page_title: PATH (rail system)
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: PATH (rail system) / History / Hudson & Manhattan Railroad / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: One of the original plans for PATH, with branches to IRT Lexington Avenue Line and the CNJ terminal.
context_page_description: Port Authority Trans-Hudson is a 13.8-mile rapid transit system in the northeastern New Jersey cities of Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, and Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. PATH trains run around the clock year round; four routes serving 13 stations operate during the daytime on weekdays, while two routes operate during weekends, late nights, and holidays. Its tracks cross the Hudson River through century-old cast iron tubes that rest on the river bottom under a thin layer of silt. It operates as a deep-level subway in Manhattan and the Jersey City/Hoboken riverfront; from Grove Street in Jersey City to Newark, trains run in open cuts, at grade level, and on elevated track.
  The routes of the PATH system were originally operated by the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, built to link New Jersey's Hudson Waterfront with New York City. The system began operations in 1908 and was fully built out in 1911. Three stations have since closed; two others were re-located after a re-alignment of the western terminus.
context_section_description: Construction started on the first tunnel, now called the Uptown Hudson Tubes, in 1873. Chief engineer Dewitt Haskin built the tunnel by using compressed air to open a space in the mud and then lining it with brick. The railroad got 1,200 feet (366 m) from Jersey City this way until a lawsuit stopped work; accidents, including a particularly serious one in 1880 that killed 20 workers, caused additional delays. The project was abandoned in 1883 due to a lack of funds. An effort by a British company, between 1888 and 1892, also failed.
  When the New York and New Jersey Railroad Company resumed construction on the uptown tubes in 1902, its chief engineer, Charles M. Jacobs, used a different method. He had workers push a shield through the mud and then place tubular cast iron plating around the tube. The northern tube of the uptown tunnel was completed this way shortly after work resumed and the southern tube was built the same way. The uptown tubes were completed in 1906.
  By the end of 1904, the New York City Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners had given the company permission to build a new subway line through Midtown Manhattan to connect with the Uptown Hudson Tubes, along with 26 years of exclusive rights to the line. The Midtown Manhattan line would travel eastward under Christopher Street before turning northeastward under Sixth Avenue, then continue underneath Sixth Avenue to a terminus at 33rd Street.
  In January 1905, the Hudson Companies, with $21 million in capital, were incorporated to complete the Uptown Hudson Tubes and build the Sixth Avenue line, as well as construct the Uptown Hudson Tubes' subway connections on both sides of the river. The H&M was incorporated in December 1906 to operate a passenger railroad system between New York and New Jersey via the Uptown and Downtown Tubes.
  A second pair of tunnels, the current Downtown Hudson Tubes, was built about 1 ¹⁄₄ miles (2.0 km) south of the first one. Three years of construction using the tubular cast iron method finished in 1909. The uptown and downtown tunnels had two tubes with a single unidirectional track. The eastern sections of the tunnels, in Manhattan, were built with the cut and cover method.
caption: One of the original plans, with branches to the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal (lower left) and the IRT Lexington Avenue Line at Astor Place (center).
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