Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-02

completing ! .542 feet OF Drlck tunnel
eighteen feet high and sixteen feet wide
His methods of construction were crude
and expensive and i'll the early part OF
| 1880 serious accident occurred resulting
| in the loss of twenty lives. But for the
| heroism Of Peter Woodland. the boss OF
| the gang, the whole party or "orkmeh
might have been sacrificed.
| In July 1890. work was resumed by >.
Pearson & Sons. the English contractors
| who are now engaged in bulIdlng the
| East river tunnels for the pennsylvania
| railroad They worked for about one year
| and had completed about LOO feet OF
| tunnel, when the company again failed
and the scheme was abandoned.
| Harvest Under McAdoo.
| Ton or twelve Years ago William G..
McAdoo. a young lawyer. came to New
York from Georgia to seek his fortune. He
became associated with his namesake.
| former Representative William McAdoo.
and soon built up good clientele. In the
meantime the plans and efforts of Mr..
Haskins had come to his knowledge and
| he made up his mind that they were not
only practicable but that he had been
created to carry them out. In the early
part of 1902 he organized company, with
| himself as president Mr.. Walter G. Oak.
man and Mr. F. 3. Jennings vice presi-
dents. and Charles y. Jacobs as chief
engineer He arranged with the well
known banking house of Harvey FISK a.
Sons to finance the undertaking. and they
raised 81 10000 to complete the unfinish-
ed 1000 feet OF the old Haskins tunnel.
The, original plan of MIR. Haskins for
the use of steam as motive power
was abandoned and at an early period
| a parallel tunnel would have TO be
built so that trains would not meet in
motion. and that connections must be
made with all the underground traffic in
New York city. second tunnel was
therefore undertaken parallel to the orig
mal In 1903. When work was resumed
| the original tunnel was approaching a
| rock ledge under the deepest part of the
| river. which presented an engineering
| prcbiem Of unusual difficulty. and for a
time it was thought to be insurmounta-
| BILE To solve the problem 1t was neces-
sary to build the bottom of the tunnel
through rock and the top OF 1t through
silt at a point under the river where
the water was deepest and where the
| ton of the tunnel was only about four
| teen feet from the bottom of the river.
Twice during this work the silt gave way
| and the tunnel was flooded with water
hut as il was divided into three sections
each protected by an air lock. no damage
was done and no lives were lost. The
workmen had the unusual and novel ex'
perience of catching fish and crabs from
the bottom instead of the top OF river
and some of them have been preserved
in alcohol.
The Passage Completed.
The passage through the $40 feet o.
rock was accomplished in about one year
and on the nth day of March. 1904. 6
passage under the Hudson river was com
pleted and men crossed from New Jer
sey TO New York without going over the
water. In the meantime the plans Of
the company were enlarged SO as to ex
tend the tunnel to 9th avenue and 3St
street. to reach the shopping district
and to connect with the Pennsylvania
terminals both in Jersey City and a.
ard street and Sth avenue in New Yorl
city.
The Hudson and Manhattan Railway
Company was then organized, with w
G. McAdoo as president, and the scope
of the enterprise was expanded to in
clude a complete system of nineteen miles
of single track and enormous termina
buildings at cost of more than 800
GWNO The work is practically com
pleted. the tunnels from Jersey City t.
lower New York will be finished mex
fall and the building will be ready II
a few days The men who have carried
it through are Mr.. w. G. McAdoo. Mr.