The Jersey City news., 1906-06-02
Railroad Is Pushing the
Work at Bergen Hill to
Completion
ELEVEN BRIDGES BUILT
NEW TERMINAL IN NEW YORK
TO sURPAss ANYTHING IN
THIS COUNTRY IN SIZE AND
EQUIPMENT

| Eleven of the twenty bridges
duct for the new main line of the Penn
sylvania Railroad, between Frank S
| Greek, Harrison, will run and the tunnel
entrance at Homestead are completed
and work is progressing rapidly on the
others. By way of Fastening the work,
which it was estimated would take three
years to complete without considering the
delay which may follow the defects
| found in the East River tunnels all the
work is laid out in sections in charge of
different contractors.
Everything west of Secaucus except
the bridge abutments is in charge of the
B. M. & j. F. Stanley firm, of Newark.
| Drake & Stratton are in charge of the
| roadbed from Snake Hill east to the tun-
mel entrance, the William Bradley Com
pany is constructing the Hudson River
tunnel, and McMullen & McDermott are
building the bridge abutments. The
latter range in height from twelve feet
at the extreme north end of the viaduct to
twenty-eight feet where the structure will
cross the Lackawanna and Erie rail
ments are made of concrete, of uniform
width and thickness, sixty feet wide and
seven feet thick. This size is for four
track line, two of which are to be used
for the present main line through this
city and two over the New York Bay
and Waverly line.
In the preparation of the concrete an
! immense automatic mixer is used which
turns out the stuff as rapidly as it can be
hauled away on tracks laid from the
mixer to the site of the several abut-
ments. Practically all these abutments,
including the two for the 300-foot span
over the Hackensack River, are located
in marshy ground. To insure solid
foundation, sheathing of the exact thick
ness of the abutments is driven into the
earth until solid rock foundation is
reached The earth and water is then
removed, and after the caisson is made
water tight the concrete is put in. The
l,,A IL, I t. l.
stone-faced, and the same process will be
followed where the viaduct will cross
Penn Horn Greek.
One of the most interesting sections of
the work is an immense cut through the
southeast end of Snake Hill. At that
point the line of the railroad was directly
over road to the county institutions on
the hill. The company purchased forty
acres of the county property, including
this road and opened new road through
the hill, cutting through a mass of rccK
more than seventy feet high. The cut,
which was made by the Stanley firm,
took year to complete, and some of the
men engaged in that work are now cut
ting away the rest of the hill included in
the purchase and using it. for filling a
short section of the road extending as
far as the Delaware, Lackawann and
Western Railroad main line.
From Franks Creek across the Hack
ensack and to within a few hundred feet
Of the Snake Hill cut, the new line will
be suspended, just as it will be over the
tracks of the D., L. and W. and the Erie
railroads. There appears to be a union
of interests, if not an actual consolida-
tlon, between the, Erie and Pennsylvania.
at least in the work of construction.
Erie spurs are doing all the hauling from
Homestead west, and the stone taken
from the tunnel is being used for Erie
track ballast. At Secaucus, where the
lines are not more than half mile apart.
S s"V Aooe1so AdfC puICudSSU the inter-
yening space and considerable additional
land north and south Of the lines and
west of the main road leading to the
county buildings. The few houses to the
west of the road are to be removed and
ON the newly acquired land both compa-
MES intend to build mammoth freight
yards and terminals under the Pennsyl-
vania fast line viaduct.
The tunnel opening starts about mile
west of the Hudson river, directly under
the Paterson turnpike At the openine
the top of the tunnel is about sixty fee
below the surface of the street. Six hun
dred feet north, which is as far as til,
line now extends, the top of the tunnel i
247 feet below the surface Of the ground
which is much higher at this point thar
at the opening proper. Shafts are sunl
at intervals Of 500 and 800 feet along th