Transcriber's Notes
The fractions one half and three quarters were shown respectively as
1-2 and 3-4 which was retained herein.
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| FACTS AND FIGURES |
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| CONCERNING |
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| THE HOOSAC TUNNEL. |
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| By JOHN J. PIPER. |
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| FITCHBURG: |
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| JOHN J. PIPER, PRINTER. |
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| 1866. |
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FACTS AND FIGURES
CONCERNING
THE HOOSAC TUNNEL.
By JOHN J. PIPER.
FITCHBURG:
JOHN J. PIPER, PRINTER.
1866.
THE HOOSAC TUNNEL.
In his inaugural address to the Legislature, Governor Bullock says,
"There can be no doubt that _new facilities_ and new avenues for
transportation between the West and the East are now absolutely needed.
Our lines of prosperity and growth are the parallels of latitude which
connect us with the young, rich empire of men, and stock, and produce
lying around the lakes and still beyond. The people of Massachusetts,
compact, manufacturing and commercial, must have more thoroughfares
through which the currents of trade and life may pass to and fro,
unobstructed and ceaseless, between the Atlantic and the national
granaries, or decay will at no distant period touch alike her wharves
and her workshops. Let us avert the day in which our Commonwealth shall
become chiefly a school-house for the West, and a homestead over which
time shall have drawn silently and too soon the marks of dilapidation.
Any policy which is not broad enough to secure to us a New England,
having a proper share in the benefits of this new opening era of the
West, be assured, will not receive the approval of the next generation."
This important recommendation is what the public had reason to expect
from a man so keenly alive to the interests and welfare of the
Commonwealth as Governor Bullock, whose close observation and
discernment had long since discovered the danger, and disposed him to
take a deep interest in any adequate enterprise by means of which it
could be averted. The reasons which have induced His Excellency's
convictions on this subject, and caused the apprehensions he has
expressed, are very clearly set forth in the following articles from the
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser of November 25th and 28th, 1865:--
"To-day, the Western States are far more bountifully provided with
avenues of transportation than the extreme East. This is peculiarly
anomalous and inexplicable when we consider the boasted enterprise,
wealth and shrewdness of New England, and the dependence which
always exists upon the part of a manufacturing district toward that
section which furnishes it with a market, and from which it obtains
its breadstuff. It is fortunate for New England that it does not
lie in the line of transit between the West and _its_ market, or it
would have drawn about its head a storm of indignation which it
could not have resisted. The State of New York has contributed an
hundred fold what New England has towards providing the required
facilities of traffic, for the great West. Our Yankee friends have
done much toward facilitating intercommunication among themselves,
but very little toward direct communication with the West.
It is not a little strange that, with all the ambitious effort of
Boston to become a mercantile emporium, rivaling New York, and with
its vast manufacturing interest, it should have but a single direct
avenue of traffic with the West. Yet such is the fact. The Western
Railroad between Albany and Boston is the sole route now in
existence except those circuitous lines via New York City or
through Canada. Our down-east friends, usually so keen and
enterprising, seem to have exhausted their energies in the
construction of that road twenty-five years ago, and the
consequence is that to-day the business interests of all New
England are suffering for lack of the timely investment of a few
millions.
Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true that Boston is now
virtually cut off from its trade communication with the West for
want of facilities of transportation. For weeks past the Grand
Trunk Railroad has ceased to take Boston freight, by reason of its
being blocked up with other through and way freights at Sarnia. The
swollen tide of freight via the New York Central has exceeded the
capacity of the Western Road between Albany and Boston, and the
consequence has been felt in an increased charge by the New York
Central of twenty cents a barrel above New York City rates, and,
finally, that road has been obliged to refuse Boston freight
altogether, simply by reason of the accumulation and delay
occasioned by the inability of the Western Road to forward it to
its destination. In like manner, Boston freight going forward by
canal is hindered and accumulated at Albany. A similar state of
things exists in regard to most of the westward bound Boston
freight, as Boston jobbers are finding out to their cost. Merchants
at the West, who purchase in Boston, are six and eight weeks in
getting their heavy goods.
We are informed upon reliable authority that flour can be sent from
Chicago to New York, by lake and rail for $1.90 per barrel, while
very limited quantities only can be sent to Boston at $2.25, and
that by the "Red Line" $3 a barrel is demanded.
New England depends upon the West for its bread, and also for its
market for its imports and manufactures. If the state of things to
which we refer, continues much longer, it will be compelled to go
to New York both for its bread and its customers.
The West complains of New York, because, forsooth, it is tardy in
enlarging its canals to meet the anticipated necessities of its
future growth, and Boston has had the assurance to join in the
thoughtless and unfounded clamor. Yet the great State of
Massachusetts has supinely stood still for twenty-five years
without making an effort to overcome the barrier between it and the
great West. During that time the Western road has grown rich, and
paid large dividends from a business which has been greater than it
could transact, and to-day there exists an almost total blockade of
Boston freight at Albany.
