base of the Hoosac Mountain to Troy, had been completed through the
enterprise of the citizens of that thriving city and those of North
Adams. The Vermont and Massachusetts was finished, and only thirty-seven
miles of rail were needed to complete the direct connection of Boston
with the Great West. Then was the time and opportunity for the State to
have continued the same liberal policy which it had adopted toward the
Western road, and to have extended her helping hand to the struggling
corporation, which had undertaken the noble enterprise of piercing the
barrier which was interposed between them and their "promised land." But
their appeals for aid were met with sneers and derision; the work was
bitterly opposed at every stage of its progress; the arts of demagogues,
the cunning of lawyers, the fears of the timid, the credulity of the
ignorant, and every conceivable influence which the well-filled treasury
of the Western road could purchase were enlisted and combined against
it. But, at last, perseverance and a good cause prevailed, and in 1854,
the Legislature authorized a loan of the State credit to the amount of
two millions of dollars, to the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company,
"for the purpose of enabling said company to construct a tunnel and
railroad under and through the Hoosac Mountain, in some place between
the 'Great Bend,' in Deerfield river, and the town of Florida, at the
base of the Hoosac Mountain on the East, and the base of the Western
side of the mountain, near the East end of the village of North Adams,
on the West." But this loan was modified and restricted by such
conditions, artfully introduced by the foes of the enterprise, that the
work still languished, and its friends almost despaired even of ultimate
success. The enabling act of 1857, would have greatly relieved them, but
it was vetoed by Gov. Gardner. At the beginning of 1860, only $230,000
of the two millions had been advanced.
In the Legislature of that year, the original act was modified so that
the balance of the loan might be divided between the road from
Greenfield and the Tunnel, for the construction of both parts of the
work simultaneously. Provision was at the same time made for the
appointment, annually, by the Governor, of a state engineer, to examine
the work, make monthly estimates, and impose such requirements upon the
company and contractors as he and the Governor and Council might deem
expedient. In the summer of 1860, Colonel Ezra Lincoln of Boston, was
appointed State engineer, and resigning in the following autumn, on
account of illness, was succeeded by C. L. Stevenson, Esq.
In the meantime the company had contracted with Messrs. Haupt and
Cartwright to construct the road and tunnel. The first named gentleman
was one of the most eminent and experienced engineers in the country.
Under the administration of the State engineers, Messrs Lincoln and
Stevenson, the existing location was approved, and certain prices were
established, upon the basis of which contracts were made for labor and
material, and rapid progress was made with the work. Upon the accession
of Governor Andrew in 1851, Mr. Stevenson was summarily removed, and Mr.
William S. Whitwell appointed in his place. This gentleman at once
proceeded to change the entire basis of work as established by his
predecessors, reduced the prices under which extensive contracts had
already been made, and cut down the estimates, so as to compel an entire
suspension of the work. More than a thousand laborers and mechanics were
discharged. Mr. Haupt states that at the time of this suspension, "the
graduation of the whole line could have been completed in a few weeks.
The iron and nearly all the ties and bridge material had been delivered;
but little remained to be done except finishing the bridge and laying
the track."
After a warm and protracted discussion of the subject in the Legislature
of 1862, an act was passed, providing that the State should take
possession of the road, tunnel, and all the property of the Troy and
Greenfield Company. A commission was also authorized to examine the
work, ascertain the feasibility of completing it, and report to the next
Legislature. The commissioners appointed under this act, by Governor
Andrew, were Messrs. J. W. Brooks and Alexander Holmes, of
Massachusetts, and Mr. S. M. Felton, of Pennsylvania, two of them being
eminent civil engineers, and all three gentlemen of large experience in
railroad affairs. They entered upon the duties of their commission at
once, and having dispatched Mr. Storrow to Europe to examine the
tunnels there, proceeded to take possession of the road and property of
the Company, which was surrendered to them in September of the same
year.
