The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-10
New FORKS New Aqueduct Won
der OF the Age.
Cost One Hundred Sixty-One
Million Dollars.
HAS BEEN COMPLETED
Will Bring Water Supply From
the Catskills.
Holland GOssips About Money
Trust" and National Banks.

New York. Jan. 10.-The workmen
who have been descending daily into
the bowels of the earth a thousand feet
beneath the bottom of the Hudson
river at the narrows of the Hudson
bounded on the west side by the storm
creating mountain Storm King were
not able to blast this greatest of sub
terranean and subaqueous tunnels, so,
far as depth is concerned. so that the
bore would be completed within the
year 1911 The greater part of the
work. however, was done in the past
year. and although the final blast was
reserved for the first of the new year
II would be accurate to Identify in
point of time the year 1911 with this
astonishing and unique engineering
work.
There may have been business de-
pressions in the year 1911 and there
may have been widespread politi n
agitation which served somewhat to
demoralize business; but the year 1911
viii go on record as the date in which
some of the greatest engineering
achievements have been made. Mr..
Flagler's coastwise railroad, sweeping
around the southern coast of Florida
and unbreakably assimilatsd through
its foundations with the coral reef is
one of these engineering achievements.
So, also, in the far west the exploits of
the engineers in the year 1911 will be
numbered among the great triumphs of
science.
But from one point of view the con-
StructiOn of this tunnel under the FI11d-
son river and the wonderful boring
which IS now in progress two hundred
rect beneath the surface of Manhattan
Island for its whole length will be re-
garded by engineers as among the
greatest and also among the truly or
1ginaI achievements of science.
Cost One Hundred Sixty-One Million.
After the Legislature authorized the
contracting of a debt aggregatins A
hundred and sixty-one million dollars
to provide funds to construct the
worlds greatest modern aqueduct sys-
TEN, whereby New York city and its
suburbs are to be furnished with an
adequate supply of water, the great
problem the engineers found them
selves compelled to solve was the man
ner in which the water could be trans
ported across the Hudson river
vast as was the engineering work
necessary for the construction Of the
great reservoirs in the CatskilI noun
tain region, science had shown the
way in which measurements and com
putatlOnS for such work could be made
with relative ease. The reservoir will
when filled with water be large
enough and deep enough the en-
glneers say, to float the navies of the
world, II great war vessels could be
transported from the Hudson river to
tAAAN AGSCANOI- 30. also, the engineers
mad little difficulty in deciding the
manner by which the vast streams of
water coming from that reservoir
could be, by the force of gravity,
brought to a convenient point on the
west bank of the Hudson river
But how get the water across ?
There were many discussions informal
put very earnest. in the rooms of the
engineering Society building in New
\ ork City upon this point Some of
the engineers favored putting an aque-
duct across the Hudson. although they
admitted that to do that would entail
the eSta bliShment of large pumping
plants on the east bank of the Hud-
son whereby the water could be artifi-
cially hoisted. All of the engineers
were persuaded that if it were prac-
ticable to adopt the siphon principle
then the problem would be perfectly
and permanently solved.
At One Thousand Feet.
But If the water was to be siphoned !
from the west side of the Hudson to I
a great reservoir upon the east side |
constructed at such a height that the /
water would flow from it by gravity |
through a properly built aqueduct to a
great distributing point planned for an |
elevation in the suburbs of Yonkers. |
that would entail the construction of
a tunnel at least 1000 feet beneath |
the surface of the Hudson river. A !
simple computation in hydrostatics !
showed this to be the case.
But was it possible to dig a shaft |
1000 feet down the side of Storm King /
mountain and like shaft upon the |
east side of the Hudson and then to \
bore through solid rock at the bottom /
of the Hudson river so as to make a |
continuous passa geway for the water /
for which the familiar siphon principle I
could be adopted?
A thousand feet beneath the surface /
is long way for even the most ex-
perienced sandhogs to go. The tunnel |
ing of the Hudson and of the East I
rivers and the building of the great /
tunnel under Bristol harbor. England. /
were infinitesimal undertak kings. so /
far as distance was concerned. COM I
pared with proposition that the Hud- /
son be tunneled one thousand feet be /
meath the surface.
Inventors perfected apparatus by |
means of which the workmen could /
busy themselves in compressed air for I
an hour or two at shift and the mod /
ern mining apparatus. great rock |
drilling machines and powerful explo- /
sives were relied upon for the success
full boring of this giant subterranean /
hole
This work has now been practically |
completed. Mayor Gaynor who has /
some of the characteristics of Haroun
al RaSchid, is to be with the party {
which makes the first official explora- /
ton of this subterranean channel /
When he reaches the bottom and en- .
tiers the tunnel he viii be at about 4
as low a depth from the surface of the I
earth as any man has ever reached
even the miners OF South Africa or of (
the far west
Unique Achievement.
The achievement viii rank among |
the unique triumphs of science along /
original lines of which the year 1911 |
has furnished several examples. And /
with the completion Of this tunnel the /
great Catskill aqueduct system should |
be finished. at least as far as Yonkers. /
within the next year and a half.
Should New York city and its suburbs