Surely, this does not reflect favorably on New England shrewdness
and enterprise, neither does it tally with New England interest.
Besides, it is detrimental to the business interests of the West.
As the case now stands the fault rests with Massachusetts alone, in
not providing railroad accommodations east of the Hudson river. It
is also nonsense to assert, as some will, that the capacity of the
Erie canal is inadequate. During the past season it has not been
taxed to half its capacity, and yet it has found the Western Road
unable to dispose of what Boston freight was offered.
Western merchants and shippers ought to know where the fault lies,
and to the end that they may be informed we have penned this
article. Their true remedy is to buy in New York, and to ship their
produce to that city, until Massachusetts shall provide adequate
facilities of transportation.
Boston is the natural eastern terminus of the great northern line
of transportation, and we should have been glad to have seen her
citizens and those of the great state of Massachusetts realize the
fact. Their supineness, however, has lost to them for the present,
if not forever, the great commercial prize which nature intended
for them. It remains to be seen whether they will realize their
position, and make an effort to retrieve their "penny wise and
pound foolish policy."
* * * * *
"In a recent article we took occasion to point out the importance
to the country at large of the construction of adequate facilities
for the accommodation of the traffic exchanges between the
different sections; and to call the attention of our readers to the
remarkable fact that while the whole country, and particularly the
West, had undergone a wonderful development requiring for its
accommodation a corresponding increase of commercial facilities,
that New England had stood still for a quarter of a century. The
fact that a great State like Massachusetts, with a great emporium
like Boston, should have but a single line of direct communication
with the West, and that it should supinely stand still and refuse
to add to it, notwithstanding the yearly demonstrations of its
growing inadequacy, seemed so strange as to justify remark. The
other fact that the transit of freight to and from Boston should be
almost stopped by the inability of that single railroad to handle
it--thereby increasing rates and compelling purchasers as well as
sellers to go to New York--also seemed to be inconsistent with our
traditional ideas of eastern shrewdness. Our remarks have received
additional force by the fact, subsequently learned by us, that
there are at the present time between four and five hundred
car-loads of Boston-bound freight lying at Albany and Greenbush
awaiting cars for its movement to its destination, while there
exists no stoppage whatever of New York freight, thus demonstrating
clearly the inadequacy of the Western road to answer the demands
made upon it.
Since that article was penned, information has reached us to the
effect that our Massachusetts neighbors have at last waked up to
the importance of the subject, and are about to enter vigorously
upon the work of providing another avenue of trade between Boston
and the West, by what is known as the Greenfield route which
embraces the long talked of Hoosac Tunnel. This great enterprise
has enlisted the energies of the engineers and railroad men of
Massachusetts for more than thirty years, with constantly varying
prospects of success, and at last seems in a fair way of being
accomplished.
The high range of hills which runs along the whole western line of
Massachusetts, for a long time baffled the efforts of railroad
engineers; and the rival claims of competing routes distracted the
popular mind, and delayed the construction of either. The most
eminent engineers preferred the Northern, or Greenfield
route--involving the Hoosac Tunnel--as being the most direct and
feasible. In the struggle which followed, the Southern route was
successful, and the Western road was built and opened in 1842. The
other route was also constructed after a time, upon either side of
the proposed tunnel, but for lack of the completion of that great
work, has never been anything but an avenue for local travel and
traffic.
The whole length of the proposed tunnel is 25,574 feet, and the
estimated cost of construction is about three and a quarter
millions. When we consider the vital interest which the citizens of
Massachusetts have in the completion of this work, and the enormous
interests to be served by it, the sum required seems absolutely
trivial, and the withholding of it really parsimonious as well as
foolish. We are pleased to learn that the State is at last about to
lend a helping hand to this great enterprise, which will guaranty
its speedy completion. This is an indication of wisdom upon the
part of our neighbors, albeit it comes somewhat tardily.
Almost all the other States that lie between the great West and the
Ocean have pursued a very different policy from that of New
England, and with very favorable results. New York, which was the
pioneer in the matter of internal improvements, not only built her
great Canals, at a cost of over $62,000,000, but also aided largely
in the construction of her great through lines of railroads. It
contributed to the Erie road $3,000,000, which is now seen to have
been a good investment despite the fact that it was entirely lost
to the State. The same policy was pursued by Pennsylvania and
Maryland, with equally happy results.
We congratulate our New England neighbors, and, especially, the
citizens of Boston, upon the improved prospect of the completion
of the Hoosac Tunnel, and the opening of another great route to the
West, through, instead of over the mountains which lie between them
and us. We trust that the obstructions which have existed, and
still exist, in the channels of commercial intercourse between New
England and the West will speedily be removed, never again to be
manifested in freight blockades or threatened diversions of trade."
