St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-01-30
MOUNTAINS ARE MOVED.
CatskilI Foothills Along the Hudson
River Being Carried Oh for
Building PurpOses.

| up on the mountain side and running tC
the shores of the river mark the spots
| where vandals are fast destroying one Of
the most beautiful and justly celebrated
of all the great foothills of the Catskills
that rise abruptly for hundreds of fee
from the Hudson river.
Since Hendrix Hudson first saw and
sailed up the river that bears his name
all the world has seen or heard of 1t:
picturesque shores, which to-day are
being destroyed and carried away tt
contribute to the building of New York
the wonder city of the world, says
Gotham paper.
Some few years ago spasmodic olt
cries arose from the threats of many New
Workers who loved the picturesque anC
who saw the destruction of the Palisades
going on as they took their Sunday walks
on the Riverside drive. They could see
what their neighbors Of New Jersey
could or would not see-that the far
famed Palisades were surely being
blasted away and a trip up the river
would be robbed of its chief attraction
> W
and to future generations the Palisades
would be a tradition if this was not
stopped.
The esthetic and patriotic New York
er wanted the stone for his streets, but
he wanted his view more; SO that after
many years final action was taken and
legislation secured that stopped the de-
struction of the Palisades of New Jer-
sey.
But stone must be had. and the west
shore of the Hudson lay temptingly near.
Therefore the trap rock concerns moved
their huge plants around the corner OF
the Jersey state line, and set up their
devouring monsters half way up the side
of the Hook mountain, at Upper Nyack.
The largest of the three ravenous mon
sters that are eating away the Hook
mountain is pavement company OF
New York, whose crushers devour about
$4,000 cubic feet of stone each DAY. Four
barge loads of fine trap rock are taken
away every "a hours from this plant
alone. Each barge holds 1000 cubic
yards of stone when loaded and trimmed.
One hundred and fifty men do the actual
work of getting out the stone, though
many more are employed on barges,
tugs, etc.
A ledge or platform is blasted away
from the face of the mountain about
half way up, upon which is situated the
engine house, which contains two big
high speed engines that furnish the
great power that operates the crushers.
conveyors, screens, automatic dumps
and hosting machinery A mighty
steam pump keeps two enormous tanks
filled with water from the river, hun
dreds of feet below. The stone is first
blasted with dynamite away from the
cliff, the face Of which is carefully gone
over after each blast by man lowered
by a rope from the top, who prods and
pokes every crack and Granny into
which he can get his pointed crowbar,
carefully prying away every particle OF
loose stone, which crashes down to the
main ledge, away from where the men
are working. This care is very neces-
sary, as piece of stone does not have
to weigh very much, falling from so
great height, to kill man.
Among the hundreds Of whirring
wheels and slapping belts in the almost
fog of binding, choking
dust, where the workmen could not
breathe without respirators, the great
machines crack and grind
from morn till night.
It is beyond the power of a clever
mathematician to figure out just how
long a time it will take for three big
concerns, each using 15O, 00Oacubic feet
of stone day, to entirely wipe the
Hook mountain OF the map. Perhaps If
some obliging scholar were good
enough to show approximately how
soon that would occur the people of
New York state, as we'll as patriotic
people elsewhere, might be sufficiently
to get legislation against
the vandalism that is surely destroying
the beauty of the far-famed river.