Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-26
NEW YORK TUNNELS
Vein of Granite Found in Bor-
ing Under East River
PROJECTS COSTING MILLIONS
Vast Improvements Undertaken by the
Pennsylvania Line.
DIGGING FOR TERMINAL STATION
Ehorts TO Handle the Suburban
Travel-strike of Longshoremen.
Attempts to Break It.
PROJECTS COSTING MILLIONS
DIGGING FOR TERMINAL STATION
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM Il. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
-. Record Herald.
NEW YORK, May 10. 1907.
In boring what is known as the Belmont
ADD street tunnel under East river, be-
]. Degnan & Co., the contractors, struck
a vast block of pure white granite of fine
grain and great beauty about 100 feet be-
low the bottom of the river and about mid
way between it's banks. 1t is ledge twelve
feet thick, and the borings of the engineers
indicate that it is at least 200 feet long,
and nobody knows how much longer; and
100 feet deep, and no can tell how
much deeper. because there is no way of
measuring it's dimensions. The strange
thing about 1t is that no other granite
has ever been found nearer then seventy
miles from that point. All the other rock
Is gneiss, which underlies the entire city of
New York and Brooklyn and crops out fire.
quently. You can see 1t in Central Park,
and formerly could see 1T upper 9Th
avenue and Madison avenue before those
streets were built up. The gneiss is full of
mica, and is therefore easily handled.
: The. point where the granite was dis
covered is about 1000 feet south of what
is known as Man-of-WarS reef, a gless
ledge stretching out from Blackwelfs Is
land. It forms dangerous obstruction to
shipping. and is dreaded by mariners on
foggy days At night it is marked with a
beacon light. He'll Gate. which was for
merly dangerous obstruction to naviga-
ton, until it blown out by Gen. New
ton of the Engineer Corps, is at the other
end of the island, and that is gness also.
The mystery has not been submitted to
the geologist The engineers in charge of
the tunnel have said nothing about it to
any one Their experience has not been
mentioned in any of the New York papers,
but it certainly Is worth the pains, If some
competent geologist will make an inyesti
CATION and discover how that great granite
waif strayed so far away from home.
The Two Tunnels.
Mr. Degnan blasted two holes through
the ledge twenty-three feet in diameter
for the twin tunnels in which he is to carry
the suburban cars from Grand Central sta
ton over Long Island. This is called the
Belmont tunnel because August Belmont is
president of the company. One of the tun-
nels is already bored. The workmen shook.
hands through the hole last week. and
today it is so far along that Gov. Herrick
of Ohio, who is one of Degnan's partners,
was able to walk from New York to Brook
Ign without crossing the river, which for
merry would have been regarded as
miracle.
The DegnanI Company is an Ohio affair,
and James Parmalee.. who married a
daughter of Judge Maury OF Washington;
Andrew Squire. the Standard Oil Company's
attorney at Cleveland. and ]. c. Schmid-
Iapp, the well-known banker of Cincinnati,
are associated with Col Herrick on the
board of directQrs.s Mr.. Degnan. who Is
famous digger and one of the largest con-
tractors In the world. is also from Cleve-l
land. He got another contract the other
day for boring a downtown tunnel con-
Meeting the city hall with Brooklyn and
relieving the pressure at the Brooklyn
bridge, which Is to cost about $3CO0eOO.
All these tunnels are part of the New
York underground system. and will also
be connected with the Pennsylvania and
the New York Central system of railroads.
SO that 1t will be possible for passenger
to go from Hoboken. fifteen miles. to the
Bronx, or the upper part of New York,
ana six miles to Brooklyn, without coming
to the surface.