The statements contained in these two articles are substantially true;
and they are not only interesting, but important, as throwing much light
upon a subject which will, doubtless, occupy much of the attention and
time of the Legislature: for the Western Railroad managers have already
opened their annual attack upon the Hoosac Tunnel, through their well
known agents and tools, Bird, Harris and Seaver, who shamelessly
advocate the entire abandonment by the State of an enterprise to the
completion of which her word, and bond, and honor are irrevocably
pledged.
The Western Railroad Company was organized in January, 1836, and its
road was completed in 1847, having received aid from the State, during
the period of its construction, to the amount of five millions of
dollars. The terms upon which State aid was granted were very liberal,
as they should have been; for the opening of this line of road had
become as much a necessity to the development of the commercial and
industrial interests of Massachusetts and the wants of her whole
population, as the establishment of schools and churches had ever been
to her moral or educational welfare. The involvement of the State in so
great an enterprise was strenuously resisted by timid and narrow minded
legislators; but the representations of those sagacious and far seeing
men who had devoted themselves to the work, prevailed, and Massachusetts
was, thus early in the history of railroads, committed to a policy which
has, within a few years, not only trebled her productions and wealth,
but made her the first and foremost of all her sister States which are
honored for enterprise, prudence and wisdom. Many of the short sighted
legislators, who voted against granting State aid to the Western
Railroad Company are now living, but we doubt if one can be found who is
not ashamed of his action.
The increase of business over the Western road since the first year of
its operation, would seem incredible, were it not so thoroughly
established by the figures of its early and later annual reports. Yet,
with a double track nearly to Albany, and every means which ingenuity
can devise, or money procure, at their command, its managers are unable
to meet the demand upon it--its _capacity_ is _nearly exhausted_--and
_was_, long ago, so great is the pressure against our western border,
from the overflowing granaries of the West. From a feeble association,
begging for assistance at the doors of the State House, the Western
Railroad Company has become a powerful corporation. Its certificates of
stock, which, about the time the road went into operation, were a drug
in the market at $40, now command $130 to $150. Yet it is a fact that on
the first day of last November, five hundred car loads of freight were
delayed at Albany, and could not be transported over the Western road in
less time than ten days. And the inability of this road to meet our
public needs, and the demands made upon it, from the West, is no new
thing; it has been so, _for years_, though four competing lines have
opened since 1850, which, together, transport about the same amount of
through freight as the Western road. The bridge over the Hudson at
Albany, the completion of the double track, and better management might
afford a temporary and partial relief. But if these improvements had
been already effected, they would not have prevented the freight
blockade at Albany last fall.
Should our friend of the Salem Gazette, or any of the editors who quote
Mr. F. W. Bird, and write short paragraphs, more flippantly than
intelligently, about the Hoosac Tunnel, chance to be at the freight yard
of the Fitchburg Railroad in Charlestown, on the arrival of a train of
New York Central Railroad cars, laden with flour, grain, or other
products of the West, he would doubtless be as much puzzled to know how
they got there, as he would be, if, standing at the heading of the
tunnel, he should endeavor to reconcile his situation (half a mile from
daylight) with the calculations, statements and predictions of Mr. Bird
and other opponents of the Tunnel enterprise. If our friend were set
down at the freight depot of the Worcester and Nashua Railroad, in
Worcester, he would again be surprised to witness the arrival of
freight-laden cars, bearing the same mark as those he saw at
Charlestown. Upon inquiry of the freight agents he would learn that
freight for Boston and Worcester, is transported from Schenectady, over
the Washington and Saratoga road, and from Troy, over the Troy and
Boston and Western Vermont, to Rutland, Vt., and thence, by the Rutland
and Cheshire roads to Fitchburg, and from there to Boston and Worcester
over other roads. By glancing at a map the intelligent reader will at
once observe what a circuitous and lengthened line of communication
between the New York Central road and the cities of Boston and Worcester
is furnished by the connecting roads above named. The distance from
Schenectady to Boston via Rutland is 247 miles, while it is but 217 by
way of the Western road. The distance from the same point to Worcester
by the Rutland route is 222 miles, and by the Western road only 172. Yet
because the Western road has not capacity to do the business, the
produce dealers of Eastern and Central Massachusetts are compelled to
resort to this roundabout way of transportation as one of their means of
relief. But this is not the only channel, nor the most indirect, which
the irrepressible stream of Western trade with the East has created, as
it approaches its natural outlet, Boston; as the Mississippi, scorning
the narrow embouchure which satisfied its youthful flow, now pours its
resistless torrents, through numerous passes to the Gulf. Besides that
already described, there are three other lines competing with the
Western road in the transportation of Western freight to Boston. These
are the Grand Trunk, the Ogdensburg, and the Providence and Erie. Few
persons know that cotton from St. Louis, for supplying the mills of
Lowell and Lawrence, is unladen in Boston from vessels which received
their cargoes at Portland, but such is the fact, the cotton having been
transported over the Great Western and Grand Trunk roads.
