The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-23
NETWORK OF JERSEY TUNNELS
THE HUDSON COMPANIES EN-
PLAN THEI.. PLANS.

when the work Is Finished Inc Companies
Promise That Jersey city VIII He
Nearer the Theatre District Than wash
lngtOn HeIghts-Much Accomplished.
Officials Of the Hudson Companies invited
reporters of the New York papers to 60
with them yesterday to Church street be-
tween Cortlandt and Fulton streets and
across the river to Pier c, Jersey City, and
learn at first hand a few facts about the
work this company has been doing in link
ing New Jersey and New York.
Under the Pennsylvania terminal station
in Jersey City, deep down in the bedrock
that imports all the Jersey shore, a network
OF tunnels, chambers and drifts has been
bored which represents what is TO be the
Jersey City station of the interstate system
OF underground railroads. The reporters
were told that in Manhattan, along Christie
pher street 70 the intersection with West
Ninth street and Sixth avenue, a tunnel had
already been dug beneath the Easements
of ~unsuspecting tenants, and that at the
, intersection Of the three streets the eNcava-
ton for an underground station had already
been made.
For a year and a half the boring has been
going on. Passengers passing through the
Pennsylvania station had not had the least
suspicion OF the extent OF the burrow1ng
in progress under foot. Nor have the shop
keepers on Christopher street been aware
that somewhere fifty feet below their sub
Easements men were biting their way
through the rock foundation OF the island.
-Oh, that is one Of the little jokes we
have at the expense Of the citizens said
KENYON B. Conger, secretary OF the Hudson
Companies, when he was tracing along
on the maps the course of the tunnel works
Yesterday. "In one instance we rented a
building on Christopher street where we
thought there might be trouble. But there
was none, and we sublet it to tenants who
do not know to-day that already the tunnel
has passed under them and gone on.
BY MAY, 1908, when it il expected all
the Hudson Companies tunnels VIII be
completed and when the twin twenty-five
storied terminal buildings on Church street
will be finished, the officers Of the construo-
ton ompany said yesterday, a passenger
may step on one of the new trains at Newark,
transfer to the subway at the Church street
Grand Central in Manhattan and go on
through the new marlborough tunnel
under the East River 10 Brooklyn and
out to Fort Hamilton without seeing once
the light Of day.
When the reporters had assembled at
the buildings OF the construction company
near Pier G in Jersey City yesterday morn
ing an engineer took them down a hundred
foot shaft through the bedrock, within
fifty Yards Of tide level, TO the floor of the
excavation that has been made beneath
the central station Of the Pennsylvania
Railroad. This shaft, he explained, would
he practically useless in the operation OF
the underground system after everything
was in working order, but the engineers had
been forced to sink 1t in order TO get under
the railroad station from a safe distance.
From the foot OF the shaft into the solid
rock a 500 foot drift has been run. Tn
north end of this drift is directly beneath
the PENNSYLVANIA station. 1t taps the whole
system Of incoming and outgoing tunnels
and the avenues under North River 10 New
York. Between the roofs OF the various
tunnels and the floor OF the big station
above from fifty 10 seyenty-nNe ieet OF
mica achist intervenes. This rock is strong
enough to admit OF tunnels and chambers
icing followed out of 1t and still support
the great weight Of the railroad station
above.
been driven west for distances varying be-
tween 1. 200 and | 500 feet. In the opposite
direction the two river tunnels have been
sent between 5000 and $500 feet out under
the North River. h Jersey City ends OF
the river tunnels are within 200 feet OF one
another, but as they lake their course under
the river they separate and their termlnl
will be two blocks apart; one tunnel mouth
will enter the Church street double station
at Cortlandt street, another at fulton.
At the mouths OF the river tunnels Z. j.
Crowley, who Ia in charge OF the borings
on the Jersey shore, explained the o u
plan Of the whole subterranean structure.
This was to be a great station In the rock,
he said. Passengers would drop down
underground in elevators situated In the
Pennsylvania station itself and in auxiliary
elevators at Exchange place, south OF the
railroad station.
selves on a ~concourse, whence various
stairs will lead them down to the tracks
still further below. This concourse, hol-
lowed out of the rock, will run transversely
across all the tracks ReTmitsing 2assehsers
New York or TO take passage to those points
from the street or the station above.
Therenwill notAbe more thar one track
In a single tunnel. Incoming ana outgoing
trains, whether from Newark or Hoboken
and the Delaware, Lackawanna and western
station, will nave each its separate track
in It's individual n One line, ex-
planned the engineer, was to pass the
streets as far west as MasHingoOh s.reet,
lUth luIUN hAN bA'>A
and follow Washington street up the river
shore TO the D., l.. a W. station, with the
loon tunnel at sixteenth street passing
under the North River 70 Greenwich and
Christopher streets. Manhattan.
The second line, with its separate tunnels
for incoming and outgoing trans Is TO
pass under Jersey City In q straight line
10 the intersection of Brunswick street and
First avenue, at which point the tracks will
emerge from the ground n trains VIII
yania system on to Newark:
Between the w sets Of tunnels that
converge beneath the Pennsylvania depot
there n a short s~witchback tunnel which
a. TO serve as q switching point for all trains
changing direction at the underground
terminal.
n map OF Jersey City and Manhattan TO
give a comprehensive view OF the whole
Hudson and Manhattan Railroad system,
OF which tho Jersey tunnels are to be only
a part.
Red lines running from the subterranean