The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-02
New YOrk's Subway the Worlds Greatest
Effort to Solve the City Transportation Problem
the Thing and the Engineering
Enterprise in the United States Today

the New York postoffice without dis
turbing the work going on there.
The Harlem Arch.
But 1t is not only the underground
work of which the subway engineers
have good reason to be proud. From
One Hundred and Fourth to One Hun
dred and Sixteenth streets they have
carried the line on a single solid con-
crete arch in an open cut. with a span
of forty-two feet. This is technically
regarded as one of the best pieces of
work OF its character ever done. At
the end of this cut comes the long
deep dip known as Manhattan Valley
Which is crossed ON an immense elo-
waited steel viaduct in order to main
tain the grade of the line. From One
Hundred and Fifty-ffth street to One
Hundred and Ninetieth street the tun-
mel had to be bored entirely through
solid rock. and this part of the work
alone Is said to be the longest double
track railroad tunnel in the United
States.
Built by An Army of Men.
On an average the army of subway
laborers has consisted of about ten
thousand men during the past four
years and the cost of excavating took
up about one-third of the entire con-
tract price of $35000,0 900. The drilling
of the rock took up the great part of
the time. 1t it had been drilled by
hand, the engineers doubt whether the
work could have been done in a quar-
ter of century. There has been no
such difficulty in any previous work
OF the kind. The subWays of London
and Paris were cut through clay, and
tldt of Boston tbrOu0b earth
Many unexpected difficulties were
met with in the course of the work.
one was the Interference with the
drainage of the city-running sudden
ly up against a network of sewers
which seemed to effectually block the
path. These were problems sufficient
to turn an engineers hair gray. In
one place, merely as a little side issue
OF their business, the makers of the
subway had to change the system of
drainage of a large district, making
the sewers drain into the East river
instead of the Harlem river. At an
other place they had to tear up net
work of street car tracks and relay
them.
Unlike LOndOn's Tube.
The subway will not be a dark,
miserable, stuffy place, like the Lon
don Underground Railway. 1t is clean
and white throughout, and so thor
oughly lighted by electricity that it
is as bright as day everywhere. The
stations are, in many cases, real works
of art, and all of them are convenient
and comfortable.
The gigantic power house on Fifty
eighth and Fifty-ninth streets, which
vitalizes the third rail. is a structure
of which the makers of the subway
are justly proud. 1t has a frontage
of 200 feet on Eleventh avenue and
extends westward for nearly 700 feet,
while the hight is 1875 feet. 1t is
thus one of the largest buildings in
New York, and one of the largest
power houses in the world. The
weight of the steel framework alone is
about 1900 tons. The total generat-
ing capacity of the plant is about $780,
900 horse power. The third rail sys-
tenn of electrical propulsion is to be
used throughout.
Is Practically Finished.
The subway is now practically COM
pleted throughout the entire length of
Manhattan. 1t is a great work great
~ done. but it must not be supposed
that it has solved the Vexed question
of transportation in the metropolis.
Engineers and traffic managers famil-
lar with conditions in New York be-
llGNE AlidI II Will DG dL DeSL merely a
temporary and partial relief to the
present unbearable congestion of traf-
fic. There will still, in all probability,
be a vast army of strap hangers
the subway itself, as well as on the
elevated and surface lines. Other sub
ways will have to be built. and plans
for them are already being tentative
" prepared and considered.
The Brooklyn extension runs under
DsvrD. To-. .Te,.,
Brooklyn. The Rapid Transit Commits
sion has already authorized an extern
sion of this Brooklyn road to Prospect
Park, and South Brooklyn has also be-
gun to clamor for a branch and is
likely to get it.
In many parts of Greater New York
the public is agitating for an extension
of the original scheme of the subway.
The Brooklyn extension under the East
river was not part of that original
scheme, which was designed only to
relieve the congestion of traffic in Man
haitian and the Bronx.
Pennsy's $JO,OOO,OOO funnel.
The railroad companies, especially
the Pennsylvania. are also doing much
tunneling in New York at the pres
ent time, and are connecting their
systems with the subway. The Rapid
Transit Board has granted to the
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New
York Railroad Company and to the
Pennsylvania New YorL and Long
Island Railroad Company, jointly
franchises for d tunnel system pass
ing from Wehawken, n. j., across
the North River, right under Manhat-
tan Island (along Thirty-second and
Thirty-third Streets, and thence into
the Borough of Queens. There is to be
a double tunnel under the North
River. This Pennsylvania extension
viii cost about s50,000000. and will
be provided with what has been de-
scribed as the most massive railroad
depot yet conceived Of" Four full
sized city blocks have been torn down
to make way for 1t, and from this
station three tunnels will extend under
the East River into the Borough Of
Queens. The Pennsylvania Will thus
have direct communication, without
the aid OF floats not only with Man
haitian. but with the eXtremities OF
Long Island. The big station In the
center Of Manhattan Is 10 be con-
nected with the subway and the Grand
Central station.
Nothing 100 Mig for New York.
They are doing great things in New
York city to-day 10 bring Father
Kuickarbock er's children down 70 work
Without packing them like behring's IN
a barrel. But though the dollars are
being poured out by the million every
month for the Improvement Of trans
D0rfation facilities. the provision b. stlii
.uadequAte 10 the need. and d. likely
ia ronlafu 80 Tor many years 10 come