rk, Susquehanna and Western Railroad;

Northern Railroad of New Jersey.

The alignment for this distance consists of 3.57 miles of tangent and
three curves, two of which are 0 deg. 30' each, one of the latter being at
the western end of the Division, and the other adjoining Snake Hill; the
third is a regular curve of 1 deg. 54' on the east-bound track, and a
compound curve with a maximum of 2 deg. on the west-bound track, the
variation being due to the track spacing of 37 ft. from center to center
in the Bergen Hill Tunnels, while on the Meadows Division it is 13 ft.
from center to center.

The profile was adopted to give 18 ft. of clearance from the under side
of the bridges to the top of the rail of the Erie Railroad branches, 21
ft. to the top of the rail of its main line, 19 ft. to the top of the
rail of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and a clearance
of 24 ft. above high water in the Hackensack River. With the exception
of that portion of the line adjoining the Bergen Hill Tunnels, where it
was necessary to continue the 1.3% grade up to the bridge over the
Northern Railroad of New Jersey, and the east-bound ascending grade of
0.5% from the Harrison platforms to the bridge over the New York
Division tracks, the grades do not exceed 0.3 per cent.

When the construction of the embankment was commenced, it was expected
that there would be considerable trouble by settlement due to the
displacement of the soft material underlying the surface of the meadows
to a depth of from 10 to 15 ft.; but, with the exception of the trouble
the contractors had in maintaining their temporary trestles, the
embankment as completed has settled very little. The section east of the
Hackensack River was made, in great part, of rock excavated from a
borrow-pit in the Town of Secaucus, north of the eastern end of the
Division. The embankment was built under two contracts, one for the work
east of the crossing of the Boonton Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna
and Western Railroad, under contract dated January 15th, 1907, with
H. S. Kerbaugh, Incorporated, the material being taken from the
borrow-pit in narrow-gauge cars and dumped from a strong pile trestle
along the total length of the section, the same being completed in 19
months; the other for the embankment west of the Boonton Branch,
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, under contract dated April
10th, 1906, with Henry Steers, Incorporated, of New York City, t