But these four long, and indirect lines, with their single track, are in
the frame situation as the Western road; _their_ capacity is exhausted,
so far as through freight is concerned, this part of the business of all
the four hardly exceeding that of the Western road.
To prove the utter incapacity of these five lines of communication
between us and the West, to supply our wants, and meet the demands made
upon them, we need only state the fact that in November and December
last, many of the produce dealers and grocers _in Worcester_, were
unable to supply their customers, on account of the detention of freight
at Albany, Detroit and Ogdensburg. We may add, by way of illustration,
that the immense loss of property occasioned by the burning of a large
freight depot at Detroit, and by which so many New England consignees
severely suffered, was one of the incidental consequences of the
incapacity of these lines of New England railroads to do the work
required of them. We shall have occasion to consider further the
capacity of the Western Railroad, but the facts already given are
sufficient to show the necessity of opening another through and direct
route from the Hudson to Boston.
The next question to be considered, if, indeed, there can be any
question about it, is how shall the new route be located? We have shown
that another is necessary in order to accommodate through business, to
meet the demands of the West, and to promote the prosperity of the
entire State. But this is not by any means the whole argument. Central
and Southern Massachusetts are covered with a net work of railroads,
from Cape Cod Bay to the New York border, yet Northern Massachusetts,
from Fitchburg westward, has but a single road, and that terminating at
Greenfield, nearly forty miles from North Adams, where the broken line
of communication is again taken up. Hence it is, that, while villages
have become large towns, and towns populous cities, all over the rest of
the State, this section has remained comparatively undeveloped; and the
whole tier of towns lying along the line of the Vermont and
Massachusetts, though steadily growing, through the energy and
enterprise of their skillful artisans and mechanics, and the facilities
afforded them by the last named road, have yet suffered and languished
for want of the material so abundant in this undeveloped region between
Greenfield and the mountain barrier beyond.
The water power of the Deerfield river is immense, its fall along the
line of the Troy and Greenfield road being nearly six hundred feet; and
this magnificent force is now idle, except at Shelburne Falls, though
the finest privileges are scattered along the whole course of the river.
Messrs. Lamson & Goodnow, who employ four hundred men at Shelburne
Falls, in manufacturing cutlery, state that the Deerfield and North
rivers, at that place, afford a one-thousand-horse power. Along the
course of Miller's river, between Athol and Deerfield are also many
excellent privileges unimproved. At Montague are Turner's Falls, on the
Connecticut, with a power sufficient to operate the mills of Lowell,
Lawrence and Manchester. All these splendid privileges only await the
opening of the Tunnel route. Many of them would be at once improved were
the road completed to the mouth of the tunnel. Messrs. Lamson and
Goodnow state that they shall double their present force of four hundred
men, as soon as it is open to Shelburne Falls.
Some fifteen or twenty miles from the Eastern end of the tunnel lie
extensive forests of spruce and pine, through which a highway has
already been surveyed, and which will be built to the tunnel, as soon as
the road is completed to that point. The whole surrounding region
abounds in lumber of almost every description, which would become very
valuable when the road is built, to say nothing of the extensive
formations of stone, soapstone and serpentine which are found there.
Though the Deerfield meadows afford some of the finest farms in New
England, the tillage land will not compare in extent with that along the
Western road; but in every other respect the resources and latent wealth
of the Tunnel route are infinitely superior to those of the Western
line.
Six years ago, and _twenty-three years after the Western road was
opened_, the population lying west of Springfield within ten miles of
the Western road on a distance of forty-four miles, was 42,050; while
that west of Greenfield, within ten miles of the Tunnel line on the same
distance, without any railroad at all was 32,146. According to the
average rate of increase, the population along the Tunnel line, would be
more than doubled in twenty-three years. Were the mountain barrier
pierced, and communication opened with the West, and the magnificent
water power of the Deerfield made available, who doubts that this
population would be increased fourfold in that space of time: or that
more than one town would spring up between Greenfield and the Hoosac, in
a few years, which would rival North Adams in growth and prosperity; or
that in far less time than it has taken Lowell to acquire her present
importance, a larger city than Lowell would stand on the banks of the
Connecticut at Turner's Falls?
With the requisite railroad facilities supplied, it is certain that the
growth of a region so abounding in the most essential reliance of
mechanical industry, as Northwestern Massachusetts, cannot be measured
by the snail's pace which marks the progress of an agricultural
district. The farmer's interests are indeed equally promoted with those
of other industrial classes, by the opening of railroads, but these do
not increase the number of farms or farmers within our borders, nor
stimulate the growth of agricultural towns. It is mainly by her
manufactures and commerce that Massachusetts has become so prosperous
and wealthy. It is because the commercial and industrial interests of
the whole State require it, that another route to the West has become a
necessity; and it is because such immense resources yet remain to be
developed, and such a gigantic power to be employed, in Northern
Massachusetts that the new route must pierce the Hoosac Mountain, if it
is possible and practicable.