The elaborate and exhaustive report of the Commissioners was submitted
to the Legislature in the latter part of February, 1863. The closing
paragraph expresses their "opinion that the work should be undertaken by
the Commonwealth, and completed as early as it can be, with due regard
to economy." The result of another discussion in the Legislature was the
adoption of the recommendation of the Commissioners, and the
responsibility of completing the tunnel and road was assumed by the
State, in April of 1863, operations having been suspended nearly three
years.
Since that time, the work has been conducted by the Commissioners, under
the immediate superintendence of Mr. Thomas Doane, chief engineer, in
such manner and with such progress as to give very general satisfaction
to the friends of the enterprise, and promise its completion within a
reasonable time. A very considerable portion of the labor and
expenditures, since the operations were resumed, have been applied to
preparing buildings and machinery, to the construction of a dam across
the Deerfield river, in order to secure power to operate the tunneling
apparatus, and to an enlargement and an alteration of the grade of the
Eastern end of the tunnel, which had been excavated by Haupt and
Cartwright.
But before proceeding to consider the present condition and prospects of
the Tunnel, it is necessary to revert to the legislation of 1862 and
1863, in order to note the tactics of its enemies, who had by no means
been idle, nor had in any degree relaxed their opposition. In fact, it
was through this opposition that the act of 1862 was effected, the bill
being a substitute for that reported by the committee, and generally
regarded as a compromise between the friends and foes of the enterprise,
though the latter believed they had, at last achieved a triumph, and
exultingly whispered that the great Hoosac Tunnel scheme had received
its death blow. They certainly did play their game with boldness and
skill. While the contractors, Messrs. Haupt & Co., had actually applied
all their private means, to the extent of more than $200,000, to carry
on the work, it was asserted that they were swindling the State and
pocketing its funds to the tune of $300,000. They proclaimed that they
were in favor of the Tunnel, and only desired to take the work from the
hands of swindling contractors and the control of a bankrupt and
irresponsible corporation, in order that it might be assumed and
prosecuted by the Commonwealth; but they were secretly confident, and
not without reason, that a board of commissioners would be appointed who
would report against the prosecution of the work by the State. Of the
three gentlemen appointed, not one had expressed an opinion in favor of
the enterprise, and Mr. Brooks, the president, was known to be opposed
to it. Both of the two resident members were from localities where the
prevailing sentiment was against the Tunnel. But this adroitness of the
opposition was baffled, and its confident hope disappointed by the
integrity and fairness of Mr. Brooks and his associates. The latter had
no prejudices to conquer, and Mr. Brooks had not applied himself many
weeks to the duties of his commission, before he was convinced of the
feasibility of the work, and satisfied that the State ought to assume
and complete it. When their report was made to the Legislature in 1863,
the old opposition manifested itself with more intensity than ever, and
the same honest gentlemen, who, the year before, were so friendly to the
enterprise, and only wanted to transfer it from the hands of rapacious
contractors and a bankrupt corporation, to the fostering care of the
Commonwealth, threw off their masks, resorted to their old tricks and
arts, and renewed their old clamor, against the "Tunnel swindle;" yet,
vainly, as the result proved.
The name of Mr. F. W. Bird, of Walpole, has been once or twice mentioned
in this article, and not improperly, since he has gained that equivocal
notoriety in connection with the Hoosac Tunnel, which attaches to the
enemies of all great and noble undertakings. This gentleman has
informed the public, that in 1847 and 1848, when he was in the
Legislature, he "voted for everything that the friends of the Tunnel
asked for." This action cannot have greatly embarrassed Mr. Bird during
his subsequent career, since the only thing asked for by the friends of
the Tunnel, during those two years, was the charter, granted in 1848.
