AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

INSTITUTED 1852

TRANSACTIONS

Paper No. 1151

THE NEW YORK TUNNEL EXTENSION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.

THE NORTH RIVER DIVISION.

By Charles M. Jacobs, M. Am. Soc. C. E.

These observations are written with the purpose of outlining briefly, as far as the writer was concerned, the evolution of the scheme of bringing the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Long Island Railroad into New York City, and also, as Chief Engineer of the North River Division of the New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad, to record in a general way some of the leading features of the work on this division, which is that portion of the work extending from the east line of Ninth Avenue, New York City, to the Hackensack Portal on the westerly side of the Palisades, as an introduction to the papers by the Chief Assistant Engineer and the Resident Engineers describing in detail the work as constructed.

It may be stated that, since shortly after the year 1871, when the Pennsylvania Railroad system was extended to New York Harbor through the lease of the New Jersey Lines, the officers of that company have been desirous of reaching New York City by direct rail connection.

The writer's first connection with the tunneling of the North River was early in 1890, when he was consulted by the late Austin Corbin, President of the Long Island Railroad Company and the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, as to the feasibility of connecting the Long Island Railroad with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (or with the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which was the New York connection of the Reading) by a tunnel from the foot of Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, under the Battery and New York City, and directly across the North River to the terminal of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Surveys, borings, and thorough investigations were made, and the Metropolitan Underground Railroad Company was incorporated in the State of New York to construct this railroad. Mr. Corbin, however, was aware that, in the transportation problem he had in hand, the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad were not as important factors as the Pennsylvania Railroad, and, in consequence, he abandoned the scheme for a tunnel to the Central Railroad of New Jersey for a line direct to the Pennsylvania Railroad terminal in Jersey City.

Meantime, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, as a result of its investigation of the matter, in June, 1891, thought that the most feasible project seemed to be to build tunnels for rapid transit passenger service from its Jersey City Station to the lower part of New York, connecting there with the rapid transit systems of that city, and also extending under New York on the line of Cortlandt Street, with stations and passenger lifts at the main streets and elevated railroads.

The late A. J. Cassatt, then a Director of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and previous thereto as General Manager and Vice-President (and later as President) of that company, was deeply interested in obtaining an entrance into New York City, but was not satisfied with the proposed rapid transit passenger tunnels which required the termination of the Pennsylvania Railroad trains at its Jersey City Station. Therefore, upon his request, in September of the same year, another study and report was made by Joseph T. Richards, M. Am. Soc. C. E., then Engineer of Maintenance of Way of the Pennsylvania Railroad, on a route beginning in New York City at 38th Street and Park Avenue on the high ground of Murray Hill, thence crossing the East River on a bridge, and passing around Brooklyn to Bay Ridge, thence under the Lower Bay or Narrows to Staten Island and across to the mainland, reaching the New York Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad at some point between Rahway and Metuchen. Mr. Cassatt also had in mind at that time a connection with the New England Railroad, then independent, but now part of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad system, by means of the Long Island Railroad, and a tunnel under the East River, which in later years, as the result of further consideration of the situation, has been covered by the proposed New York Connecting Railroad with a bridge across the East River and over Ward's and Randall's Islands.

As a result of these investigations, the late George D. Roberts, who was then President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, authorized an expenditure of about $25,000 for soundings to determine the nature of the strata for tunneling under water. These soundings were carefully made by Mr. Richards with a diamond drill, bringing up the actual core of all rock found in crossing the waters of New York Bay from the west to the east side and extending from the Narrows to the Jersey City Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

After these investigations had been made, early in 1892, Mr. Roberts expressed himself as being favorable to the undertaking, with the definite limitation that the tunnels must be for small cars doing local suburban business, and for the transfer of Pennsylvania Railroad passengers to and from New York, Brooklyn, and Jersey City, and not in any way to be tunnels for standard steam equipment, the expense for terminals and the prohibited use of coal for fuel in such tunnels not warranting any broader consideration. Under such instructions, the interests of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for effecting a physical entrance into New York City in that year were turned over to Samuel Rea, M. Am. Soc. C. E., then Assistant to the President of that Company, who has been identified with the investigations, and the progress and construction of this work since that time, Mr. Cassatt also working in conjunction with him on the plans then and since considered by the Pennsylvania Railroad Management.

On October 5th, 1892, Mr. Rea, under special direction of President Roberts, made an extended investigation of the various routes which had then been projected for extending the system into New York City by rail or transport, and reported to Mr. Roberts that, in his opinion, because of the limitation of the tunnel scheme to rapid transit trains and the consequent transfer of passengers and traffic carried in passenger trains, and because of the drawbacks caused by the use of steam locomotives in full-sized tunnels, and the objection to cable traction or any system of transportation which had not then stood the test of years of practical service, the plan of the North River Bridge for reaching New York City and establishing a terminus therein was the best that had been evolved up to that time. The plan provided a direct rail entrance into New York City for all railroads reaching the west side of the Hudson River, and also for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, as well as adequate station facilities in that city. This bridge would have had one clear span of 3,100 ft. between pier heads, landing on the New York side at the foot of West 23d Street, and thence the line would have passed diagonally to the terminus at Sixth Avenue and 25th Street. The location of the terminus was subsequently changed to the vicinity of Seventh Avenue and 36th Street. The bridge was designed with three decks: The first or lower deck was to accommodate eight steam railroad tracks; the second was to have six tracks, four of which could be assigned for rapid transit trains operating with electric power, and the other two for steam railroad trains; the third deck, reached by elevators, was to be a promenade extending from anchorage to anchorage. A connection with the