That it is possible to tunnel the Hoosac Mountain cannot be doubted by
any sane person who has inspected the half mile already excavated. All
of the eminent engineers, whose reports upon the enterprise have been
published, say it can be done; nor do any of its opponents pretend to
question its practicability. But in order to estimate properly the
magnitude of the work, its possible and probable cost, and the time
within which it can be done, it is necessary to know what has been
accomplished in this department of civil engineering. Fortunately, this
needed information is contained in Mr. Charles W. Storrow's very able
report on European tunnels. Mr. Storrow is a distinguished civil
engineer, who made a journey to Europe in the summer of 1862, by request
of the Hoosac Tunnel Commissioners, and with the approval of the
Governor and Council, for the purpose of examining the most important
tunnels there constructed, and, especially, the one in progress under
the Alps. He describes twenty-two tunnels which he visited, besides that
of Mt. Cenis. Fourteen of these are in England, seven in France, and one
in Switzerland. Two of them are upwards of three miles long, and many of
them between one and two miles. Some of the shafts were nearly as deep
as the central shaft of the Hoosac. Some of these excavations were made
without the aid of shafts, others wholly by means of shafts, without
working from the ends at all.
It might be supposed that in the construction of so many subterranean
ways, in such different sections of the continent, almost every
conceivable geological formation must have been traversed; and so it
appears from Mr. Storrow's report. Granite, quartz, oolite, limestone,
shale, slate, sandstone, gravel, sand, clay and marl, were the material
through which with pick and spade, drill and shovel, the patient workmen
made their way. Not unfrequently, more than half the varieties of rock
and earth we have named were met with in the same tunnel. Sometimes the
work would be interrupted and temporarily abandoned in consequence of an
inundation of water; sometimes enormous masses of gravel and sand would
work through into a shaft or tunnel, with disastrous and, in two
instances, with fatal consequences. In many instances, work was
discontinued for years, for want of funds, and then afterward renewed,
with eventual success. In fact, about the average amount of those
ordinary and inevitable obstacles which stand in the way of all great
enterprises, were encountered by the engineers and contractors, in the
building of these tunnels; but time, money, and skill, never failed to
remove every difficulty. But we propose to extract, and condense from
Mr. Storrow's report, a few of the main facts about some of the most
important of these works; as the report has, not been read, or even seen
by one in a hundred.
The "Box Tunnel" between Chippenham and Bath is more than a mile and
three quarters in length. Nearly one half its length passes through a
kind of limestone rock, and the other through clay, the clay end being
lined with masonry. Five shafts were sunk, the deepest being about three
hundred feet. "During the construction of this tunnel, great
difficulties were encountered from the excessive quantity of water which
inundated the works, sometimes even occasioning their partial
suspension, and powerful means were required to overcome the obstacles.
At one time the water fairly got the mastery over the machinery used for
its removal, and it was only after an additional set of pumps worked by
a fifty horse power engine, that the work could be resumed." This
tunnel was built in five years, and its cost was about $1,750,000, or
about $547 a yard.
The Woodhead Tunnel, on the Manchester and Lincolnshire Railway, is
upwards of three miles long. It was originally built for a single track,
its dimensions being 14 feet wide at the head of the rails, and 18 feet
3 in. high from the rails to the under side of the arch; which are
almost exactly the dimensions of the present section of the Hoosac
Tunnel. After a few years of use, the increase of business required
another track and so a second tunnel of exactly the same size was built
parallel with the first. It is a double tunnel with a thick dividing
wall between, pierced with twenty-one arched openings. Five of the
original shafts have been kept open. The deepest of these is more than
six hundred feet, and the least about three hundred. The rock through
which the tunnel passes consists of millstone grit, a hard material, and
shale, a kind of indurated clay.
The Kilsby Tunnel is more than a mile and a quarter long, and is built
in Roman or metallic cement, under a bed of quicksand, from which it
took nine months to pump the water, through shafts on either side of the
sand bed. During a considerable portion of that time, the water pumped
out was two thousand gallons a minute. The quicksand extended over 1350
feet of the length of the tunnel.
The Watford Tunnel is a mile and one tenth long, excavated entirely from
chalk and loose gravel, the treacherous nature of which rendered it a
work of great difficulty, streams of gravel and sand sometimes pouring
through the fissures of chalk, like water.
The Netherton Tunnel is one mile and three quarters long. For its
construction 17 shafts were sunk, their total depth being 3,083 feet,
the least depth of any one being 63 feet, and the greatest, 344 feet.
There were 36 faces to work at, and the progress at each face was 10 1-2
feet per month. The tunnel was completed in two years.
