THE HOOSAC TUNNEL.
Scribner'sDecember, 1870
IT is a matter of wonder that those enterprising gentlemen
who proposed during the late war to reconstruct the map of the
United States, leaving New England out in the cold, did not discover
and point out the fact that New England is divided from the rest
of the country by a mountain wall which might well serve as the
boundary of a separate State.
The westernmost of the three mountain chains which form the
great Appalachian system, stretches without interruption from
the western boundary of South Carolina to the northern boundary
of Maine. Through the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania,
it is known as the Blue Ridge. In New Jersey it is called Schooley's
Mountain. Crossing into New York, it breaks into a magnificent
group of craggy peaks, and, parting to let the Hudson pass, is
christened the Highlands. Thence it trends to the eastward, and
pushes away to the north near the western boundary of Connecticut,
till it reaches the southern line of Massachusetts, where it divides
into two parallel ranges. The western range serves as a boundary
between Massachusetts and New York, and bears the name of the
Taghkanics or Taconics. Over the tops of the other range of hills
which are known as the Hoosac range, the zig-zag line of Berkshire
county runs. Near the Vermont border these parted columns are
massed again in the broad bulwark of the Green Mountains, which
stretches northward through Vermont, then north-westward along
the northern boundary of Maine, terminating in the Canadian peninsula
that separates the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the Bay of Chaleur.
Do I hear my intelligent readers suggesting that they knew
all this geography before? I must beg your pardon, ladies and
gentlemen, for doubting whether half of you know it now.
We are only concerned at present, however, with the fact that
the western ridge of the Appalachian chain separates New England
from the rest of the Union. A narrow belt of country in Vermont
is found on the west of this natural boundary, but neither of
the other States crosses it. The commercial intercourse of New
England with the West has been greatly obstructed by this mountain
barrier. It has not served to stem the tide of emigration westward,
neither has it weakened the affection of the people of the new
States for their old homes; but it has prevented the emigrants
from keeping up the close business relations with their native
States that they would, under other circumstances, have maintained.
The western merchant, arriving at Albany or Troy by railroad or
canal, finds a magnificent river waiting to bear him and his merchandise
to New York; while between him and the New England markets, stretches
for hundreds of miles up and down an abrupt and difficult mountain
wall. It is not surprising, therefore, that he goes to New York
with his merchandise. Emigration may follow parallels of latitude,
but traffic always follows the easiest and shortest route to market,
with no reference at all to parallels or pedigrees.
The people of New England did not, however,
sit down behind their mountain wall and suck their thumbs. Close
business relations with the great West were essential to their
prosperity, and they determined to establish and maintain them.
Some way must be provided whereby a share of the western trade
might reach their markets. If the mountain would not give way
to Mahomet, Mahomet must go through the mountain. That is how
the Hoosac Tunnel came to be built. It is a clear announcement
that New England does not intend to be left out in the cold.
At the present time freight and passengers from the West are
brought to the metropolis of New England by three principal routes:
the Grand Trunk Railroad through Canada, which reaches the Atlantic
coast at Portland, Maine, and approaches Boston from the East;
the Vermont Central Railroad, which draws its traffic from the
St. Lawrence river by various connecting lines, and the Boston
and Albany Railroad. Of these three roads, the two former pierce
the mountain barrier by passes far to the northward without any
very difficult engineering, but they follow routes too circuitous
to be of much practical advantage to Boston as through lines from
the West. The Boston and Albany Railroad is nearly as short as
any railroad connecting the Hudson river with Boston can be; but
between Springfield and Pittsfield, where it climbs over the Hoosac
range, the grades are terrific. For this reason, though the railroad
is managed with vigor and enterprise, it is still inadequate for
the transaction of the business that ought to be carried on between
Boston and the West.
If it had not been for the veto of Governor Claflin, the Boston,
Hartford, and Erie Railroad might have been added to these thoroughfares
from New England to the West. That, however, reaches the Hudson
at a point too near to New York to prove of any great benefit
to the Western trade of New England.
