ccxxii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



Upon the East River Suspension Bridge work has been steadily 

 pushed forward. The Brookljai and New York towers have both 

 been completed as far as possible before the making and placing in 

 position of the cables, and preparations are now well advanced for 

 the making of the cables from which the roadway is to be suspended. 

 At the time of this writing, two working ropes (for pulling over the 

 cable wires), and one cradle rope (to support the wooden " ci'adles" 

 used as stations by the workmen adjusting the wdres), are in their 

 places. When the making of the cables will begin depends entirely, 

 it is said, upon the delivery of the steel wire, for which specifications 

 and invitations for bids have beeii sent to all the leadins manufact- 

 urers of this country and Europe. Thirty-four hundred net tons of 

 galvanized iron wire of No. 8 Birmingham gauge, capable of sustain- 

 ing a strain of 3400 pounds without breaking, will be required. It 

 is not deemed probable that with the utmost expedition the cables 

 will be completed within less than two years from the present time ; 

 then the building of the Ijridge proper, with its six gigantic iron 

 trusses, which will be supported from the cables ; its great storm- 

 cables, which will curve across each other twice beneath the floor; 

 its subsidiary storm-cables ; its mile and one sixth of roadways, pas- 

 senger ways, and railroad tracks; its long approaches with their 

 massive piers, etc., will consume two years longer in their comple- 

 tion. Under the most favorable estimates, therefore, it will require 

 four years more to complete the bridge. 



Work upon the Hudson River Tunnel, the projection of which en- 

 terprise we aunounced in our Record for 1874, is about to be resumed, 

 having been interrupted for a considerable period by litigation aris- 

 ing out of the opposition of the Morris and Essex Railroad Company 

 and the Jersey Shore Improvement Company. This litigation, it is 

 affirmed, is now at an end, having terminated in favor of the Tunnel 

 Company. Active operations will now be commenced on the New 

 Jersey side from the foot of Fifteenth Street. Thence the tunnel 

 will run in a northeasterly direction, passing under the river and the 

 Christopher Street Feriy Slip. The New York entrance, it is said, 

 will be located in the vicinity of Washington Square. The tunnel 

 as proposed will be about two miles in length, and will have a road- 

 bed of twenty-three feet, with two tracks, and the entire distance will 

 be lighted with gas. It is proposed to employ two hundred labor- 

 ers, and to continue the work day and night. The capital required 

 to complete the work according to the plans proposed is $15,000,000, 

 of which, it is affirmed, $10,000,000 have already been obtained. It is 

 estimated finally that the enterprise as projected will be completed 

 within two years. 'J'he tunnel will be used for passengers, but its 

 main object will be to afibrd a rapid means of transporting freight 

 to and from the railroad depots in Jersey City. 



Among the more noteworthy engineering works in contemplation, 



