Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-12
PUSHING NEW STATION
Tangible Evidences of Prog
ress May Be Seen.
RAISING THE GRADE
BIG GANGS OF WORKMEN TOLL
EARLY AND LATE.
Few Persons Have ANY Idea Of the
RAISING THE GRADE
Few Persons Have Any Idea of the
Gigantic Task That Confronts
Engineers

The work on the union station has
Reached that stage where the visitor to the
site may see some tangible evidences or
progress. The huge piles of brick and NOR
tar that remained after the demolition of
the buildings that incumbered the site are
beginning to take shape. and the hand of
the skilled engineer is showing above the
mass of building material.
Every day sees "a change made in the to-
geography of the place. Streets that were
level with the surrounding lots are now be-
low grade. The lots on the north side of II
street have been raised, and piles of stone
obstruct the view in several places. Arms
of huge derricks are here and there, ana
the putting of the steam shovel makes UNI
pleasant music to the ear.
Hundreds of busy workmen with shovels
and picks and carts and horses, are found
hurrying to and fro, or digging out the
trenches for the foundation walls.
Raising the Grade.
For several weeks, men with carts and
shovels have been raising the grade of the
lots about II street. The wide, wedge
shaped plot of ground between LIST street
and the main track of the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad. covering Delaware avenue.
has been filled in.
This is the first stage of the immense fill
that IL to extend almost up to the station
The streets will be literally wiped out CT
existence by an enormous structure of ma
sorry. The person familiar with the condi-
ton of the site before fl was cleared of its
houses will remember the wide space occu-
pied by the tracks of the railroad company
In LIST street and Delaware avenue north
east between F and II streets. The space
almost a ri Y
block.
In clearing the site the houses on the east
side of Delaware avenue were removed so
that a straight line might be run from E
street directly TO the point that was known
as the eastern side of Delaware avenue at
the intersection of II street
line has been surveyed along this line,
and a trench has been dug from ten to
fifteen feet deep. The trench is about
eight feet wide. and in this trench the
foundation of the eastern retaining wall
of the viaduct will be laid.
This retaining wall will be about twenty
five feet high. and will be wider at the
base than at the top. On the opposite side
OF the yiaduct, about where LIST street now
runs, the western wall of the viaduct will
be laid, taking in the wide space described
as that now occupied by the Baltimore and
Ohio tracks
When these two walls are completed the
work of filling in the space between them
Will be commenced. The floor will be laid
on grade, so that it can be used by the
trains coming out of the tunnel from the
south. where the lowest portion of the
grade will be.
The grade will end above II street. where
the southern trains will reach a level with
the floor of the station. Above this floor
will be placed the tracks for the approach
of the northern trains to the station.
Raising Tracks Big Task.
The task of raising the tracks to a level
of over twenty-five feet above the present
street seems a ponderous one. but the en-
gineers in charge expect to experience no
difficulty whatever in it's accomplishment.
The greatest task in connection with this
work will come in the lowering of the
tracks of the street railroad in II street
northeast. These tracks are to be lowered
nine feet below the southern tracks, which
will be on grade over the street. Just
how this work is to be done the engineers
are not yet willing to state. although they
have, of course. formulated their plans.
The work will have to be done without in
terrupting traffic i'll II street in any man
ner.
The lowering of the grade of l, K and L
streets is being done with great celebrity
At present the excavations at these points
look like nothing but deep trenches in
which immense steam shoVels are digging
They will, however, soon take shape, and
IL will not be long before the terminal
company will be making streets of the
vast muddy eXpanse.
The wall of the Viaduct Will extend to
street or near there, it is understood This
wall is to be n massive piece or masonry
The stone that has already arriVed-for the
building of the foundations is some OF the
largest of it's kind that has ever been used
in this city for the construction of wal
or building.
Rut the operations along the line of the
site of the station are but tenth part Of
what is being done by the engineers II
charge The work is going on simultane
ously from LIST and h streets northeast tC
Langdon. and from there TO Magruder. OF
the line of the Pennsylvania railroad.
Gangs Of men are working with the steam
shoyels the patent dumping wagons anC
with pick and shovel all along the line o.
the operations on the north. The neWes
structure along the line is the frame build
ing which has been erected within the pas
two weeks for the Offices of the termina
company near the railroad tracks at K
street
Much Earth Cut Away.
To the south of the Capitol, where the
tunnel work is going on. the conditions
are also taking some definite shape. This
part of the new terminal work Is not seer
by so many persons nor so easily as tina
in the northeast section because of III,
high fence which surrounds this particular
site.
The whole face of the earth at the south
ern end OF the parking that extends from
Ist street southwest TO New Jersey avenue
southeast has been cut away and deer
trench has been gouged by the steam
shovel.
The engines that are to furnish the pneu
matte power by which the tunnel is TO b,
forced through Capitol Hill are all in place
and are ready to begin the work OF finding
an outlet for the railroad tracks at the site
of the station building.
Here, as at the station site. piles of stone
slabs are to be found and row after row o