Long before either of these railways was thought of, before
railways had been heard of, indeed, the Hoosac Tunnel route had
been surveyed and commended as the most feasible line of communication
between the East and the West. This was done in 1825, by a Legislative
Commission appointed to ascertain the practicability of a canal
from Boston to the Hudson river. Comparing this route with that
now followed by the Boston and Albany railroad, the Commissioners
unhesitatingly gave the preference to this one for the building
of a canal. There was no way of getting round the mountain,
and they thought it easier to go through it than to go over it
with a canal. This is their conclusion:
There is no hesitation, therefore, in deciding in favor of a tunnel;
but even if its expense should exceed the other mode of passing
the mountain, a tunnel is preferable, for reasons which have been
assigned. And this formidable barrier once overcome, the remainder
of the route from the Connecticut to the Hudson presents no unusual
difficulties in the construction of a canal, but in fact the reverse;
being remarkably feasible."
It was during this very year, however, that the first railway
was put in operation in America; and the Massachusetts Legislature
paused, before building the proposed canal, to await the results
of this experiment. It soon became evident that the railroad was
to supersede the canal; and the Legislature decided to adopt this
improved method of communication in opening a route to the West.
In 1828 another Commission reported to the Legislature of Massachusetts
that they could get over the mountain with a railroad more
quickly and more cheaply than they could get through it; and,
therefore, recommended the Boston and Albany line, which was opened
for travel in 1842.
The northern line was not, however, abandoned. But for the
one formidable obstacle presented by the Hoosac range it was by
far the most practicable route between the East and the West.
Extending west from Fitchburg, it descends the valley of Miller's
river to Greenfield; then crossing the Connecticut, it finds a
deep though sinuous passage which the Deerfield river, coming
from the west, has cut through the hills for thirty miles. Following
this stream upward without difficulty, it reaches at length a
bend in the river where the Deerfield comes down from the north,
and its course is no longer practicable. Up to this point, with
a little care in his alignments, the engineer has found an easy
passage, but now he is confronted by the steep sides of the Hoosac
mountain range, standing directly across his path. Starting at
Troy, the western end of his line, and going eastward, he meets
with exactly the same problem. The Hoosac river, which empties
into the Hudson a little above Troy, has cut the Taghkanics in
twain for him, and a most beautiful route is open to the village
of North Adams, where the west side of the Hoosac mountain rises
before him more abrupt and lofty than the eastern side. But for
this Hoosac mountain, the route, as the Commissioners say, is,
considering the nature of the country between the Connecticut
and the Hudson, remarkably feasible. Old Loammi Baldwin, the engineer
who made the first survey with reference to the canal, used to
grow enthusiastic over this line. "Why, sir," he would
exclaim, "it seems as if the finger of Providence had marked
out this route from the east to the west.""Perhaps
so," answered one who was deficient both in enthusiasm and
in reverence, " but it is a pity that the finger of Providence
hadn't been thrust through the Hoosac Mountain."
This was a work which Providence left to the people of this
generation. In 1848 the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company was
chartered, with a capital of 3,500,000; "to build a railroad
from the terminus of the Vermont and Massachusetts, railroad,
at or, near Greenfield, through the valleys of the Deerfield and
the Hoosac to the State line, there to unite with a railroad leading
to the city of Troy." Three years passed before any
work was done. Subscriptions came in slowly, and the faith of
capitalists in the enterprise appeared very small. On the 7th
of January, 1851, the directors pluckily voted to, break ground
the next day; and in the absence of any information to the contrary
it is to be presumed they did it. Indeed, there is a tradition
in North Adams that the ceremony took place on the line of the
railroad, a little to the east of that village. On the 27th of
May, in the same year, the directors voted to expend a sum not
exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars in experiments upon the
east side of the mountain, at or near the mouth of the proposed
tunnel. The result of this vote was the building of a stupendous
drilling machine which will be described, hereafter. This machine
was set in operation at the east end, at some time during the
year 1852,and this, so far as I can learn, was the first
work done upon the tunnel. I regret that I am not able to give
with greater precision the date of the beginning of this important
work; but a diligent study of all the reports, and inquiries addressed
to every body who would be likely to know about it, have failed
to elicit any definite information. Everybody knows when they
began to blow, but nobody knows when they began to strike.