Mr. Bird further informs the public, that "in 1862, we were overruled by
the committee, but we defeated them before the Legislature. In 1863, we
were defeated, and the Legislature sanctioned the resumption of the
work." Mr. Bird also boasts that, while a member of the Executive
Council, he "did resist the assumption by the chairman of the
commission, of irresponsible control over the work, and did something to
prevent the building of the road from Greenfield to the mountain."
In 1862, Hon. W. D. Swan represented the opposition to the Tunnel in the
Senate. Mr. Bird, in a communication to the Boston Journal of Nov. 3,
1862, says:--
"The Tunnel fight was organized and directed by three members of
the Third House.
The Tunnel matter came before the Senate late in the session, when
many important questions demanded the attention of the Senate and
rendered it very difficult for them to make personal
investigations.
As to Mr. Swan, he very frankly declared that the whole subject was
so new to him that he must rely upon us for his materials.
His published speeches upon the Tunnel, upon which his fame as a
practical legislator is based by his friends, were written
substantially by one of us beforehand, and afterward revised by all
of us for the press.
We furnished every fact, made every calculation, prepared every
table and arranged _every point and every argument logically and
rhetorically_."
One of the arguments which Mr. Bird confesses he and his associates
"arranged," is expressed in the following extract from Mr. Swan's
speech:--
"I am aware, sir, that it may be said: 'You are going to stop a
great enterprise.' No I am not. I have no such intention. I am in
favor of the Hoosac Tunnel. If Massachusetts has granted her aid
for the accomplishment of any great purpose, I am for going through
with it. I am for going through with the Tunnel; but I am for going
through with it understandingly; and if Massachusetts is to do the
work, let us know that we are to obtain something like an
equivalent for our expenditure.
We say, then, to the corporation, we will send intelligent
commissioners to examine the road and tunnel, and if the report to
us, or our successors, next year, is favorable to this great
enterprise, we will go on with it; we will bore a a hole through
the mountain, we will arch it, lay the track, and give you ten
years in which to redeem the property."
But it is not necessary to quote further from Mr. Bird himself; he has
been well known for years as an agent of the Western Railroad Company,
and the leader of the combined elements of opposition to the Tunnel. He
is a man of ability, bold, and adroit in his management, but entirely
unscrupulous in the choice of means to effect his objects. As a lobby
member, as newspaper correspondent, as pamphleteer, as councilor, and in
the numerous other characters which his Protean genius has enabled him
to assume, he has, by fair means and foul, diligently adhered to his
boastful promise that he "should not desist from opposition till the
work is stopped;" and he has lately reiterated his purpose of keeping
that pledge, "with the help of God." Those who know Mr. Bird well,
entertain no doubt that he will continue to do his best to stop the
work, whether with or without the Divine assistance, and that he will
literally fulfill his promise, since the work will, undoubtedly, be
"stopped" when it is finished.
One other gentleman has been associated with Mr. Bird, as a leader of
the opposition to the Tunnel enterprise, who, perhaps, deserves a
passing notice in this article, Mr. D. L. Harris, President of the
Connecticut River Railroad. He has less ability than Mr. Bird, but much
more practical knowledge of railroad engineering and management. It has
apparently been a part of the duty assigned him, to furnish Mr. Bird
with the texts for his pamphlets and newspaper articles, and to supply
such information, from time to time, as that gentleman's inexperience
and ignorance required. He has also emulated the example of his
associate by contributing to the anti-tunnel literature of the
newspapers. While a member of the House, a few years since, he had the
bad taste, in the course of discussion, to quote from one of his own
anonymous articles. Upon being accused of being the author of his
quotation, he roundly denied the charge, but was convicted by the
production of his own manuscript. His seat was vacant during the
remainder of that session. Whether this desertion of his post was
occasioned by a conviction in the minds of anti-tunnel men and the
Western Railroad managers that the exposure had impaired the influence
of their agent, or whether he was impelled to retire by the stings of
that remorse which a certain class of men experience only when they have
been detected in a falsehood, the writer of this paper is unable to
determine.
