The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-10-09
The New York Subway the
Greatest Thing of It's Kind
Ever Undertaken.
NO OTHER COMPARES WITH Ut
What It Is Expected to DO in
Solving tic Most Difficult City
Transportation Problem.
BY Bassett Staincs.

It'd sew YORK. Oct. s.--TRcre are greater
engineering works going on III the world
to-day. For example. tile construction
tion works on the Nile, which, as their
creator, Sir William Garstin, proudly
l5onsts Will live In the use and obser-
walton OF mankind long after the atl-
tlellt monuments OF tho Egyptians have
~ disappeared beneath The sands Of the
:Subian desert. But Of It's kind the New
York subwaytsls the greatest thing yet
done, and It is also the greatest en-
rineering enterprise OF any kind In the
United States to-day.
It will be opened throughout nearly
he whole Of It's length In the course Of
he present month, If strikes do not fur
her delay ,hcscompction u tho work
u Is practically finished from the resi-
dental districts away uptown to the
great business section ironnd City Hail.
Some work is still going ON farther down.
inHn towards the Battery, and Misc at
The northern extremity OF Manhattan
and OH the klyn extension.
Will Exceed All Others.
Time was when the Gothard and Mont
i Gents. tunnels were held to be consider.
able holes in the earth. They are mere
rabbit burrows In comparison with the
vast shaft which has been driven long
:.
\ haitian. g. 4 Il s5s3
Or take instead, the greatest cxcava-
& lions made by vanished lions.
Great as are the caves OF E!ephanta and
The temples Of Karnak and Of Abooslm-
bel on the Milo bank, the floor space OF
q the stationss of the New York subway.
taken together, Is greater than that Of
any two Of them, and when the Brook
4 lyn and tnder-fhe-r.Yer tunnels TO be
made are completed. such stational areas
will exceed in combined space all the
3 rOok-hewn temples OF the ancient world 1
Known to- archaeology
This Is the statement OF an engineer
connected witt, the work who happens TO
4 be gifted with a c$imnglnation. But
none The less he possesses that precision
OF detail which properly belongs to his 4
81 profession for he has computed Il that
: the earth which has been. or will be,
excavatcd In the making Of subway
h amounts TO exactly ], 100. 2SS cubic yards
The rock lunneled amounts TO half q
Y million yards; the rock excavatcd, to
81 more 4 han double that quantity.
Some Striking Figures.
Here are some other figures which
speak for themselves as 10 The nagni-s 4
tide OF the work:
Steel used In the structure, 500 tons; ,
cas-. iron, n mere tr!ne OF < 0.0J tons:
concrete, far over 10000 cubic yards
water probing. more than 7O.dD cubic 4
yards; brick. 2o.0Qo cubic yards: vault
lights, over !, 600, each shedding is
beams for a radius OF many yards;
total length OF track approaches, about
Il 5000 feet. These figures do not In
clude Gti.ef great Brooklyn extensi>n by
& way OF the Battery tunnel, which8is al
ready under way: or, other schemes for
the extension o. the subway servlce.
y fltEerEmooscd or IN active process Of ea-
\ ccution.
Tho Ptolen,es and the third Rameses
{ bnilded monuments In their day, but
4 they did nothing SO vast as his.
I'm the days Of the Caesars said /
& New York engineer. Pliny tells us. It
g{ took thirty houslnd men eleven weary
Il years to cut II tunnel three and q half
miles long To-day, employing less than
.welve Thousand men, the New York
masters Of engineering mechanics have
made tnnnclcqual in capacity o one
Of over nifty niles In length like that
4 or Rome, toy. say nothing OF some ten
miles OF elevated structure and the ex-S
\ cavstion OF extra areas fornnderground
stations.
True. here are other underground roads .
in the world !: butt compared with them.@
This one Is as "al Lombard street 10 a
China orange, The famous '.twopennyE
tube, In London, for example, about
\ covers the distance from the Battery to
{ Torty-second street. where the real
Il Journey to the end ofsthe line Is hardly
q beginning.
Its Appalling Dimensions.
1t has been carefully estimated by ems
Eineers that If the subway were Ia single
tunnel six feet high and three feet wide,
al would reach from New York to Chi
cago.9 Tho part excavated through the