The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-08-26
IN A TUNNEL RACE.
p11y CONTEST NOW IN PROGRESS
ENDEB TEE EAST RIVER.

With English engineers and workman
sr one side and American engineers and
E,orkmen on the other, q great race 10 now
koing on underground In this city. The
So,,rse IL under the depths Of the East
River and the racers are fighting thetr
Say through walls Of granite ancient ae
Che sun and striking here and there o Q
III mud fraught with varied danger.
One of the racing crews is made up NJ
tbe Englishmen employed by Pearson d
Son Of London, England, who ave the
contract for building the great Pennsylvania
Railroad tunnel from Manhattan to Long
faland. Several blocks up the river from
she English workmen is the rival gang
nj American workmen and engineers who
ere building what is known as the Belmont
funnel, which Is to connect Long Island
fity with the subway In Manhattan at the
Grand Central Station at Forty-second
Direct.
The race might well be termed tho Tunnel
Handicap, for the Englishmen had two or
three months start Of the Belmont people,
1 when the Belmont people began work they
&ere at first held back by court mtunotions
and legal tangles, but finally the word was
Even and they were of.
II was Just then that the EnglishmenI
Who had been driving away every hour
Of the twenty-four, began TO encounter
difficulties. until at present their side has
developed into an obstacle race.
The Belmont people sank their ahafte
IN Man-of-War Rock out In the East River,
S,Aere the Government had Just finished
encnding several hundred thousand dollars
IN removing the reefs that obstructed the
| nhannel. Over the site Of this very rock,
| which the Government engineers had taken
out; the Belmont people anchored barges,
filled in the river, made q safe foundation
| and then sank their shaft down to the river
| bed and through the rough granite until
| they reached the designated depth OF the
| Projected tunnel.
Then they began driving headings both
ways. One heading Is aimed straight for
Long Island City, while the other heading
Is worming its way toward Forty-second
street, Manhattan.
From shafts sunk in Manhattan work.
men are battling their way through sand
and rock eager to Join hands with their
fellow workmen under the river. From
another shaft in Fourth street In Long
Island City another gang Of workmen are
| ulNlllR lutll WI hiiSo Az s"S ~
toward the gang who are blasting a road 70
meet them.
Thus at several points with feverish haste
gangs of workmen night and day are bur
rowing toward each other. Through Fourth
street in Long Island City. from West avenue
10 Jackson avenue, a trench has been opened
and dug to the required depth, and now the
work OF building the concrete foundations
and walls of this section OF the tunnel Ia
Under way. This will be the Long Island
City approach to the tunnel.
1t would appear that all along fortune
has favored the Belmont tunnel people.
Most Of their workings have been through
boarse granite, and as a result the work Of
lhiving the tunnel through has progressed
With no serious hitch.
But while good fortune has characterized
the operations Of the Belmont workers,
according 10 report the Enghshmen, who
ue boring the four tubes for the Pennsyl-
vania tunnel, nave struck hard luck enough
to equip several tunnel undertak kings with
the blues. Every contingency known TO
modern engineering had been provided
against by the Englishmen when they un-
dertook the East River tunnel
They figured on encountering 9 OF
quicksand, and were prepared to deal with
the problem in a scientific English fashion.
But they didn't know just how obstinate
and ugly a bed Of Yankee quicksand could
be, particularly when the quioisand came
to know it was dealing with English en-
glneers.
As a result, for months now the waters
around the Manhattan end OF the Thirty
f,-,l a.-o-s f~,~,, zltN., haxtn roeannhlah
a huge boiling cauldron, while ct times
there is a good display Of geysers. Here
Is where the. fight has been going on be-
tween the Yankee bed Of quicksand and the
ingenuity Of the English engineers.
BLAST the bloomin' mud bankl' solilo.
qnized an English workman when they
first struck the trouble. AHit's honly q
blasted mud bank. Give hit g poultice OF
clay, We know, an the bloomin' thingN
he hail right"
And from that day to this the Englishmen
have been dumping tons OF heavy clay
ever the boiling area and still the cooking
Of the Fnglishmen's PLANS goes on. The
roof of the tunnel at this particular point
svery near the surface and the compressed
air used in the workings to keep out the
water and hold up the walls Of the unnel
until the lining Is put in bursts through
the soft sand and mud and hnds an outlet
In the river. thus causing the water to boil
and squirt up in geysers.
The continual boiling up OF the soft mud
has caused one Of the new ferry slips to sink
several feet and sag away out OF shape,
and the other day the brick building which
served as a ferry house on the south side OF
Thirty fourth street at the ferry entrance
had to he abandoned. 1t Is asserted that
the constant boiling Of the waters had
undermined the foundation walls Of the
structure, making 1t unsafe.
Ferry officials and the tunnel people are
silent on This subject, but It Is known that
daily the brick walls Of the ferry houee were
anSiously and carefully scrutinized by
engineers and others Interested. Possibly
with a view to avoiding an accident tho
ferry company erected a building on ths
north side Of the street. This building
Is constructed Of corrugated iron.
1t was also rumored at one time that q
miscalculation had been made and that
the tunnel bed should have been sunk fifteen
ieet lower in order to give q better roof over
the workings, But with English persistency
the work has zone ahead and, judging from