Evening star., 1939-09-03

VNooiiAistOil Wdo Oil lIlS eve VI lcdl
rapid transit 50 years ago. when work
was started on the con-
Ropid 1ronsit struction of the cable
In Prospect line on Seventh street.
The Star of September
3, 1889, says:
Down where the arsenal grounds pre-
maturely abbreviated Four-and- a-Half
street and where the small boy drops a
baited hook into the mahogany tinted
tide from the western extremity of south
street, there is noisy endeavor and
reduction of chaos into order. The time
for the saving of wood has come and
the voice of the bricklayer Loudly vocif-
Grating mort is heard in the land But
a little while ago and the Washington
d. Georgetown Railroad Co.'S stables and
car house covered the greater portion of
that square which is bounded by o and
and -Four -and-a-Half and Water
streets. The big buildings were razed
and now their places are occupied by
excavations and dwarf walls. while
bricklayers and hodcarriers make the
scene a lively one. Fringing the great
building site are huge piles of brick and
other building material, while the greater
part Of the sidewalk on the -Four -and-a-
Half street front is occupied by lumber
and toiling carpenters. This work is pre-
liminary to changing the motor power of
the road from horse to cable.
In the southeast corner Of the great
double building will be the machine shop.
To the west is the partially constructed
tension pit which is 1856 feet long. In
this pit will be the huge drum, heavily
weighted which will at all times keep
the cable taut. In front and to the
south are the foundations of the engine
ROOM where there will soon be 250-horse-
power engines busily engaged in supply
ing the Seventh street line with motive
power. From the engine room back to
Four -and-a- Half street there will be no
upper floor. Immediately beneath the
ONCE the 'splicer' will have his head
quarters. An automatic tester will ring
an alarm bell whenever there is a loose
strand on the cable, and to make the
inspection more secure the splicer or one
OF his assistants will sit alongside and
watch patiently for inequalities or weak
nesses. Out beneath the center of Water
street will be a huge we'll 1t will be
sunk considerably below the level of the
river at low tide and will be the source
from which the boilers will be supplied
Near the waters edge and just oppo-
site the temporary stables is a stone
crusher which is turning out the small
limestone to be used in setting the con-
duit. Material is accumulating rapidly
under way. A dispute between Contrac-
tor Collins and the stonemasons has
ceased to trouble
Mr. Sexton Of Kansas City, the con-
tractor who will lay the cable road, has
a crowd of men busy in his yard at Sew
enth and T streets These he brought
from Kansas City and they were active
instructors to the 400 others who will be
given employment as soon as the actual
work of track laying commences.
"'We are delayed just now said Mr..
Sexton to a Star reporter, because of
the non-arrival of necessary material
The work calls for special tools and those
have ordered have been on the road
between Kansas City and here more than
IS days, but they will probably get here
before the rails do. hope to have half
a mile Of track down before October l
and during October want to add mile
and half to that
"On the F street side of the yard five
yokes and the tracks have been set up
on q train so that interested but ignor-
ant persons may see just how the thing
looks when it is in place.
People who live along the Navy Yard
and Georgetown and Fourteenth street
lines of the Washington & Georgetown
Railway will doubtless be pleased to hear
that they will be provided with rapid
transit as soon as the Seventh street
cable has been completed. Talking of
that matter to Star reporter this morn
ing President Hurt said: do not know
just what motor will be used on the
other portions of our road, maybe elec-
trio or maybe something else, but I can
assure you that 50 soon as We have the
Seventh street cable working smoothly
We will modernize the Avenue and Four
teenth street lines We intend to stay
right to the 'front.'