The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-06-13
SUBWAY CUT IN TWO ALL DAY
HROUGH TRAIN SERVICE TO BE
RESUMED THIS MORNING.
Old Manhattan LOGON olives Run Down
and Sci to Driving Steam Pumps-Men
Faint In the Horrible Atm Osphcre
Mayer Calls on Oakley for Report.

IL was not until nearly ii O'CLOCK last
nj ght that General Manager Hedley felt
warrant ed in positive announcement that
he subway trains, held up by the food from
a broken water main at Forty-hret street,
would resume their nc rmal operation at
2 A. NJ. to-day.
When this announcement was made,
the water was about four inches above
the roadbed from little below Thirty
ninth street almost to Thirty-seventh street.
Mr.. Hedley said then that 80 far as he had
been able to determine the subway walls
had been damaged very little. The third
rail was intact, he said, but some OF the fish
plates had been burned out. Also in
spots the roadbed would have to be re-
paired.
Ten hours after the main broke Mr..
Hedley made a guess that traffic would be
resumed all along the line in time for the
morning rush Of yesterday. The wster
was then five feet deep in the subway near
Thirty-eighth street, With old elevated
railroad locomotives he brought three
steam pumps on fatcars to Forty-first
street and drove them with steam from
the locomotive boilers, and his men dragged
hose to the deepest part OF the subterranean
lake. With these the water was sucked
back to Forty-first street and there dis
charged into the sewers.
At 10 o'clock yesterday morning meas
urement showed that the pool was 81
feet deep and $50 feet long. Then Mr..
Hedley stopped predicting until o'clock
P. NJ, when he came up to take breath
Of air, and remarked that the water was
etill seven inches above the contact rail
and that he hoped to get 1t below the rail
early In the night.
If the third rail and the walls are all
right we'll have the trains running before
midnight" he said.
Trains we're run all day between Wall
and Fourteenth streets and between the
Grand Central Station and both northern
terminals. No express trains were run at
any hour. The guards tried to inform the
folks who came downtown in the subway
In the morning and who hadn't read the
newspapers that there was blockade.
but they were not always heard and there
was lot Of kicking from the people who
we're put out at the Grand Central and were
obliged to pay an extra fare.
To add to the towns misery the rain be-
gan to fall before II O'Clock and kept up
all the afternoon. The open surface cars
were sloppy, even in the middle of the seats
Nobody went home for luncheon and bold
vas the shopper who ventured down
town. 1t was very much like the days Of
the strike and the blizzard. Harlemites
sat at their desks downtown and groaned
at tho thought of the trip home. Some Of
tho offices let their forced, of half an hour
earlier than usual in the Afternoon so that
they could reach home by bedtime. There
vas general early rush for home, 40 that
at oI5 O'Clock there was no crowding at
the elevated stations. In fact, the elevated
did not profit az much by the subway's
nlishap As the electric cars did
Business was so bad on the sections of
the subway that were working that the
news stands shut up shop about 43) P. NJ.
Al $50, the hour when the Grand Central
Station is usually damned by folks waiting
for express trains, there were not two
score Of people.
Outside the station. at the tops OF the
stairs. soggy porters informed the populace
that the subway would take them north only.
Those who went downstairs wished they
hadn't, The temperature Appropriated
40 degrees. The steam was almost az thick
as it would be in the steam room of a bath
gered about, almost suffocated. Juggling
hose into the tunnel, whence came the
chugging of the engines that were pumping
water.
The agents and ticket choppers were sick,
every one Of them. In the afternoon a
system was arranged by which these en-
ployees were relieved as often as possible,
hut in the morning no such arrangement
had been made, and half dozen Of the
employees tainted at their posts.
Through this fierce atmosphere the few
passengers ran, seeking the northern end
Of the platform that they might be as far
away as possible from the heat and coal
gas, Incoming passengers ran up the
stairs and got to the street as fast rs they
could, not even pausing to ask when the
food would be over. The heat and stencil
mounted even to the upper pavement and
passersby gave wide berth to the mouths
Of the kiosks.
Hedley was everywhere, in the tunnel
and out. His coat was of and he was drip
ping. Supt. Merritt was with him, and he
looked as II he had lost ten pounds Neither
Of them had had a wink OF sleep since the
trouble began. They had work to do all
the time. Even when Hedley came to the
surface to save himself from prostration
he began tugging at the hose which supplied
water to the engines from the hydrant in
Forty-second street. 1t was kinked around
fence, and the workmen were wonder
ing Why water wouldn't flow through II.
In the flooded subway dozens OF workmen
AS many, in fact, as could work well in the
limited epace-were fussing with the hose
and trying TO clear out the sewer holes
closeed with the mud and refuse Of the
street. The flood had come into the SUBJ
way through these holes, but would not
leave by them. The sewers we're too small
TO carry OF the deluge from the broken
water main. II they hadn't been there
would have been no flooded subway.
Chief Engineer Deyo entered the tunnel
at aP. NJ. and began careful examination
OF the side walls. Mr.. Hedley would say
nothing then as to what Mr.. Deyo learned .ex-
cept TO remark that the trains would not run
until II was known that the walls were safe.
Another marlborough official said late
In the afternoon that he was satisfied that
the walls were all right, and as for the road
bed, It could not have been harmed, being
built Of two feet Of concrete on solid rock.
Chief Engineer Rice Of the Rapid Transit