The evening world. Newspaper, March 24, 1900, Page 7

{EN MINUTES! ™ ®0" } TRIUMPH IN NEW YORK. | Binnn a --- entified with the Great Problem n Successfully S HE RAPID TRANSIT TUNNEL. en One Man Will Be Executed. M DONALD. oeeceeces provide that nut more than 400 feet of roadway shall be opened at a time, and then only half the width of the street, No two openings can be nearer than 500 feet, All the men working on the tunnel— laborers, axe? rodmen, inspectors, diggers, m. electricl must be citizens of the United States. That ls a requirement which will be absolutely d upon in all cases, The prevail- of-waxe Jaw wil! apply througn- » tune! construction, It is un- that the great work will be let lo sub-contractors, They whl furnish their own men and bonds for perform: ance of controet. In this way the bur- den and annoyance of looking out for numerous individual applications wil be minimized, ‘The salary list is something which has perplexed the chief engineer. It Is dif- Aeult to even approximate the sum to- tal. The material for 1% subway—toois, engines, instruments, &c.—will be fur- nished by the lowest bidder. There Is no reason why the work should not proceed sinoothly and rapidly, Deep tunnelling, which will cover about two miles of the route, will be easier than the open-surface work. {4 true that a grade of some exter one point the road will be nearly one hundred feet below level) will be neces- wary, but that will not Interfere with cy Hi. Btarin were named as members of the commission. This commission carried |. the speed of the c) the tunnel project to the successful conclusion which is being celebrated to-day. ‘ trains to any extent 2 \ A - . “ 3 ‘ $ a9? 23 4: oY) -f o> EY \.) a? w $ p febbetiminininininteintni me ‘DONE FOR RAPID TRANSIT. OHN H. STARIN,’ Who Is Still on the Board, This enterprise waved the day. The ‘World was an early advocate of the plan, then a novelty to the people, of baving the city lend its credit for the ‘cost of construction of the road; and when, afier the veters of the city had indorsed municipal construction and blininininieinieieininlettteieteinit we World of April &, 1892.) IFTEEN MINUTES. ‘That and nothing else is rapid ‘end wants, and what the elevated what the city will get unless tm- the greed of the elevated monopoly. bbe: the consolidation of the five into the Greater New York, it the road without going beyond city's constitutional debt limit, interposed that we could not bull olved. FOR MUNICIPAL CONSTRUCTION. BY JOHN BOGART, Chief Engineer of Mayor Grant's Second Commission, NEW Rapid-Transit law was passed by the Legislature in 1991 and the second commission came ‘nto existence, The Commissioners were William Stein- way, John H. Inman, Samuel Spencer, Eugene L. Bushe and John H. Star. The restrictions exempting certain streets were removed by the amend- ments and the commission seemed to have a fair opening. All ninds were siill agreed that the solution of the rapid-trans! problem was in an underground ratlroad, and two plans were reedy for the examination of en- gineering experts, Octave Chanut, Joseph M. W.lson, Theodore Cooper and John Bogart were asked to examine and each to report on these and other pians. One was for four tracks on a level occupying a tunnel the whole width of Broadway trom curb to curb, and the other was for a double-deck tunnel. The engineers decided in favor of the former, and in the Supreme Court April, 18%, appointed David McClure, Benjamin Perkins and Robert Maclay to tgke testimony and re- port on the feasibility of the plan, Two months later this board reported favor- ably and its report was confirmed by the Court. On Nov. 12, 1892, the Commissioners advertised the franchise for sale to the highest bidder, The est!mated cost of construction of the road by the figures of the Board of Experts was §0,00,00, When the day came for the sale of the fran- ychise for a tunnel road from the Battery to the city line by way of the Broadway end Boulevard route, with 4 branch from Union Square up Fourth avenue to the Grand Centra! Depot, only ene bidder appeared. His bid—or rather bids—was (eo and an alternate of $1,008, Of course both bids were rejected. The tunne! plan had proved a flat fa!lure, seemingly, when the Manhattan Ele- vated Rallway Comgpny came forward with a propos.tion involving extensive en- largement of the privileges of that company and the extension of the lines of the “L" to the elty limits, These proposals were rejected by the Commissioners after many conferences with J. P. Morgan, George Gould, Russell Sage, Samuel Sloan and R, H. Gallatin, of the Manhattan Company. The Commissioners still believed that the underground road was 4 posrib.lity and the only solution of the question they had been set to solve, All the Commissioners save Mr. Btarin resigned in June, 186. Then began the agitation for municipal construction of the road, it being argued that ‘t had been demonstrated that privete cap'tal could not be in- duced to undertake so vast an enterprise, The resigned Commissioners were re- eppointed, and they and the chief engineer, John Bogart, who had an able assiat- ant fm the present Chief Engineer, W. B. Parsons, performed the engineering for end laid out substantially the same route that was finally adopted. In May, 184, a new Rapid-Transit law was passed, creat'ng a commiasion tn which the Mayor, the Comptroller and the President of the Chamber of Com- merce were made members by virtue of their positions respectively, and Alex- ander E. Orr, Seth Low, John Claflin, William Steinway, John H. Inman and John N NN May, 18, I became Chief Engineer of the Rapid Transit Commission. From that date unt!! rapid