Evening journal., 1902-01-28
Many Injured in New York
Rapid Transit Subway
SEVERAL BUILDINGS WRECKED
Dynamite Stored at Park Avenue
Shaft Of Tunnel Exploded, Causing
Death and Damage

New York, Jan. 2S.-The reserve
supply of high explosives stored at
the Park avenue shaft of the Rapid
Transit tunnel. now in the course of
construction, blew up shortly after
noon yesterday. The giant blast killed
elk persons, injured hundred
others and seriously damaged all the
property reached by the flying debris
and the vibration of the shock.
Those killed were:
CYRUS ADAMS, at the Murray Hill
Hotel
JAMES CARR. 80 years old.
waiter employed at the Murray Hill
Hotel.
LAWRENCE HINE, 20 years old,
of Ansonia, Conn.
]. RODERICK ROBERTSON, of
Nelson, B. c., a guest at the Murray
Hill Hotel.
RALPH II. THOMPSON, assistant
engineer.
THOMAS TUBBS, master mechanic
FOR Contractor Ira A. Shaler.
The irregular square formed by the
Murray Hill Hotel on the west, the
Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital and
the Grand Union Hotel on the east,
and the Grand Central Railroad sta
tion on the north, was the scene of
the explosion. The buildings named
sustained the greatest damage, but
the area affected extended for several
blocks in the four directions from the
centre.
]. Roderick Robertson, of Nelson.
3. c., was killed by the debris hurled
with the force of artillery into his
room at the Murray Hill Hotel. He
was general manager in Canada for
the British Columbia Gold Fields
Company, Limited.
The sunken approach to the street
railway tunnel used by the Madison
avenue line cuts through Park avenue,
and the shaft for the Rapid Transit
Subway was run down beside it at the
intersection of East Forty-first street.
The street railway approach was
housed over with a superstructure
used for the operating plant of the
Rapid Transit contractors. Temper.
airy buildings for storage purposes
were thrown up against the super
structure at the mouth of the shaft
and there the explosion occurred. II
tore great gorge in the street, de
rnolished the temporary buildings and
part Of the superstructure, and sent
a mass Of earth, splintered timber
and twisted iron high in the air. Much
Of it went battering against the front
OF the Murray Hill Hotel, and al
though the walls and main structure
of that building stood the shock
nearly every room in the front of the
house was wrecked.
The Manhattan Eye and Ear Hos
pital, on the east side of the avenue
Jared nearly as bad and had to bC
abandoned by the management. The
Grand Union Hotel lost all of it's win
dows and glass partitions. and practi
cally every front window in the Crane
Central Station was shattered. Th'
great clocks on its front towers were
blown from their cases. Thousand
of windows, some of them sever
blocks from the tunnel shaft, fell il
fragments. It was the shower o
broken glass and falling debris tina
injured the greatest number. Tor
rents of water from broken main
poured into the tunnel shaft whil
the wreckage was being cleared iron
the street railway subway, and
was feared that the street nigh
cave in.
The cause Of the explosion and tn
quantity of explosive that blew u
are not definitely known. Severa
causes have been advanced. One wa
that q fire started near the powde
room and that Master Mechanic Wi
liam Tubbs lost his life in a despt
rate attempt to quench it before
reached the deadly fuel. Another wa
that it started from spark produce
by a stray current of electricity.
third placed the balme upon a bias
in the tunnel. It will probably TAX
an official investigation TO reveal tn
true cause of the catastrophe.
District Attorney Jerome visite
the scene and made an investigatio
10 guide him I'm the official inquir
and possible criminal prosecution thi
will follow. Ira A. Shaler, the eng
neer in charge of the work at Par
avenue; John Bracken, a foreman
and Martin McGrath. an assistaI
foreman, were placed under arres
charged with homicide
Fortunately the explosion occurre
at the noon hour. Not more than II
persons were in the main waitir
room Of the Grand Central static
though in the smoking room at Il
southwest corner number Of me
were louneing Some of these we
slightly injured by bits of glass. Fol
ticket sellers we're injured. Th'
stood in the pathway of this blast al