The Project Gutenberg EBook of Transactions of the American Society of
Civil Engineers, Vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910, by Alfred Noble

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Title: Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910
The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The East River Division. Paper No. 1152

Author: Alfred Noble

Release Date: March 28, 2006 [EBook #18065]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

INSTITUTED 1852

TRANSACTIONS

Paper No. 1152

THE NEW YORK TUNNEL EXTENSION OF
THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.

THE EAST RIVER DIVISION.

BY ALFRED NOBLE, PAST-PRESIDENT, AM. SOC. C. E.

A general outline of the work included in this Division has been given
by General C. W. Raymond, M. Am. Soc. C. E., in the first paper of the
series. The few pages following are intended only as a note to connect
his paper with the more detailed descriptions of the execution of the
work, which will be supplied by the Resident Engineers in immediate
charge.

Soon after the Company's project was made public, in the latter part of
1901, borings were begun in the East River, and a few weeks later in
Manhattan and Long Island City. A preliminary base line was measured on
the Manhattan side, and temporary transit stations were established on
buildings from which all borings in the river were located. The river
borings were all wash-borings made from a pile-driver boat. After the
results were plotted on the map, contour lines were drawn to indicate
the rock surface, and profiles along the tunnel lines were plotted from
the contours; as the borings were preliminary to the final location of
the tunnels, and in many cases at some distance from the tunnel lines,
considerable divergence from the actual rock surface was expected, and
realized in a few places, yet on the whole the agreement was very good.
The borings revealed two depressions or channels where the rock surface
passed below the