Durango semi-weekly herald., 1907-06-10

/
Grand Central Station over to Lon,
! Island. This is called the Belmon
tunnel, because August Belmont /.
president OF the company. One of tn.
tunnels is already bored. The work
: men shook hands through the hole las
week, and today 1t Is so far along tha
Ex-Governor Herrick of Ohio. who |,
one of Degnan's partners, was able tc
walk from New York to Brooklyn with
out crossing the river, which would
have been regarded as miracle a
short time ago.
The Degnan company is an Ohio
affair, and James Parmalee. who mar
ried daughter OF Judge Maury OF
Washington; Andrew Squire. the Stan
dard Oil companys attorney at Cleve
land, and j. c. Schmldlapp, the we'll
known banker of Cincinnati. are as
sociated with Colonel Herrick ON the
board of directors. Mr.. Degnan, who
is famous digger and one of the
| largest contractors in the world, is
also from Cleveland. He got another
contract the other day for boring the
I
hall with Brooklyn and relieving the
| pressure at the Brooklyn bridge,
which is TO cost about $1,000. 600 All
these tunnels are a part Of the New
York underground system and will
| also be connected with the Penasyli.
vanin and the New York Central sys-
TEN of railroads, SO that II will be
pnggIhla tnr o.,
Hoboken fifteen miles to the Bronx
or the upper part of New York aud
six miles to Brooklyn without coming
to the surface.
The gigantic plans made by the late
President Cassatt for the improve
ment of the Pennsylvania railroad sys.
TEN at a cost of more than s100, 900 900
will be completed during the present
year, with the exception of the New
York terminals and tunnels, which will
require year longer. Mr.. Cassatt's
four parallel tracks from New York
to Pittsburg are completed. all but
about thirty miles In central Penn
sylyania, and that gap will be closed
before the first of July. The work of
| elevating the tracks between New
York and Washington has been com
pleted except at Railway, and that will
he finished during the present sum
mer. This elevation Of tracks through
the cities between New York and
Washington has cost nearly twenty
million dollars, of which five million
was spent in Washington alone. THIS
does not include the new stations
there and elsewhere. A good deal
OF trimming and filling Is yet to be
done, but the trains are now all run
ming above ground.
The tunnels under the Hudson river
| for the Pennsylvania trains have both
been bored and are now being finished
| In concrete. The tracks will then be
| laid. so that they will be ready for
use as soon as the Long Island city
| tunnel Is ready to receive the trains.
| The tunnels are steel tubes FIVE miles
long and twenty-three feet In diam
eter, each containing one track. All
| the cars viii run the same way, with
trains three or four minutes apart.
They will all go through from Ho-
boken to Long Island city, where they
Will run around a loop and return to
| Hoboken through the other tube, stop
| ping in New York and at Long Island
city just long enough to discharge
passengers. The terminal yards and
| tracks and power house for the en-
tire system have already been built
at Long Island city, and the macbIn-
cry. the largest electric plant ever
built, can be operated on few days
notice.
| The excavations for the terminal at
| Thirty-first street and Eighth avenue,
New York city, have been finished,
and the contractors have begun to lay
the foundations for the buildings,
which they expect to complete by Jan
uary /, 1909. The largest hotel In the
world, with 1000 rooms. capable of
sheltering the population of a city
of more than 5000 inhabitants. has
been planned to be built over the juno
ton of the tunnels. but the details
have not been decided upon. The
work Is simply Titanic
The Jersey City station and ferries
TO Cortlandt and Desbrosses streets
will hereafter be used only for teams
and for freighting The passenger
traffic for the northern part of the
city will be diverted at Il new station
to be erected a few miles north OF
| Newark. The steam locomotives will
be abandoned there and electric mo-
tors will be attached TO trains and
haul them into tunnel beginning at
the Bergen hills and continuing un-
der Hoboken and the Hudson river to
the corner OF Thirty-hrst and Eighth
4 avenue in the center of New York city
a distance of about five miles, which
will be made in about five minutes
There will be no change of cars. II
now takes fifteen minutes to cross the
ferry from Jersey city 10 Twenty
third street, without counting the time
necessary to go from the train I,
the ferry.
The Long island tunnel from Thirty
first street and Eighth avenue will
run under Thirty-second street to Lonl
Island city, where the trains will con
meet with the suburban system OF tn,