The New York herald., 1922-07-26
BROOKLYN DELAYED
AT TRAFFIC CENTERS
Homegoers Make Futile
Dashes From Subway to
II to Street Cars.
JITNEYS HELP RESCUE
B. r. t. Strike Conditions
Revived in Makcshift
Transportation.
$500 CAUGHT IN TUBE
Walk to Exits at Manhattan
and Brooklyn After Half
Hours Wait.
$500 CAUGHT IN TUBE

Hundreds OF thousands were de-
layed by the blowout in the master
power house of the B. r. T. in Kent
avenue in getting home in Brooklyn
last night. Probably the greatest suf-
ferers were $500 persons who were
caught in three trains in the Montague
street tunnel beneath the East River.
They were held virtual prisoners in
the steel cars, lighted only by storage
batteries, for upward of half an hour.
and when freed had to tramp along a
bench walk through the dark tube to
Brooklyn or Manhattan. Most of them
in the Brooklyn end soiled their cloth
ing in climbing through an emergency
vent at the river front.
Not since the strike of August 80.
1920, when every B. r. r. wheel in the
borough was still, had there been so
complete tieup. Persons literally by
the thousands scrambled here and
there for some form of conveyance to
take them to their homes. The sur
face cars failing them they dashed up
the elevated stairs only to find that
those lines were also stopped, and then
down into the subway, only to be re-
fused admittance as the sale Of tickets
was halted as soon after the blowout
occurred as was possible.
Jitneys. trucks and all manner of
horse and motor vehicles for hire. soon
on 70 =
to come from nowhere and they were a
welcome sight to the thousands who
lined the streets. who were faced with
the prospect Of having to leg it to Flat
bush, Bath Beach. East New York or
Jamaica. The jitneys and trucks did
business as thriving as during any OF
the Brooklyn car strikes.
Under orders from Dispatcher Egan
the guards Of the trains in the tunnel
opened the doors after the first half
hour and the passengers were permitted
to walk out on the bench walk. a con-
crete walk about two feet in width
which runs on each side of the
tracks in the tunnel and Is the
same height above the tracks as
the ordinary STATEN platform. While
the dispatcher's men went through the
tube to the marooned trains others went
to the emergency exit at Furman sire et
and the East River. There is a sixty
two step ladder there rising to the street.
Up this ladder 1000 persons climbed.
The exit is not much larger than the
ordinary sewer vent and in making their
way up men and women brushed against
the sooty and grimy walls.
The congestion stretched from the
Brooklyn end of the bridges and the
East River ferries almost to central
Brooklyn. The greatest crowds assem-
bled at the Borough Hall. at Flatbush
and Atlantic avenues in front Of the
Long Island Railroad depot in Flatbush
avenue extension, leading down from
the Manhattan Bridge, at Myrtle avenue
and Broadway and at Flatbush avenue
and Fulton street. Borough Inspector
Thoms A. Murphy threw every available
policeman into duty at these points.
Motor cars and trucks were proceeding
down the FlatbuSh avenue extension six
and eight abreast and the jam all the
way west from Fulton street on that
thoroughfare was so great that 1t caused
a block on the bridge that extended to
mGriver.