ENGINEERING. 



285 



calamity in case of derailment. Diagonal 

 braces in each panel give stability to the 

 structure. 



The plan of the Metropolitan Elevated Rail- 

 road embraces an entire circuit of the island, 

 22 miles in length, going from Bowling Green 

 through Beaver, Pearl, New Bowery, and Di- 

 vision Streets to Allen Street, along this and 

 First Avenue to Twenty-third Street, across 

 to Second Avenue, and up that to Harlem 

 River ; then along River Street to Eighth 

 Avenue, down that to One Hundred and Tenth 

 Street, across to Ninth Avenue, down that to 

 Fifty-third Street, and across to Sixth Avenue, 

 and then down by the now completed track 

 to Morris Street, and through private property 

 to Bowling Green. An extension along Sixth 

 Avenue to Fifty-ninth Street is also in the 

 plan, and a connecting line through Chambers 

 Street from West Broadway to Chatham Street 

 and along that to Division Street. 



The course of the completed portion of the 

 road is from Morris Street, opposite Trinity 

 Church, along New Church Street to Church 

 Street, then along Murray Street, College Place, 

 and Chambers Street to West Broadway, along 

 this and across Canal Street into South Fifth 

 Avenue; turning at West Third Street and 

 again at Sixth Avenue, it follows the latter 

 thoroughfare up to the terminus at Fifty-ninth 

 Street and Central Park. The course is about 

 four and a half miles in length. The engines 

 used have a weight when loaded of 14-955 tons, 

 the weight on the driving-wheels being 12-035 

 tons. The length of the wheel base is 15. feet 

 6 inches ; length of fire-box, 3 feet 6 inches, 

 width 2 feet 3 inches; diameter of bogie wheels, 

 28 inches, of axles 4^- inches; diameter of the 

 cylinders, 10 inches, length of stroke 16 inch- 

 es; capacity of the tank, 320 gallons; num- 

 ber of tubes, 125, each 6 feet 10 inches long. 

 The first trip took place on the 30th of April, 

 1878. The trial trip was made with an engine 

 and four cars containing 200 passengers. The 

 speed made over a part of the course was 25 

 miles an hour. The Fifty-ninth Street ter- 

 minus was reached in 17 minutes. The course, 

 it was expected, would ordinarily be run in 12 

 minutes by through trains, and in 22 minutes 

 by way trains. An experimental trip was 

 made in 11 J minutes without any stoppage. 

 The trains timed generally took 25 to 28 min- 

 utes for the trip. There are fifteen stations, 

 with an average distance apart of three tenths 

 of a mile, and four curves of 90 degrees. The 

 passenger cars are 37 feet 10 inches long and 8 

 feet 9 inches wide, and have sittings for 48 

 passengers each. They are brightly and taste- 

 fully decorated; the seats are arranged with 

 their backs to the walls of the car, except in 

 the middle, where there are a few transverse 

 seats. 



The east side extension of the New York 

 Elevated Railway commences at the Battery, 

 at the terminus of the old Ninth Avenue route, 

 going from Whitehall Street through Front 



and Pearl Streets, up the Bowery and Third 

 Avenue to Fifty-ninth Street. Branches are 

 to go off to the ferries, the terminus of the 

 East River Bridge, and the Grand Central 

 Depot. On the west side the old road is to 

 be extended from Sixty-first to Eighty-first 

 Street. The plans include the construction in 

 all of about three miles of single and six miles 

 of double track. The New York Elevated 

 Railway differs materially from the Metro- 

 politan in being sustained by a single row of 

 posts, which support the whole weight, the 

 roadway passing immediately above them ; 

 while the Metropolitan roadway is supported 

 on transverse girders by a double row of posts. 

 Through part of its course, where the streets 

 are narrow, the same plan is adopted by the 

 west side road. A similar construction is fol- 

 lowed in Third Avenue, where, as the houses 

 are nearly all occupied as dwellings, it was 

 found advisable to remove the track as nearly 

 as possible to the middle of the street, instead 

 of following the curb as they must along the 

 Bowery, owing to that thoroughfare's numer- 

 ous street-car tracks and constant traffic. In 

 Third Avenue the posts are placed on each 

 side of the horse railroad and connected by 

 light elliptic-arch girders on which the road- 

 way rests, which is about 17 feet above the 

 street. The columns are 15 inches square at 

 the bottom, instead of 15 by 18 inches as when 

 they are placed in the curb. The average 

 length of the spans is 43 feet 4 inches. The 

 roadway is supported on open lattice-girders, 

 33 inches deep, so proportioned that the strain 

 of tension and compression is nowhere greater 

 than 8,000 Ibs. per square inch, the shearing 

 strain not greater than 6,000 Ibs. per square 

 inch, and the maximum deflection of the span 

 not more than one fifteen -hundredth of its 

 length. The columns are formed of two 15- 

 inch rolled channel-beams joined by lateral 

 braces, which are bars 3^ inches by five eighths 

 of an inch riveted to the flanges of the beams. 

 Where the track rests upon a single row of 

 posts, the beams are curved outward above, 

 wide enough to support the longitudinal gird- 

 ers ; but when the track passes over cross- 

 girders the two channel-beams are straight. 

 The bottoms of the beams are set into sockets 

 in cast-iron bed-plates weighing about 2,200 

 Ibs. each, which are secured by four 2-inch 

 anchor-bolts to a foundation of stone masonry ; 

 the bed-plates are 3 feet 4 inches square at the 

 base. The chords of the girders are formed 

 of angle-bars riveted together. The track is 4 

 feet 8 inches wide. The rails are of Besse- 

 mer steel, weighing 50 Ibs. per yard ; they are 

 laid on cross-ties of yellow pine, 7 feet long 

 and 6 by 5 inches in the section, placed 10 

 inches apart. On each side of each rail are 

 placed longitudinal guard-timbers. The pas- 

 senger cars weigh about 46,000 Ibs. ; they are 

 41 feet 6 inches long with the platforms, and 

 35 feet 6 inches long in the bodies, with a 

 width of 7 feet, and a seating capacity for 48 



