Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-07
ALL OTHERS OUTDONE
Biggest Office Building in the
World.
POPULATION OVER 5000
Revenue From Rentals Already As
sured 100000.
VAST AMOUNT FOR PRIVILEGES
Structure Erected Over the New
York End Of the Tunnels From
Jersey City.
VAST AMOUNT FOR PRIVILEGES
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.
NEW YORK CITY, May g. 1908.
The Tower of Babel was but cottage
compared with some of the Titanic
buildings that are now being erected
in New York-and they grow bigger and
bigger until one wonders when the limit
of size will be reached. The latest and
the most wonderful human structure and
the largest building in the world. is that
erected by the Hudson and Manhattan
Railway Company to cover the terminals
of it's tracks that run under the Hudson
river from Jersey City. 1t occupies the
halves of two blocks fronting on Church
street. which is parallel with Broadway
and the next street toward the river. and
extends from Cortland to Fulton streets
on both sides of Dey street. which is
crossed by a bridge.
This gigantic structure stands over A
coffer-dam. a waterproof pit 400 by 17S
feet in size and Is feet deep. inclosed In
concrete walls eight feet thick. which
extend down to the eternal rock ninety
five feet below the surface of Church
street. This pit is to be a railway sta
ton absolutely unique. and the most won
derful ever conceived. 1t will receive
the trains of the railways that will run
through the tunnels to Jersey City and
bring into lower New York by line of
nineteen miles of single and nine and one
half mites of double underground track
! the trains of the Pennsylvania, the Erie
and the Lackawana railroads. the pas
sengers from the steamships landing in
Hoboken and Jersey City and the COM
muters who live along 800 miles of trolley
| railways in northern New Jersey.
Two Systems of Tunnels.
What is known as the Hudson and Man
| haitian Company. of which Mr.. William
| McAdoo is president. has been building
| two systems of tunnels under the Hud-
| son river-one between Hoboken and the
shopping and hotel district of New York
city, and the other from Jersey City to
the lower part or business district. The
upper tunnels were opened for traffic
February %, when President Roosevelt
pressed button and started the first
| train. They have since been running
regularly trains of four cars at intervals
| Of three minutes and have made the dis
| lance between Hoboken and 10Th street
and 9Th avenue in seven minutes.
| described the system in letter the other
! day.
| The downtown tunnels from Jersey City
| to Broadway connecting with the SUBJ
ways, this surface and the elevated lines
near Trinity Church will not be COM
pleted till about the first of January. But
| the enormous terminal building is finished
and the tenants are moving in. The esti-
mates that have been made about the
| traffic through these tunnels are amazing
1t is believed that the cars will carry an
average of 125.OO0.OOO passengers a year
back and forth beneath the waters of the
Hudson river between the two states The
ferrybOats that cross the Hudson now
carey upward of 2I.G30,OO) passengers
year The new tunnel to Hoboken is
carrying about 10000 passengers a day,
other tunnels downtown will be so much
more convenient. will reach so many
feeders and will build up the suburbs to
such an extent that travel according to
expectation will be multiplied more than
go per cent.