The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-15
nEEpTUNNELDOWN BROADWAY
,u,. yOT NAVE ONE FROM AID
STRTET no SOUTH FERRY?
,..,sr,encpd Engineers Say There's No
" Reason--And There Would BE No Ditch
The Pennsylvania Railroad Tunnel
,croSs Town Not 10 Disturb streets.

The PennSJ lNanta Railroad Tunnel
,oross Town Not 10 Disturb streets.
Vhils the marlborough company Off
AL. are talking Of the impractiCabihty of
loor tunnels for transit lines in New York
to penravlvania Railroad Company il
.Io,,st ro,dv to publish the specifications
r., bidiars for such n tunnel, on which it
I. 10 spend Sjo,ooo0oo
Crossing the island of Manhattan under
r1r,v.,nIrd and Thirty-rourth streets, the
Damn .,D,anIa tunnel is o be bored in such
. manner that it will not he necessary to
disturb the pavement of these streets or
"a interfere with traffic thereon. In fact.
IN, nrouorfv owners along the way will
no, know from surface indications that the
work. is gong on. The heavy travel which
,akes 10 Tmrty-fourth street will not have
10 he diverted to her thor0ughfares, nor
wIl single merchant be put TO the incon-
vari,nrn and financial loss which the build
inr Of tho Rapid Transit subway brought
IN almost every street it touched.
The,uuuel driving will be carried on from
,ha Fast River on one side, from the North
River on the other side, and from shafts
sunk in the property the company has ac-
o,,ired for its stations If other shafts are
necessary. they will be driven on private
nroper,v, from which the workmen may
drift" into the tunnel. or in side streets
where they will offer no Inconvenience,
Where the tunnel enters the Island of
Manhattan at the East River the top of II
will he about ninety feet below the surface
A, n,.n IL,
fourth street the top of the tunnel will be
between fifty and sixty feet under the street
surface.
The whole tunnel az is well known, will
run from the Jersey shore to Long Island.
The difficult part of the construction will
he under the rivers, where the engineers
will have to drive a way through soft soil.
The major part of the tunnel under Man
haitian Island will he through rock, which
ia so easily removed that boring through it
is like child's play compared with sub
aqueous construction or putting tunnel
shield through earth.
THE PENNSYLVANIA $ EXPERTS.
In planning it's tunrel, the Pennsylvania
Railroad created an engineering commits
and brought it down TO details. In the
New York subway building the Rapid
Transit Commission has put its faith and
its powers in William Barclay Parsons, an
engineer still quite young and at the time
Of his appointment without experience of
nature which would suggest him for the
place Not only have the members of the
commission taken his counsel in all Ques-
lions that have called for engineering adj
VICE, but they have made him all-powerful
in the contracts.
Under Contract IL, for the subway in
lower Broadway and p tunnel to Brook
Ivn. Engineer Parson is armed with the
authority to grant or withhold from the
contractor many privileges. 1t is left with
Mr. Parsons to determine what consti-
tutes keeping the street open for ordinary
travel and when and where the contractor
NAV deviate from that obligation.
With the Interborough people, Mr.. Par
\ sons stands against the deep tunnel con-
A/Htion, and has pooh-poohed the pro-
y,sts OF the merchants Of upper Broadway
against an open ditch, declaring that they
ARE fitting at windmills.
rep tunnels Engineer Parsons sets himself
against the eminent engineers who planned
the Pennsylvania Railroad tunnel and
on whose judgment the railroad company
ia investing s5O,OOO,O 900. The head en-
gneer of the impracticable deep tunnel
for the Pennsylvania is Alfred Noble, presi-
dent of the American Society OF Civil En-
gineers, a member of the board OF survey
Of the United States Deep Waterway Com
mission appointed by President Mckinley,
and a member of the lsthmian Canal Com
mission.
THINGS FOR MR.. PARSONS TO LOOK Up.
Bv resolution of the Rapid Transit Com
mission on Thursday Engineer Parsons
was directed to make careful inquiry and
report without delay as to every new method
Of tunnel building, 80 that in future opera
tons advantage may be taken Of every
known engineering method that will tend
to obviate the evils complained Of in the
subway work thus far, and those naturally
apprehended by the Broadway business
men. When this resolution was adopted
Mr.. Parsons was away on vacation. He
is expected home on Tuesday or Wednes-
day Of next week
If Engineer Parsons conducts a careful
inquiry he may not discover any method
new 10 the engineering world, but he may
earn something about methods long In
Use elsewhere in tunnel construction and
shown by experience to be most feasible.
THE DEEP TUNNEL PLAN.
Two engineers of the highest reputation
in their profession told q reporter for The
SuN yesterday that there was not the least
obstacle from an engineering point Of view
to the building of deep tunnel from Forty
second street down Broadway to South
Ferry.
BY adopting such plan the Rapid Tran
sit Commission could solve the question
Of construction now so agitating business
interests between Forty-second street and
Union Square and augment the existing
and the planned underground system by
a trunk line to carry the traffic up and
down this much-travelled four miles Of
Broadway. IL would not interfere with
the branch in Broadway from Ann street
70 Bowling Green which is TO be a near
surface subway only twenty-four feet
under the pavement. II would run be-
meath that
Connections could be made at Forty
second street with the subway system, at
Ihrty-fourth street with the Pennsylvania
railroad tunnel, and at South Ferry with
me Brooklyn tunnel, which Andrew Onder-
donk has begun.
10 get below the Pennsylvania Railroad
Iunnel at Thirty-fourth street and Broad
way the deep tunnel would have TO carry
Ns rails probably 100 feet under the street
surface Grades may easily be changed
SSnere The electric car IL used, for, as The
GUN told few days ago, the London tube
suhneIs have rising and falling grades
10 mat the tunnel ia nearest TO the surface
dc the stations
d. tunnel Of that depth would he cut
through rock from Forty-second street