Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-05
Editors At Post Office Department
Agreement to Cut or Delinquent
Subscribers.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

be open for traffic within the next few
days. The other McAdoo tunnels. from
Jersey City to Cortlandt street. in lower
New York. will be ready by midsummer.
The tunnels for the Pennsylvania system.
which will enable passengers from the
west and south to land at 31st street and
Sth avenue. are practically completed.
and the monstrous terminal station and
hotel that the Pennsylvania company is
building to cover three blocks is begin
ming to show signs of what it is going to
be- People who pass up and down Ith.
6th and 9th avenues, or along 31st sd
and 33d streets west can see a great
cavity In the earth, quite as large as the
foundations Of st. Peters Cathedral at
Rome, which has been leveled and ce-
mented and divided into spaces by stu
pendous walls. upon which skeletons of
steel are rising and taking shape. The
work is going on rapidly and promises
to be completed within the next two
years. according to contract.
way up In one corner of this great
cavity you can see where the tunnel
opens The bore is entirely done. SO
that much of the material for the building
Is now brought under the river and de-
Ilvered on the ground directly from the
steel mills. from the .brickyards and
from the quarries where it is manufac-
tured.
uHSAS NcdIAy competed.
The tunnels from the PennsyIvan mia
terminal TO Long Island City arc also
nearly completed. but cannot be used
until the station is finished. Within a
very short time. however. all of the
traffic passenger from the west and
south. except over the New York Cen
.ra,: VIII be landed underground in the
center of New York city, and the fer
ries Will no longer be necessary for the
passenger trains. All of the new tun-
nels from New Jersey will connect
with those for Brooklyn and also with
the subway uptown: and it Is only a
matter OF few months before people
from west Of the Hudson river and east
or the East river can reach any point in
Greater New York without going up
INTO the open air 1t will be possible
Washington to dive under the ground
while still in New Jersey and come out
at the Bronx
These tunnels have involved some of
the greatest engineering problems ever
encountered and. like the drainage
canal at Chicago, have inaugurated a
work. '''u
The "two-burrow' tubes. as people
are calling the tunnels between New
York and Brooklyn. have relie:ed the
pressure of traffic upon the .:rooklyn
bridge about 81 per cent. but that
great thoroughfare is still very crowd
ed. and the tunnels are crowded as
we'll. While the number of fares col
iected upon the cars across the bridge
shows that only about 65 per cent as
many people are crossing that way
since the tunnels were opened as be-
lore, ana the ticket collections in the
tunnels show the large number of pas
sengers that are going underground, no
one would perceive the difference in
the rush of people trying to get to
the day; and the jam in the trains that
run through the tunnels are quite as
bad IT Will not be many months before
both the overhead and underground
systems of transportation between
New York and Brooklyn will be taxed
to their newly increased capacity.
Iucrease in Trahlc.
The increase Of patronage on the New
York city transportation lines is almost
incredible. The figures for the year 1907
show . gain of 10000 passengers for the
average day, and it is almost beyond be-
lief. This means that 10000 more people
used the subway. the elevated trains and
the surface roads every day in the year
than on the previous day. or course the
Increase was not regular, like that. The
total gain in the number of passengers
carried for the year 1907 was 100000,
average daily gain 10000. This is dim
cult to account for, because the city Is
not growing so fast as they would indi-
cate.
Since July I, 1907. the public service
commission has required an increase of
20 per cent in the entire facilities for
transportation within Greater New York
and from 30 to 40 per cent upon the most
crowded lines. but still there does not
seem to be any ia lling off in the number
~ nah ha
Of the day. In the subway alone the com
mission has added 3l6 cars to the daily
trafiic, which. estimating five cars to the
train, means sixty-three additional
The new tunnels between Bowling
Green. New York, and the city hall in
Brooklyn are ~ miles long The line
of the tube is not straight. There is
decided curve and a grade OF 81 per cent
There are two tubes running parallel and
for the convenience Of repair gangs.
Each. Is a semi-circle fifteen feet and
eight inches in diameter, with a fiat bot
tom. but the lower part of the circle is
one track and the trains all run the same
way. The ties are set firmly In cement
and there is no ballastfng. Underneath
the ties is q gutter for draining the seep-
age, water that may leak from the en-
gines or that which may be condensed
from the moisture. Each of the tunnels
has a footpath, a system of conduits and
various appliances for safety. No earth
work or masonry appears The surface
of the tube is riveted steel, which is set
in a bed of cement and which will last
forever.
Precautions for Safety.
The ventilation is nearly perfect. The
tubes will be warmer in winter and cooler
in summer than the outside air. The
trains which rush through at the rate
of nearly a mile minute force the air
out AHEAD Of them and draw in a fresh
supply with the suction behind which is
by an electric power venti-
lsting plant.
The lighting system Of electricity is en-
tirey independent from that Of the ven
tilation or the power plant by which the
trains are run. This is a very important
precaution. because II the motive power
should fail there will still be plenty of
LIGHT and il trains should be stuck in
the tube and the lights should 60 out the
pumping of fresh air will go on.
The book signal system is ussd and each
tube has it's train dispatcher. who abso-
lutely controls the traffic. AS he sits in
his chair he has before him a row of
tubes with colored lights showing the
of the trains. SO that he can
tell exactly where they are. No train
starts from the entrance without his sig
nal. and every train that leaves the exit