From these brief descriptions of a few of the tunnels in England
examined by Mr. Storrow, one can form a pretty correct opinion of the
ordinary difficulties in tunneling which have been met and overcome by
the English engineers. Mr. Storrow says that tunnels are not considered
there such formidable works as they have generally been esteemed in our
Northern States. They are so common that they have long ceased to
attract the attention of travelers, more than eighty miles in aggregate
length being already in use. Mr. Storrow estimates the average progress
made in the construction of the English tunnels at about thirty feet per
month on one face, and that the cost per yard varies from $125 to $250,
for ordinary tunnels; but where peculiar difficulties were met, the cost
has reached to from $500 to $750 per yard.
The Hauenstein Tunnel in Switzerland, one mile and an eighth in length,
was from four to five years in being constructed. Two shafts were sunk,
one 417 feet, and the other 558 feet deep. Portions of the shafts and
tunnel were lined with masonry on account of the water and sand, and
varying firmness of the strata passed through, all of which caused many
difficulties and delays. The progress made between the intervals of
obstruction, varied from fifty-six to one hundred and nine feet per
month on a face. The cost was about $400 per running yard.
The Nerthe Tunnel in France, is nearly three miles in length. For nine
hundred and fifty yards of its length it is in rock cutting, where
arching was unnecessary. The remainder is lined with masonry.
Twenty-four shafts were sunk, varying in depth from sixty-five to two
hundred and sixty-two feet. The work was completed in three years, and
cost $412 per running yard.
The Tunnel of Rilly, on the line from Paris to Strasbourg, is a little
more than two miles long. Eleven shafts were commenced, two of which
were abandoned on account of the abundance of water, the others were
completed. In some of the shafts the water was so troublesome that it
was necessary to use for curbs cast iron cylinders, five feet in
diameter, and about three feet long, bolted together. The time consumed
in the construction of this tunnel was three years and four months. It
passes through a chalk formation, which was, in some places, so seamy,
that great precaution was necessary to prevent the falling in of large
masses. The cost was $432 per running yard.
Mr. Storrow visited and examined several other French tunnels, and his
reports upon them are full of interest; but the abstracts given are
sufficient to show the various obstacles and difficulties encountered by
the English and French engineers in the prosecution of their work, as
well as the cost, and the success which rewarded their skill and
perseverance. We now come to the great tunnel under the Alps, the most
remarkable and gigantic enterprise ever attempted in civil engineering.
Our facts in regard to it are derived from Mr. Storrow's report, (which
it will be remembered was made in November, 1862,) and from a very able
account in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1865.
The object of this work is to connect France and Italy, by a continuous
line of railroad, by piercing the great Alpine barrier which separates
Savoy from Piedmont, and thus connecting the valleys of Rochmolles and
the Arc. When the scheme was first suggested it seemed like a dream of
enthusiasts. The distance would be more than seven miles. No shaft could
be sunk, as it was estimated that it would take forty years to reach by
that means the line of the axis of the tunnel. The gallery must then be
constructed by horizontal cutting from the two ends. How were the
workmen to breathe? What chasms, unfathomable abysses and resistless
torrents might not be encountered? Was it certain that the two sections
commenced from the opposite ends would not miss and pass each other in
the middle of the mountain? But as the subject was more thoroughly
discussed, these doubts and fears seem gradually to have faded away, and
a conviction took possession of the public mind that such a tunnel was
practicable. This conviction at last assumed form and development
through the genius of Messrs. Sommeiller, Grattoni and Grandis, three
young Italian engineers, who have won for themselves a nobler fame than
that of either of the great generals who led their armies over the Alps.
It was their good fortune to have secured the confidence of one of the
most enlightened statesmen of modern times, Count Cavour, the energetic
minister of Victor Emanuel, who, throughout all the doubts, perplexities
and embarrassments attending the first stage of a new and bold
enterprise, exposed to criticisms, sometimes ignorant, sometimes
malevolent, on the part of politicians and professional men, gave these
engineers his "constant, earnest and sanguine support and
encouragement."
It appears that an English engineer had patented a machine for drilling
by steam, by means of which the drills were darted forward against the
opposing rock with great velocity and force. But steam could not be used
in the tunnel, where the great desideratum is a supply of fresh air. In
the meantime Messrs. Sommeiller, Grattoni and Grandis had turned their
attention to the question of compressed air as a motive power, and after
a long series of experiments; gave to the world as the result of their
joint ingenuity, a machine which acts simply by the force of air reduced
to one-sixth of its ordinary volume, by means of the pressure of water.
The quick perception and practical genius of our three engineers soon
enabled them to combine their machine with the perforating apparatus
above named, so that the compressed air took the place of steam, and
performed its work perfectly. This combination is the machine which has
been in successful operation under the Alps since June, 1861, and which,
greatly improved and perfected by Yankee ingenuity, is about to be
applied to the Hoosac Mountain.