transit @ reality untemitting efforts on were many. On April 7, 1999, (he present plan for a ibway was definit: adopted. How paid cannot be ew. The commitice on Ore has mded the ap- aoe «he RE Me ey THE ENGINEER, BY WM. BARCLAY PARSONS, Chief Engineer of the Tannel. | mie reg of Albert Carr as first fa ‘ sone nNOS MEETS PLS aR eR PIPUP PETE ETE MOBEL ao. JESUP, Commissioner, ALEAw..... —. ORR. President of Rapid Trancit * Commission. ' detest inietiniei-ttek ine ieee inieeiibietetiteter HOW RAPID TRANSIT WAS REACHED. ¥ GEORGE L. RIVES, Member ef the Present Commission. Wes I came into the Rapid-Transit Commission, in the autumn of 1996, it tad made a report laying out a route up Broadway, which had beea approved by the city authorities and by the so-called Coudert commission, appointed by the Supreme Court to take testimony and report to the Court. That plan came before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, which rejected « on the grounds that the probable cost had not been wscertatned and that the plan did not contempt road from one end of the city to tho other. The estimated cost of the road by these plans was $9,000 The Co:+ thought that $25,000,000 was all the city ought to invest, and that the road ought to extend to the city boundaries, The plans came back to us. The problem then was to devise a railroad substantially from one end of Manhattan to the other end of tl. 1x for $35,000,000. We set ourselves to solve this p:vwiem, aml we did It by abandoning any road running along the east side of Central Park, abandoning the consiruction of pipe galleries in conjunction with and as a part of the tunnel work, and abandon- ine Broadway, the natura! route. Thus we were enabled to devise a route and plans which came within the prescription of the Court These defects, | think, will be cured in time, If the road is a success, which J feel sure it will be, we shall have a road on the enst side starting from tho Grand Central Staton and following up Lexington ar Madison avenue. Joining the imain line now projected near the Harlem River; also a road from near the Poot- OMice up or weat of Broadway, Joining the projected road at Forty-second street, ‘This system, if it ts coupled together with the line up Central avenue, for- merly Jerome avenue, In the Bronx, will give nearly an ideal system of raph transit, especially if Mr. McDonald, or the operating company to whom he may assign ‘te contract, will be able to make satisfactory arrangements for an ex- of traffic by means of a physical exchange of cars wiih the New York the Harlem and the New Haven roads, * There ought to be no UiMculty in running cars from the Post-Office to Yonkers over the Rapid-Transit route and thence over the New York and Putnam branch of the New York Central, or from the Post-Office to White Plains and other points over the New York and Harlem, or to Mount Vernon, New Rocholle or Stamford over the tracks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford by connectiéa at West Farms. It would necessitate the putting in of electrical equipment on these roads probably, but that is of small moment. a ooo? HIS ASSISTANTS AND HIS WORK. ~enecenoreneninay | OMfice nnd Forty-second street, at a aal-! ary of HS ‘The coma > ommended T. Farrell Mr. Care's’ secrotary ax $1,800 and C. W. Hendricks: as engineer the sewer division at: $4,000. “Mr. Rice will be These four posit cagineare, three general inspectors, one; ompt from competiti: tion. Rh ay level assisian! “ siwtant transit men, rodinen. axemen, tore of steel erection, steel, masonty, ughtamen, stenogra- phere, accountants and messengers. gad part of the Foutes Puseptiony wit La wi where on ineer, Hundred Forty-fourth int near the New Haven of} 2.700 feet, and for a short distance Mott avenue tn the Bronx. division, between ti m9 8 to OF 1838, rem: 6 from the vit nt enumeration of the indebtedness of the at, ag ) semana *t bonding er of ITTING MUNICIPAL the cit improvements. This BST voor owe w tind Taslisaees, Meee etl” renlclp wer the cost of bul the rapid- const eo permitting municipal transit scbway. dette ite! PT MEL Ail ALLAMITHAIPUED wg WCHL AAA i, tt a NU {UWA NS +. ewe bility or the p wi W: CITY’S GREA development of the city. And my opinion is that there has never been any great work of equal tance in the history of the city; ne work that will be of the value te the city: the completion of this underground railroad will prove. TEST IMPROVEMENT. | BY HERBERT H. VREELAND, President of Metropolitan Street Railway Company. HATEVER I might say by way of. prophecy regarding the business iN be done by the underground railroad, or the probable speed of trates, the chances of realization of the commuters’ dream of through oo the underground road to suburban points on the New York Central, New Harlem, New York and Putnam and other reads, would be construed - pression of one talking for @ purpose. 1 will say, however, that the Metropolitan Street Raflway Company secured the contract for the operation of the underground road, overtures looking to such a consummation, and has not even considered {eability of such an arrangement. I can w.thout fear of misconstruction express citizen and as an expert in raliroad matters, on the general, bread propesition © the effect of the movement inaugurated to-day upon the growth, tion will be the only sign on the eur- face of the treet of an underground: station, ‘The stations will have white enam- April §, ROBERT A. VAN WYCK. MAYOR OF GREATER NEW YORK, bes has | A i f iit z 5 } A | 4 and Vanderbilt avenue; Seventy-eec- ‘ond street and Broadway, and Nine- ty-sixth street hand Broadway, But the trains will make the forty.’ ay | d