The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-02
GREAT PROGRESS ON. RAILROAD BRIDGE
 OVER HELL GATE
Link Between New England and the West and South Is As
 suming Shape

New York, July 2.-Work on the
 New York Connecting Railroad, the
 four track freight and passenger road
 which is to connect the New Haven
 railroad system with the Pennsylvania
 and provide a new way for moving
 much of New Eng1and's freight and
 passenger traffic, has been progress
 ing steadily now for a year. The work
 thus far has consisted chiefly in build
 ing the concrete abutments and re-
 taining walls in the Bronx and in
 Queens borough of New York City
 and in constructing the piers for the
 great arch bridge over Hell Gate, the
 greatest steel arch bridge in the
 world. This concrete work has now
 advanced so far, however, that within
 few months at the most the erec-
 ton of the steel for the viaduct DOT
 tfons of the line will have been be- gun.
 The New York Connecting Railroad, which is the joint enterprise of the New Haven and Pennsylvania roads, is the greatest private engineering en- terprise at present under way in this part of the country, and the bridge will be the longest in the world. The bridge itself will be 15,840 feet long, the railroad and bridge combined will
 be ten miles long and cost $30,0O0,- 900.
 1I1S TOSLu WILL leave the N9W dS- ven's Harlem River branch at Hand ! street in the Bronx, VIII cross Bronx Kills to Randall's Island, thence across Little Hell Gate to Wards Is land and running along the easterly edge of Wards Island on a steel and concrete viaduct will cross Hell Gate over the arch bridge, 5000 feet long
 and 300 feet high, to Long Island City. There 1t will connect with the Pennsylvania near the Sunnyside yards, but the freight line will be con- tinued farther until it Joins the tracks
 of the old Manhattan Beach road over
 which it will run to Bay Ridge, where
 the freight will be ferried across the bay to Greenvdlle, N. J.
 Work was begun at the Bronx end and on the Long Island end of the bridge in July, 1912. On the Hell Gate
 towers for the arch bridge, the crown
 ing achievement of the enterprise, the work was begun last September.
 The towers which are to carry this
 enormous weight of steel will be of
 concrete and will rise 25O feet in the air. They will be 140 by 140 feet at
 base and 100 by 75 above the base. The foundation of the Long Island tower has just been completed. It
 was necessary to go down only 25 feet to get bedrock on that side of Hell Gate. It will be many months, how ever, before even the foundation of the tower on the Wards Island side is done for the reason that it must go down 150 feet to secure bedrock and the work must be done by cadsson. At the present time caissons are being sunk for this tower in the same man ner as they were sunk for the towers | of the great bridges father down the
 East River. It will probably be a year or more before any steel work is begun on the Hell Gate bridge. In the Bronx and in Queens progress
 on the work in the past year has been
 such that people can now get fair idea of what this aerial four track railroad which is to link New Eng
 land with the South and West is going
 to look like when completed At pres ent half of the 32 concrete pders and Inducements of the bridge in the Bronx
 have been completed. They range in height from 30 to 50 feet and can be
 plainly seen. About 300 feet of re-
 taindng wall for that portion of the viaduct which connects the road with l the New Haven tracks at Hand street has been completed. To fill in this v1aduct, which will be on average of 35 feet in height and will run for about six blocks, dirt will be obtained from the New York subway excava- | ton.
 Over in Long Island City and Queens great concrete retaining walls now rear themselves over a large part of tfe distance there. Seven piers and abutrnents and two concrete
 arches over streets have been finished
 and 1000 feet of retaining fall has
 been built. Work on the eastern via duct, as the Long Island City rart
 is called will be completed. 1t is ex- pected, within two yeas. Not on4y is the work on the bridge now beirtg
 actively pushed in two populous bor- ougtls of New York city, but on The two Islands-RandaIIs and Wards
 which are passed by the, Sound steam CTS, the contractors plants have now been installed and there may be seen as one approaches New Yorf-s eastern portal a line of latticed wooden tow CTS, some of them 15O feet high. not only on the two islands but in the Bronx nd Queens as we'll Up these ] towers the concrete is being lifted in
 eIev a1ors and distributed through
 chutes. the same methn1 as :s employ
 ed tt Panama There are a dozen or more of these towers forming a
 huge eemicircle marking the pathway | of this stupendous engineering enter
 prise so that all may see 1t.
 At r. esent there are about 1000 men employed on the actual construction work of the bridge and viaducts. The entire work will require about 90, ,e00 tons of steel and 450,000 cubic yards of concrete reinforced wit1 about D. 900 ions of steel rods. Gustav L'n-
 denthal is the chief engineer. The | work Mill be completed within four years.
 when this bridge is completed through trains will be run from Bos- ton to Chicago, Cincinnati. New Or leans. Washington an1 Florida. In his testimony before Commissioner Pro;1ty recently President Mellen said that xe was figuring on forty trains a day TUT ming over the bri 1Ge into the Pennsylvania station. This would mean alarger tn. cugh sei-yi"a over the 7..iI ate bridge than tle:e is running today cut of New Eng'a1-d over the New Faven's nL.n Iiae alone.
 SETTLEMENT OF SUIT
 FAILS TO END STRIFE