The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-02
Bv BASSETT STAINES.

says that this timber employed in the
| false work. would build no fewer
than 10000 two-story frame houses,
while another asserts that the rock
taken out by the tunnel would make q
respectable imitation of the Great Wall
of China, namely, a structure three
| feet thick, six feet high, and about 500
miles long.
Greatest of Engineering Fents.
There is no doubt about 1.-THE New
York subway is the greatest thing OF
its kind that mankind has yet done.
The city of New York decided to have
the subway constructed by contract
and leased to the contractor for fifty
years for an annual rental of rather
more than the interest payable by the
city on the bonds issued to provide
means for the construction. 1t is hard
ly credible. but it is the fact that of
all the great contracting engineers in
the world only two could be found to
put in bids for such a vast work They
We're John B. Mcdonald and Andrew
: Onderdonk.
Mcdonald asked for S35 900, 900 in a
round sum. That was about the fig
ure estimated by the engineer of the
Rapid Transit Commission, William
Barclay Parsons. Ondermonk wanted
$50 SOC, 900 and certain concessions. Nc
Donald got the job. and has carried it
out in manner that has met with the
enthusiastic approval of many distin-
gulshed engineers who have inspected
his work.
Long An Elusive Dream.
Rapid transit"-the elusive dream
of New Workers, for so many years
will be something more than a mere
phrase when the subway is running
full blast. 1t is provided by contract
that local trains must run at an aver
age speed of not less than fourteen
miles an hour, including station stops;
while expresses must make thirty
miles an hour. This will easily bring
people from Kingsbridge, at the
northern point of Manhattan, down to
the City Hall in fifteen minutes. Visit
ors from "out of town" will no
longer be able to say, as they always
do say nowadays, Come to our city
and Wen teach you how to travel"
Unlike most underground roads,
the New York subway runs close to
the surface. Throughout most of the
length from the Battery to Harlem,
IL is only four or five feet below the
street level. This makes the excava-
ton about twenty feet in depth and
the platforms of the stations are with
in sixteen and eighteen feet of the
surface. The steps down from the
street to the station are thus fewer
IN number, as rule, than those up
to the present elevated stations The
problem of ventilation-always a diff
ficult one in underground railroads
is much simplified by this nearness to
the street, and the foul atmosphere
That chokes the passengers in Lon
don's "twopenny tube" need not be
feared.
The Brooklyn Bridge Station.
The largest station on the subway
is the Brooklyn Bridge station, which
is really the downtown terminal It's
network of tracks rivals the average
terminal in a fairly large city, and a
few feet above it rolls unfortunately
the heaviest street traffic of the city.
including many electric car lines.
Steel beams, FIVE feet thick, hold up
the immense weight of this traffic.
From this Station at the Brooklyn
Bridge clear up to Thirty-third street
the hub of the universe to many
New Yorkers-the subway consists of
four-track line running in a single
tunnel. Two tracks are for expresses
and two for locals. 1t is arranged mat
/ express trains will run on express
bidOhS Oiliy, anu local trains on local
tracks-an excellent system, which
does not now prevail on the elevated
railways os New York city
The road consists of two double
track tunnels above Thirty-fourth
street, which pass on either side of the
existing Park avenue street railway
tunnel, but at lower level Manhat-
tan is, indeed. becoming honeycombed
in all directions, and the end Of the
tunneling is not yet in sight New
Workers are living in thirty stories
and travelling in three-in tunnels,
! street cars and elevated trains.
Under Busy Broadway.
The subway follows Broadway to
! One Hundred and Fourth street and
| there divides into two lines-one on the
| East Side and the other on the West
! Side. At two points before reaching
One Hundred and Fourth Street the
tunnel has to pass under the elevated
! railway and the task of holding up
/ the great weight of that structure
while the tunneling was going on was
| one of the most difficult that the en-
| gineers had to face. Downtown, they
| dived under a Park row newspaper Of
| fee with such a small margin to spare
! that the ends OF the presses actually
| projected over the tunnel and yet were
able TO keep running without an hours
! loss Of time. Another ticklish problem
] was to run underneath the vaults Of