The Boston Advertiser of October 5, 1865, contains an article over Mr.
Bird's signature, which was soon after published in the form of a
pamphlet, and profusely distributed throughout the State, having for a
title, "The Hoosac Tunnel: its Condition and Prospects." It appears,
that a few weeks previous, Mr. Bird and Mr. Harris visited the Tunnel
locality, and this pamphlet purports to be the result of Mr. Bird's
"observations." It has been extensively read, and has, doubtless,
inspired the minds of many timid and ignorant persons, with honest
doubts of the practicability or expediency of ever completing the
Tunnel. It is considered "smart" by those who mistake denunciation and
abuse for wit, and baseless assumption for truth. To those who are
familiar with the history of the Tunnel, and who understand its present
condition, it is more remarkable for misrepresentation and
disingenuousness, than even any previous effort of its author.
He introduces his subject by stating that the commissioners, "since they
commenced operations, have had unlimited and irresponsible power, and
that, for all failures and blunders, they, and they alone, are
responsible;" yet, within a month from the penning of this assertion,
Mr. Bird boasted that _he_ did something, while a member of the Council,
to prevent the building of the road from Greenfield to the mountain.
The obstacles encountered at the West end of the Tunnel, which had been
foreseen and understood from the beginning, by the friends of the
enterprise, appear to have first engaged the observation of our
inspector, and are represented as a startling and recent discovery. The
well known effect of water upon the soft material in this locality is
described as "rock demoralized" into "porridge," and this "porridge" is
represented as a difficulty of such serious nature that "the managers
are at their wits' ends."
Mr. James Laurie, an eminent civil engineer, employed by the
commissioners to make a survey, in his able report in January of 1863,
says "the portions of the Hoosac Tunnel embraced between the Western
entrance and the present shaft, a distance of 3008 feet, will, from all
indications, be the most troublesome and expensive. The material
consists of gravel, clay, sand, detached beds of quartzose sandstone,
some of which is partly decomposed, and limestone. The whole formation
is full of springs. _However bad the material may prove_, this part,
under proper management, can be completed long before the rest of the
Tunnel." Mr. Bird says, "Common men, and some uncommon men, too, look
upon these difficulties as insuperable." Those who can, for a moment,
weigh the opinion of the accomplished and experienced engineer, Mr.
Laurie, with that of Mr. F. W. Bird, of Walpole, may relieve their
doubts by referring to Mr. Storrow's report on the European tunnels, in
a very large proportion of which the most formidable kind of "porridge"
was encountered and subdued.
Mr. Bird observed the Western shaft. The work at the Western face of
this shaft was suspended on account of imminent danger of "porridge" and
our observer's most important criticism here, is that they were, at the
time of his visit, advancing on the Eastern face of the shaft, at the
rate of only "thirteen feet weekly," that is fifty-two _feet per month_.
Mr. Storrow says the average progress in the European tunnels was about
thirty _feet per month_.
The Central shaft was visited, and Mr. Bird does not appear to have
observed anything which demanded an expression of his disapproval. The
work was progressing at the rate of twenty-two feet a month, and the
pumps gave a gallon and a half of water per minute. In constructing the
Kilsey Tunnel, in England, Mr. Storrow says that during a considerable
portion of nine months, the water pumped out was two thousand gallons a
minute.
Mr. Bird's report of progress at the East end was certainly very
encouraging the heading having been advanced successfully during the two
months preceding his visit, at the rate of sixty-five feet per month,
and the work was being pushed with vigor and activity.
