The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-07-17

Pennsylvania, Erie and Lackawanna.
railroad stations, will be completed
and ready for operation On that day,
but failure on the part of the car
builders to deliver sufficient equip
ment makes it impossible to operate
then only that portion of the line
from the Hudson Terminal buildings
to the Pennsylvania railroad station.
The opening of the tunnels and the
completion of the $60,00O,000 sys-
TEN, which has been in course of
| construction intermittently since
1875, will he signalized by fitting
celebration. Jersey City will be the
scene of the principal celebration.
When the first train starts on its trip
Jerseyward Monday afternoon with
the tunnel day guests as passengers
twenty dynamite bombs will be ex-
ploded high in the air over the Penn
sylvania railroad ferryhouse. Then
every locomotive and factory whistle
in the lower part of the town will be
expected TO get busy and every ferry
and tug boat on the river will join in
the racket.
| The opening of the south tunnel
marks the practical completion of
the McAdOo system, which has been
frequently adjudged to be the great
est and most costly engineering feat
of the century, as we'll as the most
comprehensive traffic arrangement
ever devised. The project for tunnels
to connect New York and New Jer-
sey underneath the Hudson river was
| first preached in 1874. De Witt Clin-
| ton Haskin. a civil engineer, Of Cali
| fornia, who had been active in the
construction of the Union Pacific
railroad, drew the plans and made
the surveys at his own expense.
| Starting at Fifteenth street, Jersey
! City, one hundred feet inside the
river bulkhead, he began his first
| bore. The work was soon stopped by
an injunction obtained by the Lack
awanna railroad. A few years later
the litigation was settled and Has
kin's son succeeded in pushing it on
until in 1880. when some 1900 feet
Of the tunnel had been completed
the company failed. The work was
abandoned for ten years until Pear
son & Son, the great English con-
, tracing firm, and Sir John Fowler
and Sir Benjamin Baker, who built
the bridge across the Forth in Scot
land, became interested in the pro-
ject and took it up again. Two years
later the company again failed.
The work was revived in a short
! time, but it was not until William G.
| McAdOO, young lawyer. took hold
| of the enterprise and organized the
Hudson and Manhattan company that
| it was successfully carried on. The
| McAdoo system comprises four tun-
nels under the Hudson. The two
north tubes We're opened last year.
And while this network of tunnels
that connects New Jersey with New
| York, and which penetrates all over
Manhattan Island, is a wonderful
piece of engineering the Terminal
! buildings, the great structure into
which all of these tunnels terminate,
| is one OF the marvels of the age. The
structure consists Of two buildings
situated on Church street. from Cort-
landt to Dey streets and from Day to
Fulton. The buildings are % stories
high above the surface and extend 10
feet below the surface to bed rock.
Beneath these buildings is located
| the great terminal station. where
! 125, 900 passengers will be discharg-
ed every morning during the rush
hours, and where like number will
take the tunnel trains every night to
return to their New Jersey homes.
The Terminal buildings constitute
the largest Office structure in the
world. There is space on the %
floors for 1000 offices, and probably
it will house more varied interests
than any other Office building on
earth. One thousand persons min
ute will pass through its corridors
all day long, or 100000 persons in
the course of day. Aside from this
floating population, the buildings
will have as permanent occupants at
least 10000 persons.
The great space beneath the
/ buildings, where the terminal station
is located. will constitute veritable
city in itself. Here will be the great
concourse. the largest to be found
anywhere, waiting rooms, retiring
rooms, telegraph stands, telephone
booths. flower booths and newspaper
kiosks, restaurants. lunch counters,