The Project Gutenberg EBook of Transactions of the American Society of
Civil Engineers, Vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910, by Charles W. Raymond

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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.
Paper No. 1150

Author: Charles W. Raymond

Release Date: April 22, 2006 [EBook #18229]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

INSTITUTED 1852

TRANSACTIONS

Paper No. 1150

THE NEW YORK TUNNEL EXTENSION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.

BY CHARLES W. RAYMOND, M. AM. SOC. C. E.[A]

Some time before the appointment of the Board of Engineers which
supervised the designing and construction of the New York Tunnel
Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the late A. J. Cassatt, then
President of the Company, said to the writer that for many years he had
been unable to reconcile himself to the idea that a railroad system like
the Pennsylvania should be prevented from entering the most important
and populous city in the country by a river less than one mile wide. The
result of this thought was the tunnel extension project now nearly
completed; but it is only in recent years that new conditions have
rendered such a solution of the problem practicable as well as
desirable.

Previously a tunnel designed for steam railroad traffic, to enter New
York City near Christopher Street, was partly constructed, but the work
was abandoned for financial reasons. Then plans for a great suspension
bridge, to enable all the railroads reaching the west shore of the North
River to enter the city at the foot of 23d Street, were carefully
worked out by the North River Bridge Company. The Pennsylvania Railroad
Company gave this project its support by agreeing to pay its _pro rata_
share for the use of the bridge; but the other railroads declined to
participate, and the execution of this plan was not undertaken.

New operating