The dam across the Deerfield next claimed the observation of the
inspector, who appears to have regarded it with much surprise, both on
account of its cost and because it was thrown across a fitful mountain
torrent, so feeble at the time of Mr. Bird's visit, that it was only
allowed to run by night, for the reason, as he "guessed," that "if it
was allowed to run by day, under the hot sun, it would all evaporate
before it reached Shelburne Falls!" This _guess_ is associated in the
same paragraph with an assertion that "there was not then in the river,
and had not been for some weeks, and has not been since, (unless they
have had heavy rains,) water enough to give under a thirty feet head,
twenty, or even a ten-horse power, for twenty-four hours a day." It is
as well established a fact that the Deerfield river was never known to
be so low as at one time during last year, as it is that wells all over
the State were dry last autumn, which were never dry before. Yet, at the
time of Mr. Bird's visit, when the river was lowest, Mr. Doane, the
chief engineer, states that the water was running at the rate of
"thirty-four cubic feet per second. On a head of thirty feet this gives,
theoretically, one hundred and sixteen, and, practically, eighty-seven
horse power." The intelligent reader will not be at much loss to decide
whether he will rely upon the guesses, observations and loose assertions
of Mr. Bird, or the record and word of the careful and skillful
engineer. Mr. Bird says, "it is discreditable that the precise quantity
of water has not, so far as we know, been ascertained by actual
measurement." Such measurement had been made, and Mr. Bird _might_ have
known it if he had taken pains to inquire of Mr. Doane or Mr. Hill.
The testimony of Messrs. Lamson & Goodnow, of Shelburne Falls, as to the
power and reliability of the Deerfield river, is that "this is the first
season we have been at all troubled on account of the scarcity of water,
but not as Mr. Bird stated it. We have not been compelled to stop our
mills _except one half day_, and we employ four hundred men on cutlery."
The same gentlemen (Messrs. Lamson & Goodnow) state that the Deerfield
and North rivers furnish water enough, at Shelburne Falls, for one
thousand horse power. The North river is a small stream, and deducting
its contribution together with that of the brooks which find their way
into the Deerfield between Shelburne Falls and the mountain, at the high
estimate of two hundred horse power, and there remains to the Deerfield
alone a force of eight hundred horse power, which is the estimate made
by the commissioners. The measurements made by Mr. Doane and his
assistants confirm their accuracy. Yet Mr. Bird who boasts of "an
intimate acquaintance of over thirty years with water power," asserts
that for such a privilege, "ten thousand dollars would be an extravagant
price!" Would he sell even the puddle which works his paper mill at
Walpole, and which, we presume, has afforded all his knowledge of water
power, for half that amount?
The writer of this article has not enjoyed "an intimate acquaintance of
over thirty years with water power," but he has resided exactly the same
length of time as Gov. Gardner said he had been a temperance man, in the
manufacturing town of Fitchburg, and during that time has learned
something about its _thirty-four_ water privileges and _five hundred and
eighty-two feet head_ of water which they command, on the little Nashua
and its tributaries. His knowledge of this water power enables him to
exhibit the gross absurdity of Mr. Bird's efforts to dry up the
Deerfield. One of these tributaries, which is less than eight miles
long, affords a privilege with a head of twenty-one feet, of from
seventy-five to one hundred horse power. The reader can form his own
conclusions, by comparing this brook with that "fitful mountain
torrent," the Deerfield river, which has its sources in the town of
Stratton, Vt., flows southward to the foot of the Hoosac Mountain, then
turning eastward, finds its way into the Connecticut, near Greenfield,
traversing in its course, a distance of more than sixty miles. The
length of the "fitful torrent" above the Hoosac dam, is about forty
miles, and in that part of its course it is swelled by the contributions
of numerous tributaries, several of which are respectively from twelve
to eighteen miles long. A shrewd Yankee, who is not a civil engineer,
and has not even had the experience of running a small paper mill, might
"guess" that such a stream would furnish, with a head of thirty feet, as
much as an eight hundred horse power.
But it is not eight hundred horse power, nor four hundred that is
required to operate the drilling machinery and ventilate the tunnel; for
two hundred and eight horse power is all that has ever been used or
needed at Mt. Cenis. This leaves a pretty wide margin for drouths,
_evaporation_, and other contingencies.