Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-10-27
GREAT SUBWAY
OPENED lODAY
New York's Great Enterprise
Successfully Accomplished
and Formally Dedicated
TWENTIETH CENTURY WONDER
Engineering Feat That Is the Marvel
of the World Completed and First
Cars Operated = Something About
the Great Underground Railway In
American Metropolis.

American Metropolis.
! New York, Oct 27. - New York 5
great underground railroad was for
mally declared upon and ready for
business today. The ceremonies con-
nected with the opening, which took
place this afternoon, were very sim
pie.
The subway is the consummation
of years of study of the transportation
problem on Manhattan Island and
marks the completion of the first stage
of what viii be the most comprehen-
! sive system of rapid transit in the
/ world. Considering the peculiar diff
| ficulties faced by it's builders, the sub
way stands unique as feat of engi-
neering and construction. In the shape
of an irregular Y, with the stem rest
| ing at the city hall, the tunnel runs
north to Ftrty-second street. where it
/, bends sharply west to Broadway and
out that thoroughfare to One Hundred
Third street. This portion of the
| tunnel is q four track system, two
tracks for local and two for express
| train service. At One Hundred Third
street two tracks diverge in generally
northeastern direction, cross under a
corner Of Central park and on to the
| Harlem river, under which it passes
| by means of tunnel, made famous
by the engineering skill called into play
| to complete it. After passing under
the river it continues to Third avenue
and One Hundred Firty-fifth streetl
where the tunnel ends and the lir
is continued upon a viaduct to Bro .
park The West Side branch sof tva
tracks continues north from One n sssl
aaSsa ,q Ls,SBstreet tn Hill,ide Ave.aia
and Eleventh avenue, where it energ-
| es from a tunnel and is continued upon
a viaduct to its terminus, at Spuyten
| Duyvil. Nine miles Of this total of
about fourteen were ready for traffic
| today, but it is expected that the East
Side division and the remainder of
| the West Side line will be ready in
about three months. The recently au-
| thorized line from the city hall under
| the East river to Prospect park,
Brooklyn, will not be completed for
about three years. With that and
other lines under construction and
authorized, Greater New York will
| have between twenty-five and twenty
| three miles Of subway and allied lines.
Ground was broken for the tunnel
| on March 25, 1900, after years Of agi-
tation and legislation, out of which the
| present project grew. 1t had been de-
cided by a municipal ballot that the
city should own the system but that
| it should be constructed under private
contract on money loaned by the city,
| to be repaid by the contractor with in
terest 1t required six years to lay out
the route and plan the size and char
acter of the tunnel and the viaducts,
the work being under the supervision
of a commission of which Alexander e..
Orr was president, and William Bar
clay Parsons chief engineer. This ac-
were issued. There were but two re-
sponses. that Of John B. Mcdonald, a
New York contractor, being the lowest
at $35,OOO,0O0. In spite of the splen-
did franchise involved, the enormous
! difficulties of driving great tunnel un-
der the crowded city, the blasting and
inevitable suits for damage for injured
property and possibility of great cat
astrophe with its attendant liability
deferred all others than Mcdonald and
Andrew Onderdonk, whose bid was
four millions in excess Of the success
full bidder The contract under which
Mcdonald undertook the work provid-i
ed that he should construct the sub
| road in four years at a cost Of $780,
10000, that he should have the right
to operate it for fifty years, with a
right of renewal for twenty five years;
that the city would furnish him with
s35. 100000 by an issue of bonds bear
ing 31h per cent interest, and that in
fifty years he should repay the $685.
100000 and interest by annual install
| ments. The entire property would be-
long to the city and at the end OF the
! lease the city could release the system
on it's own terms to whom it pleased.
The contractor was to make his profit
out of the construction and operation
of the road
The construction of the tube has IN
vo1ved difficulties of a character pro-
bably never before faced in such q
| work. Portions Of it passes under
skyscrapers, involving costly and spec
tally designed supporting systems, ana
practically its whole length lies under
a crowded city requiring the solutlon
of such problems as those involved IN
the displacement of hundreds of sew
ers, many of them great main trunk
coDduits, masses of intricate and inter
laced electric wires. gas. Water ana
steam pipes and all without seriously
interrupting the services of these es-
sentials to the life of a great CITY, old
foundations were encountered in unex-
pected places and qHiclssands, strongly
flowing springs and long forgotten
streams frequently called into play
every device of modern engineering
genius to meet perilous emergencies
Abort three million cubic yards Of ex-
cavatfon were made for the tunnel.
cr,e third of which was stone. AS this
reonired blasting another serious OBJ
stacle was encountered in devisfng
means for the safe use Of explosives.