in which
the same kind of work was carried on
When the contra ctor for the section which
runs under a corner of Central Park under
took this piece of work his task was that
of boring a tunnel through the solid rock
without disturbing the surface of the park
There were many nearby buildings and
every unusually large blast was a menace
to the nelghborhood. Still the contractor
accomplished his difficult task without a
mishap. AS an instance of the beautifully
exact calculation which has been made in
connection with every part of the work
the experience of this contractor in con-
Meeting his two headings may be cited.
When the blast had blown out the separat-
ing rock it was found that the two head
iEgs had Joined in one straight tunnel
There was not a fra ction of an inch differ
epce i'll the calculations of each as to the
locat ton of the other.
In marked contrast to the scenes of min
ing life. with its accompaniment of trem-
bling from the blasts and it's procession of
oily, muddy drllers of the rocks, are the
bridge builders, the toilers In the air, far