Before proceeding to give some account of the Alps Tunnel, it should be
stated that it is a national work, and not a commercial speculation. It
was originally undertaken by Sardinia, within whose territorial limits
it was then wholly included. The cession of Savoy to France brought
nearly half the tunnel into French territory, and by the convention
establishing the new boundary between France and Italy it was stipulated
that this great national work should be continued, should remain
exclusively under the control of the Italian engineers, and that France
should pay into the Sardinian treasury its proportion of the cost,
according to an estimate then made and considered final, and fixed at
3000 francs for each running metre, equivalent to $550 for each running
yard of its length in French territory. The work has remained,
therefore, as it was, under the exclusive direction of M. Grattoni and
M. Sommeiller, the engineers; and a French commission visit the work
from time to time, by order of the French government, to view its
condition, ascertain its progress, and vouch for the amount to be paid
to Sardinia.
It is hardly necessary to give a detailed description of the mode by
which the compressed air is made to act on the perforating machines at
Mount Cenis. The problem was how to get a constant equable supply of air
compressed to one-sixth of its ordinary bulk. To effect this a reservoir
was constructed at Bardonneche, elevated to a height of eighty-two feet
above the works, which furnishes a moving force of two hundred and eight
horse power, that being all which is required to operate the drills and
ventilate the tunnel. The reservoir is supplied by a never failing
mountain stream. From the compressing works, the air is conveyed in a
pipe into the tunnel to the drilling machines; another pipe conveying
water to wash out the drill holes. At the Fourneaux end of the tunnel,
the reservoir is supplied with water by means of pumps.
The compressed air and water being ready for their work, an iron frame
containing the perforating needles moves along the rails and confronts
the rock which is to be attacked in the gallery or heading. The frame is
armed with nine or ten perforating machines arranged so that the
greatest number of holes can be bored in the center of the opposing mass
of rock. To each of these are attached flexible tubes, one containing
the compressed air which drives the drills, and the other water, which
is injected into the holes as they are bored. The machine consists of
two parts; the one a cylinder for propelling the drill, by means of a
piston, and the other a rotary apparatus for working the valve of the
striking cylinder, and turning the drill on its axis at each successive
stroke. To bore eight holes of the required depth, the piston rod gives
57,600 blows. The action of each machine is independent of the other, so
that if one of them is broken, or gets out of order, that of the rest is
not delayed. The drills act at different angles so as to pierce the rock
in all directions, and when the requisite number of holes have been
drilled, the iron frame is pushed back, and the central holes are
charged and exploded. The smaller surrounding holes are then charged and
fired. At each blast, a strong jet of compressed air is thrown into this
advanced gallery to scatter the smoke and supply air for respiration.
Wagons are next pushed forward and filled with the fragments of broken
rock, which are conveyed to the mouth of the tunnel and dumped down the
side of the mountain. After each blast a fresh relay of workmen come in,
and the same operation is repeated night and day.
One of the objections urged against the use of compressed air as a
motive of force was, that if it were conveyed a long distance it would
lose so much of its elasticity or expansive power, that it would be
unavailable for any practical purpose. But this conjecture was confuted
by facts. It was found that the loss of pressure at the ends of the
conduit pipes where the air is applied, as compared with the pressure in
the reservoir is only one sixteenth of the whole. M. Sommeiller
calculates that in the center of the tunnel, a distance of three miles
and three quarters from the reservoir, he will be able to apply the
necessary pressure of six atmospheres. That M. Sommeiller is correct in
this opinion appears to be conclusively proved by the latest accounts
from Mt. Cenis, which state that the work is steadily progressing, that
one half of the entire length would be excavated by the first of January
1866, and that at a distance of nearly two miles from the reservoir, the
drills were operating with as much force as ever, and that there was no
appreciable loss of motive power.
In the middle of the tunnel line beneath the rails, there is made at the
same time with the excavation, a covered way or drain, in which are laid
the pipes for gas, water, and compressed air. By this drain the waste
water runs off, and it is also intended to serve as a means of escape
for the workmen, in case of a fall of rock, or other accident which
might block up the tunnel. Of course the tunnel must be continually
supplied with fresh air along its whole length, as well as at the
heading. This is easily done from the compressed air tube in the covered
drain.
The whole length of the Mt. Cenis tunnel is through rock varying in
hardness, and veined throughout with quartz. In many parts it is liable
to flake off, and in some places considerable masses have broken away
during the construction. The full section of the tunnel is twenty-six
feet and three inches wide, and twenty feet and eight inches high. The
heading is carried forward about eleven and a half feet wide and nearly
ten feet high. At the time of Mr. Storrow's visit the drilling machines
were used only in the heading. The whole of the enlargement was done by
hand labor in the ordinary way. The drills when brought up to the work
drill eighty holes before any blasting is done. About ninety workmen are
employed at each end. It required from five to seven hours to drill the
eighty holes. Mr. Storrow visited a workshop where some machines were
ready, and a large block of stone was placed in front of them for trial.
