256 



ENGINEERING. 



contention in the courts with the Delaware 

 & Lackawanna Railroad Company. The tun- 

 nel company has come out victorious in the 

 litigations, and nothing now lies in the way 

 of the enterprise. The works were begun 

 a long time ago, and now will probably be 

 pushed forward to a speedy completion. The 

 capital stock of the company is to be $15,000,- 

 000, of which, it is said, $10,000,000 has already 

 been subscribed ; Senator Jones, of Nevada, is 

 said to be an active promoter of the enterprise. 

 The project was first advanced by D. C. Has- 

 kin, of New York, who is the president of the 

 corporation. The beginning of the work was 

 the sinking of a vertical shaft lined with brick 

 masonry of three or four feet thickness, having 

 a diameter of 30 feet, in Jersey City, at the 

 junction of Jersey Avenue and Fifteenth 

 Street. When the shaft shall have been sunk 

 to the depth of 65 feet, the horizontal cutting 

 will be commenced. The direction of the tun- 

 nel will be northeast and southwest. It will 

 have a length of about two miles ; the terminus 

 on the New York side will be near Washington 

 Square. It will descend from both ends tow- 

 ard the centre in a gradient of two feet in 100. 

 The diameter of the tunnel is to be 26 feet. 

 Its roof will be nowhere less than 35 feet 

 below the bottom of the river, so that there 

 will be no danger from the anchorage of ves- 

 sels. Little blasting will be required, and the 

 two or three veins of rock which will have to 

 be penetrated are of soft substance ; the first 

 vein of rock to be encountered crops up about 

 1,100 feet from the New York side. After a 

 few feet of the lateral tunnel shall have been 

 excavated, an iron cylinder will be introduced, 

 in which the workmen will be protected when 

 driving forward the tunnel. The cylinder 

 will have hinged doors, and be provided with 

 an apparatus and tubes for introducing com- 

 pressed air from the surface. 



There is a proposal to carry a telegraphic 

 wire across the African Continent, from Khar- 

 toom, where there is telegraphic communi- 

 cation with Alexandria, at a distance of 1,100 

 miles, to Delagoa Bay, the terminus of the 

 Cape lines. The distance between these points 

 is 2,300 miles; but extensions are in progress 

 which will shorten it to 1,500 miles. It is 

 .suggested that the trees might be utilized as 

 telegraph poles, and that depredations of the 

 natives, who might covet the valuable iron of 

 the wires, might be prevented. 



The Dutch Government have issued pro- 

 posals for the improvement of the harbor at 

 Batavia, the capital of the island of Java and 

 of their East Indian possessions. The only 

 communication between the town and the 

 present harbor, which has an excellent road- 

 stead, has been by a canal 8 or 10 feet deep at 

 low tide. The present accommodations are 

 entirely insufficient for the large steamers 

 which are employed in the Oriental trade, 

 since the opening of the Suez Canal. It is 

 therefore proposed to construct a new harbor 



at Tandjong-Priok, to be formed by two break- 

 waters, 1,963 and 1,743 metres in length re- 

 spectively, and rising 2J- and 1^ metres above 

 low-water mark, with two inner harbors, of 

 which only one is to be constructed for the 

 present, each having a length of 1,100 metres, 

 and a basin 7f metres deep and 175 metres in 

 width. The entrance to the outer harbor will 

 be 250 metres wide and 8 metres deep at low 

 water. There will be 1,500 metres of quay, 

 and a channel 50 metres wide leading to a 

 coaling station. Between the harbor and Ba- 

 tavia a canal, five miles long, and a railroad, are 

 to be built. The cost of the entire works will 

 be $15,000,000 ; but for the portion to be con- 

 structed forthwith the estimate is something 

 more then half that amount. 



The first wire carried across between the 

 towers of the Brooklyn Bridge was fastened on 

 the 22d of September. This great work, after 

 seven years of labor and the expenditure of 

 $6,750,000, is still a long way from completion. 

 The entire estimated cost of the completed 

 structure is now set at about $11,250,000, or 

 more than double the original estimate. 



The contract for the construction of the pro- 

 posed railroad-bridge at Poughkeepsie, over the 

 Hudson River, has been taken by the American 

 Bridge Company, of Chicago. The main part 

 over the water will consist of five spans of 525 

 feet each between the centres of the piers, 

 whose breadth will be 25 feet. The bridge 

 will be of the description called the under- 

 grade or deck bridge, and will have two tracks 

 and sidewalks, and an under and upper deck, 

 the latter carrying the two railroad-tracks, 

 and the other a carriage-way of 16 feet clear 

 width. Each span is to have two trusses, 25 

 feet between centres, of the rectangular de- 

 scription, with double intersections; the ma- 

 terial will be iron and steel combined. The 

 trusses are to be 58 feet high, and the top of 

 the piers 135 feet above high-water mark, so 

 that the elevation of the track above the river 

 at high tide will be 193 feet. The approach 

 on the west side of the river will have one 

 span of 160 feet, formed by two trusses, 30 

 feet in height. The long approach on the 

 other side, extending across the town, will be 

 composed, as far as Water Street, of iron tres- 

 tling, formed by three post-bents strongly 

 braced, and four lines of stringers of iron lat- 

 tice, making spans of 20 to 60 feet. Across 

 the Hudson River Railroad grounds, Water 

 Street and Dutchess Avenue, will be two spam* 

 of 25 feet depth. Beyond, as far as the oppo- 

 site side of Tallmadge Street, where the ap- 

 proach ends, will be iron trestling, except at tho 

 crossings of Tallmadge and Delafield Streets, 

 over which will be made two 90-feet spans. 

 The entire length of the bridge and approaches 

 will be 4,500 feet. The plan of the bridge 

 proper is a suspended girder, with parallel and 

 cradled cables, and two decks. The girder, 

 1,680 feet in length, will be of wrought-iron. 

 The supporting towers will also be of wrought- 



