The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1911-12-19
GREAT FEAT OF
ENGINEERING
Lackawanna Railroad Officials
Show the Cutoff"

Some forty or more of the news
paper men along the line of the Lack
awanna in this state were taken on
u trip over the cutoff. ;. as the new
section just completed is called. on
Monday Two Pullman observation
cars and a dining car made up the
train and nothing that would add to
the comfort and convenience Of the
guest was neglected.
The new route from Hopatcong to
Slateford opens up a new section OF
the country and adds very much to
the scenic beauty of the famous
road of anthracite" The route is
unique in that instead of the usual
course of following the valleys it
cuts straight across the country, cut
ting through mountains and filling up
valleys. The passenger is alternately
interested in the study of the curious
and varied rock formation in the cuts
and then rushed out upon an embank-
ment and regaled with an extended
view of beautiful valley
A sumptuous lunch was served in
the dining-car stationed on the via
duct over the Delaware, sixty-five
feet in the air with a magnificent
view of the river from the Water Gap
down nearly to Easton.
A description of the cutoff follows:
This Cutoff is twenty-eight and
one-half miles in length. 1t means
a saving of eleven miles between New
York and Buffalo.
The Lackawanna has always been
the shortest route between those
cities and the opening of this new
road will reduce the distance by rail
to 400 miles.
This, however, is but one element
of improvement. The "cut-off' re-
duces the maximum grade of 6O.2
feet per mile to 29.04 feet. 1t elm
mates a total curvature of 1860 de-
grees or over four complete circles,
and it does away with two tunnels
at Oxford Furnace and Manunka
Chunk. There is on the new line but
one very short tunnel which offers
practically no impediment to opera
ton.
- Work was begun in the summer of
1908, after many preliminary surveys
and considerable investigation of other
possible routes.
1t was finally decided that in pro-
portion to the cost of construction, the
maximum of efficiency in operation
would be obtained by running line
directly from point on the Delaware
river (Slateford, Fa.) two miles be-
low the Water Gap to the crest of
the water shed at Lake Hopatcong.
The Water Gap on the west and
Lake Hopatcong on the east are the
natural strategic points of the situa
tion, the former furnishing the only
passage for miles through the Blue
Ridge mountains and the latter max
ing the most practicable connection
with the present line on the east.
In order to obtain the adopted align
ment and easier grades, it was neces-
sary that the new line should depart
from customary practice and should
lie high up on the hills rather than
on the floor of the valley and for the
greater distance strike cross-country
semi-mountainous. This location re-
uired exceptionally heavy cuts and
fills, the former totaling over 14,000,-
600 cubic yards, the latter nearly b.
100000. Where it was found impos
sible to obtain enough material from
the cuts at either end of these fills,
great as they are, to build these mon
ster embankments, the company was
obliged to purchase outright some 76O
acres of farm land for "borrow pits. y
The earth and gravel have been
scooped out to depth of twenty
feet and hauled up on the embank-
ments, leaving in some places good
sized lakes where there was formerly
level ground. The deepest cut is 1870
feet deep, the largest is 100 deep and
one mile long, mostly through the
solid rock.
The largest of these fills is the one
across the Pequ est valley, extending |
from one mile east of Andover to
one mile west of Huntsville, 10 feet
in height and over three miles long |
It is by far the largest fill in the
world.
All the seventy-three bridges and |
culverts on the cutoff are of con
crete A new record has been estab- |
lished in the extent to which this ma
terial has been used. Heretofore |