The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-11
From the Electric News Service.

IyEW of us stop to realize what we
owe to modern development in the
L application of electricity until it IL
brought home by some mihghty under
taking like the construction of the Grand
Central terminal in New York city. the
worlds largest and finest railroad teirni-
nal This great building, remarkable for
its architectural beauty and its engineer
ing detail, was made possible only by the
magical forces of electricity.
In this great railroad station arc
brought together the New York Central
lines, the Hudson tubes to Jersey City
and the Belmont tubes to Long Island,
as well as the surface, elevated and suo
way lines which traverse the island o'
Manhattan. 1t would be quite impossible
to do this without the aid OF electricity.
Years ago the New York Central terminal
was electrified, and all the steam hauled
trains are stopped at High Bridge, above
the city, where the steam locomotives are
uncoupled and the trains are hauled into
the city by electric locomotives. This was
to eliminate the gases and smoke from the
hundreds of steam engines, which hung
like a black cloud over the city and en-
dangered life in the tunnels leading to the
terminal The New York, New Haven
and Hartford and the PENNSYLVANIA line
followed in this electrifcation work. The
network of Underground tubes in the New
York subway system could not be oper-
ated with any other power than electrici-
ty. The tunnels under the Hudson and
East rivers, connecting with New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Long Island lines, could
not be operated by steam trains because
the tunnels would be quickly filled with
suffocating smoke and gases. And with
out the elaborate systems of electric sig
mailing in these tunnels it would not be
safe to run the train at all.
This wonderful terminal building is a
huge pile of masonry and thousands %
trains are hauled in and out of it every
day. If steam engines had to be used
such structure would be impractical BILE
because the building would be quickly
filled with smoke. All the work about this
structure is accomplished by electricity
1t is lighted with an elaborate system Of
electric lights and the air is kept sweet
and pure by "A system of motor driven
ventilators. The baggage is handled by
electric trucks, the different departments
are connected by electric telephone and
everywhere power is needed electricity is
used.
The total area of the station is 20 acres,
which is exactly two and one-half times
as great as that of the next largest sta
ton, the Penns ,ylvania terminal, Manhat-
tan, which covers 2S acres. 1t is over
seven times as large as the area of the
Boston South station, and over six times
the size of the Frankfort Main station
in Europe 1t has total of 6S tracks, Of
which 46 have platforms, as against -2l
ira cks in the Pennsylvania terminal, % in
Boston and st. Louis stations, and IS in
the Frankfort Main station. The work OF
placing the two levels OF the station below
cubic yards of material, chiefly rock. and
hauling it away for a distance of from 10
TO 81 miles. Thirty-two miles of track
had to be laid. The old station of steel,
glass and stone had to be removed. In
the construction of the roof Of the subur-
ban level, the viaducts at the cross streets
and at Park avenue and in the miin
building, there had to the erected no less
than 11S,6O0 tons of steel work. This is
over twice as much steel as was used in
the construction of the existing subway
In New York city and Brooklyn. The
freproofng of the misunderstanding the
steel work and bailding floors and parti-
tions-called for 100000 square feet of
terra Gotta hollow tile.
This constitutes a gigantic task OF con-
struction under any circumstances; but
the whole OF this work of pulling down. OF
excavating, of building up, had to be done
either below>or by the side of the con-
stantly moving traffic of one of the
greatest railway terminals in the world,
and to be done without any interference
whatever with that traffic.
The engineering problem was to remove
the old train shed and terminal building
to excavate the whole 46is acres to an
average depth of IS feet; to erect, In the
excavated area. the massive columns and
floor beams for carrying the express level
tracks "a construction involving over So,
go tons of steeD: to erect above this Wis