Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-09-22
SEE MODEL SEWER
Visitors Shown Through Big
Underground Channel.
MEETS DRAINAGE PROBLEM
Superintendent of District System
Serves as Pilot.
HYGIENIC EXPERTS AS GUESTS
Trip for Members of International
Congress Through Tunnel to
the Outfal.
MEETS DRAINAGE PROBLEM
HYGIENIC EXPERTS AS GUESTS

! Several parties of engineers and hygien-
ic experts. in attendance on the Fifteenth
Congress on Hygiene and Demography.
have been escorted through specially
prepared section of the largest sewer tun-
mel in the District OF Columbia by Asa E.
Phillips superintendent of sewers The
invitation to make the inspection was ex-
tended last week. Preparations have also
been made and guides have been furnish
ed to take the delegates who will arrive
this week through the big New Jersey
avenue tunnel and to the Outfall, several
miles below the city. Engineers who have
already Inspected the system have ex-
pressed themselves as delighted with
what they saw. The trip through the
sewers and through the pumping station
actly how the big problem of drainage Is
treated by local engineers.
Ordinarily the suggestion Of such trip
would have a noisome effect upon the
saueamish person. but the opposite Is true
In this case. The care taken to ventilate
the big tunnels so that all offense shall be
removed is one Of the engineering &C.
complishments of Supt. Phillips.
Really Beauty Spot.
The engineers and hygienic delegates
will be shown the pumping station at the
foot Of South Capitol street, before the
descent into the caves beneath 1t is start
ed, and their attention will be called to
the fact that the building and the park
around it is really one of the city's beauty
spots. 1t has the appearance OF a gar
den, rather than as unitarian pumping
house, where 100000 gallons of water
a day are lifted bodily and tossed with
wonderful ease through tremendous pipes,
far down the river to the Outfau.
These pumps keep the water from back
ing up into the city's underground tun-
nels. What would happen II the pumps
stopped working is matter of conjecture
after the visitor to the brightly lighted
tunnel beneath New Jersey avenue
glances at the three water marks on one
Of the high columns supporting the tun-
mel. It shows that the river outside at
low tide Is just over his head: at mean
high tide is several feet above it. and
that medium run Of high water would MI
that tunnel to depth of twelve or nj
teen feet. But the eight pumps, turning
are each capable Of tossing aside 65,OOO
gallons of water They keep the river in
check.
What the Visitor Sees.
The visitors are taken all through the
pumping station, which gives the double
impression Of marvellous cleanliness and
gigantic power and down through all
sorts of locked and double-barred tight
doors into a screen chamber and so on
into a great underground canyon. AS
they stand in the middle they see great
stretches of tunnel in all directions. Two
yawning mouths confront them from one
direction. and into these black spaces the
| eye cannot pierce. In the other d1rec-
! ton. following deep underground the
course of New Jersey avenue northWard,
the tunnel has Leen lighted for several
hundred yards A plentiful array or IN
candescent lights makes 1t possible to
see every inch of the way.
The first impression Is that these sew
ers must have been modelled expressly
for some mythical "Spotless Town." The
bricks are clean as pins. The walls are
rounded and shine like white plates.
There is space for two railroad trains
to pass in this particular tunnel A brick
path runs on either side Of the rapidly
flowing water in the middle, like two tow
paths on a canal Mr.. Phillips surprises
the visitors by telling them that the
water from the residences Of 100000 peo-
pie in the northwest. 1t races through
the tunnel op its way, to be thrown fore
IDLY by the pumps to the outfall, several
miles down the river.
Water Runs Rapidly.
"One of the beauties of this system is
the 1dCJ tHdI tn6 water runs
through the sewers and tunnels. 1t has
no time to stop anywhere. and in that
way cannot become offensive"
This Is part of Mr. Phillips explanation.
These tunnels are well ventilated.
You will notice that great steel fans
blow the old air out and bring in fresh
air."
The general comment of visitors is that
they never imagined that a trip into a
sewer would be interesting. and that they
were agreeably :rprised. supt. Phillips
explains that 1t is his ambition to make
| the system in this city the show piece of
engineering Of that kind for the world.
| and that his assistants have been school
| ed to keep the system in apple-pie order.
| The 200 miles Of mains are inspected
several times a year, and repairs are
made constantly, so that no main will
deteriorate.
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