The air was let on and a drill put in motion. In 6 1-2 minutes it
drilled 5 1-2 inches. The engineer stated that they would make better
progress than that at the rock in the tunnel. The average progress made
by hand was about sixty-six feet a month. That rate was about doubled by
means of the machines; but since Mr. Storrow's visit these machines have
been greatly improved, and the rate of progress latterly has been about
two hundred feet a month.
The opening of the Mt. Cenis Tunnel was commenced in October, 1857. Up
to July, 1861, about 2142 feet had been excavated, the average progress
being about sixty-six feet a month. The machines were then introduced,
and at the present time, upwards of three miles have been excavated, and
at the rate of progress now being made the tunnel will be completed in
four years. Mr. Storrow's estimate of its cost is $640 per running yard.
We have now placed before our readers such facts in relation to European
tunnels, and more particularly in relation to that under the Alps, as
will enable them to judge for themselves of the feasibility of
completing the Hoosac Tunnel, and of the weight of the objections which
are urged against it by the opponents of the enterprise, as well as the
nature of the obstacles which have been encountered, and the means of
surmounting them. We shall next present a brief history of the work, the
progress made, the delays which have occurred, and the causes; and the
sources, nature, and motives of the opposition which has been made to
it. In the course of this history we shall have occasion to expose the
gross misrepresentations and deliberate falsehoods which have, from time
to time, been put in print and scattered broadcast throughout the State,
for the purpose of sustaining and extending a great railroad monopoly,
already too powerful, against the vital interests and actual necessities
of the Commonwealth.
The first section of the Tunnel Line obtained its charter in 1842, under
an act incorporating the Fitchburg Railroad Company, in spite of the
strenuous opposition from Boston, Springfield, Pittsfield, and the whole
power of the Western Road, which a few years before, had only obtained
its charter by the aid of some twenty-five members of the House, from
Northern Massachusetts, who held the balance of power. Of these
twenty-five gentlemen, to whom the State was thus early indebted, one
was Hon. Alvah Crocker, of Fitchburg, whose name in connection with the
Fitchburg, the Vermont and Massachusetts, the Troy and Greenfield roads,
and with the Hoosac Tunnel, has since become "familiar as household
words." The appeal of the late Judge Kinnicut, one of the pioneers of
the Western line, contains this passage: "Assume if you please, that
your route is better than the Southern or Western one; if you are
willing to identify the Commonwealth with such an enterprise, you
establish a precedent, and the Commonwealth, to be just, to be
consistent with herself, must aid you in like manner. Nay, every other
section. She will never be partial, as you suppose, but fair to all. She
will certainly go as far as she safely can, to develop and increase her
growth." Such appeals could not but prevail with fair minded men, and
these twenty-five members, with a spirit of liberality and almost of
self sacrifice, which should put to shame the narrow minded and selfish
policy of the Western Railroad Company in regard to the Tunnel line,
gave their voices and votes in favor of an enterprise, the commencement
of which would otherwise have been deferred for years. The result was
that by the first of January, 1843, the receipts of money by the Western
Railroad Company, from the stock and scrip of the state amounted to
$5,565,610.86.
As stated above, the Fitchburg Railroad Company was authorized to build
a road from Boston to Fitchburg, a distance of fifty miles, in spite of
the strenuous opposition of the managers and attorneys of the Western
Line. The intelligent legislator of 1866, who has passed over the
Fitchburg Railroad, and observed the numerous trains of passenger and
freight cars which daily follow each other over its double line of
track, can but smile at the language of Mr Mills, a senator from
Hampden, a little more than twenty years ago "Sir," said this zealous
legislator, who, in his style and logic forcibly remind us of Mr. Bird,
of Walpole, "a six horse stage coach and a few baggage wagons will draw
all the freight from Fitchburg to Boston."
It is hardly necessary to give details of the history of the Vermont and
Massachusetts Road, and the struggles of its projectors against hostile
legislation, and the intensified opposition of the Western line. Suffice
it to say that this second section of the Tunnel Line, extending from
Fitchburg to Greenfield, was commenced and finished, in spite of all
opposition, without a dollar of that aid which Mr. Kinnicut said the
State would have to furnish in order to be just and consistent. Its
stock, which could be bought for $9 a share, ten years ago, now commands
upwards of $40. Its gross receipts, last year, were $390,085.79, and its
net income, $91,229.85. Its debt has been reduced from upwards of a
million to one half that sum, and this year it has paid its first
dividend.
The Troy and Greenfield Road was chartered in 1848, the same old
elements of opposition being combined against, and fighting it at every
step. The managers of the Western road clamorously declared that if this
competing line were chartered, it would greatly diminish the security of
the Commonwealth, for its investment in their road, and that if the
State should be compelled to sell its stock after the granting of such
charter, she would lose a hundred and seventy thousand dollars; while,
at the same time, they affected to deride the Vermont and Massachusetts
as a "pauper road," and the region it traversed as a "God-forsaken
country!"