The semi-weekly messenger., 1906-09-07
II NOW SPENDING, FORTUNES
Pennsylvania Railroad Taking Good
Care Of the Workers IN thc Tunnel
Now Being Built Under tic East
River. in New York.

Day and night. weekdays. SUNDAYS
and holidays. hundreds - mcu are
al woTk boring the under-river tun-
nels In ana around New York Down
under many fathoms If water and
Yards of mud and rock, the 5 eel tubes.
through which the Pennsylvania Rail
road will soon land passengers from
east and west in the heart ot New
York. are pushed steadily forward.
with 10 more vast" Of time han Il
takes 10 change shifts"
Underwater work has a fearsome
s"und-to those Who have never seen
it going on. Talk 10 men who nave
been engaged in l. for years ami you
get another idea There are II nty
who can speak with authority, fo- the
world has BEEN searching fr uea -
exp p-rea"a = build The Pennsylvania
5jlnn"-s. On th4 cross town shaft
Sixty hustrians. who get their train
ing in the Simplon tunnel. are cm-
plOyed
There are engineers and forem,n
here who have tunneled Egypt. S.utl
Africa, England and America and who
l"Og for other subtcTuanean regions %
conquer.
What do you expect TO DO when
this job is finished ?" one OF them Was
asked
Get Il harder job" VAS the ~har,
answer
All he excitement was taken on; uf
one novice's visit back of a tuune.
shield by finding Tom" Brown. the
Oldest forement on The contra ctoh' :
staff, seated on a pile OF riverbrd silt.
gr2vely squeezing mud balls. for The
purpose of finding how much water he
sand carried at that spot That 10th
ing but the air pressure kept lhc
whole OF the East River from Ies-
cending on his head, worried him not
the least.
DAYS WORK OF THE TUNNEL
MAN.
Skilled abOr in the tunnels is in a
minority. however. There are the en-
gineers, who keep the lines straight.
inspect and devise WAYS and means
of overcoming difficulties; and cleo
1ricianS and pipe filters. who LOOK
after the light wires, air and water
conduits, but the majority of the work
ers are in the unskilled class-the men
| who put in place the iron plates that
form the tubes. Each plate weighs 4
ton or more, and eleven Of them with
a keypiece form complete rims Of
! iron 1-2 feet wide Hydraulic ercc-
tors lift the iron into place, and hold
it while il is bOlted to the ring that
has gone before: hydraulic rams DraCeC
against the newest ring force the shield
forward another yard, and so max"
way for still another ring. This Is
the routine Of the tunnel worker. The
record is five rings-12 12 feet-!n
eight hours.
But the dangers OF the work? Dang
erS there are, or certain rish OF
injury, but not enough 20 worry any
man Of good health who will observe
the rules that stare him in the face
from every wall.
For TO makes il as safe under the
bed of q river sit is on the land 5
surface is the aim Of the Pennsylvania
tunnel builders. The old Huds riyar
tunnel. which crosses the Hudson 1'
Morton street. was abandoned 1T Cn"
time because so many lives were .Os,-
The main difficulty was 10 keep the
river from coming into the tub" ana
drowning the Workmen. The air under
the heavy pressure required 10 keep the
water from sweeping n. sometime
blew the roof off the tunnel altogether
and then the water TOurd in III such
volume that there was little OF 40
time fOr escape.
EMERGENCY CURTAIN FOR BLOW
OUTS"
But nowadays The life of the sand
hog" is aJ least as safe IS tha- Of
the surface worker. Except at times
when it is necessary To send 2 fcw
men out back Of the shield. he worH-
ers are protected by the massive ring