This tunnelling machine was a
failure, and after it was abandoned very little, if anything,
was done for two or three years. Repeated applications were made
by the company to the Legislature for loans; but it was not till
1854 that a loan of two millions of dollars was authorized by
the Legislature. By the aid of this loan and liberal subscriptions
to the stock of the company by several of the towns along the
line of the railroad, work was at last begun with considerable
vigor in 1855. The first contractor who showed signs of force
and capacity was Mr. Herman Haupt, afterward, in the late war,
General Haupt, the great bridge-builder, under whose command the
long bridge at Acquia Creek went up so quickly during Grant's
campaign with the army of the Potomac. Haupt is a small, wiry
looking man, of great capacity and boundless energy; and when
the work passed into his hands it was soon evident that he meant
business. The financial infirmities of the company greatly embarrassed
him, however, and in 1862 he abandoned the work, and the Troy
and Greenfield Railroad Company transferred to the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, under the mortgages held by the Commonwealth,
all the property of the corporation. After a year had passed,
during which no work was done upon the tunnel, the State took
possession of the property, three commissioners were appointed
by the Governor to superintend it, and a Committee of the Legislature
visited it every year. The chief engineer in charge during this
stage of the enterprise was Mr. Thomas Doane, of Boston, who originated
most of the methods now in use, and to whose judgment and skill
the enterprise is very largely indebted. The work was carried
on in this manner, under the direct supervision of the State,
until December, 1868, when, under an appropriation of five millions
of dollars the Legislature, a contract was made with Walter and
Francis Shanly, of Canada, for the completion of the tunnel. These
gentlemen entered upon the work in the month of March following,
and have since been pushing it vigorously. Under their administration
no doubt is expressed concerning the success of the tunnel.
The Messrs Shanly are Irishmen by birth, originating
in the County of Queens, in the Emerald Isle. In 1836 they emigrated
to Canada, and have since been engaged, the greater part of the
time, as civil engineers and contractors upon various public works
in Canada and the United States. Walter, the elder, took an important
part in the construction of the St. Lawrence and Welland Canals,
and afterward, until 1862, was engineer and manager of the Grand
Trunk Railway of Canada. In 1863 he was returned to the Provincial
Parliament for the County of South Grenville, including the City
of Prescott, and in 1867 he was re-elected from the same county
to the House of Commons of the New Dominion, which position he
still holds. Both these brothers immediately impress a stranger
as being men of extraordinary force of character. With erect,
athletic frames, fair and clear complexions, eyes that mean vigilance,
and lips that mean resolution, they appear to be abundantly able
to manage their own business, and thus far they have done it,
I believe, to the satisfaction of everybody. The frank courtesy
of their manners, and the quiet precision with which they do their
work, have earned for them the respect of the Yankees among whom
they are now sojourning, and have convinced us that the old Irish
gentleman is not wholly a creature of the imagination.
The Hoosac Mountain, of which a profile is here presented,
has two crests or summits with a valley between them. The Hoosac
River washes the western base and the Deerfield River the eastern;
and it is a curious fact that these rivers are at precisely the
same height above tide-water, making it necessary to enter the
mountain on each side at exactly the same elevation. Most of the
tunnels heretofore built are upon an ascending grade; and it is
necessary that there should be some descent in order that the
water, which is usually met with in large quantities, may be carried
off. In this case the only method of securing proper drainage
was to have a summit at the centre, from which the grade should
descend to either portal. Accordingly the grade rises about twenty
feet in a mile toward the summit level in the heart of the mountain.
But this manner of constructing the tunnel increased the difficulties
of ventilation. If built on a continuous grade an upward current
of air might be expected; and when this failed to secure ventilation,
the rapid driving of a train downward through the tunnel would
create a current by which it would be cleared of smoke; but if
built in this manner, with a summit level in the centre, neither
of these methods could be depended on. It therefore became necessary,
in the judgment of eminent engineers both in this country and
Europe, to sink a shaft from the top of the mountain to the summit
level of the tunnel. By this shaft it was hoped not only to secure
ventilation, but also to expedite the work, by affording four
faces of rock instead of two to work upon, when the shaft was
sunk to grade. The central shaft was, however, an afterthought,
not having been begun till the work had been in progress for several
years.
The visitor to the tunnel finds the work going on at both ends
and at the middle. From the eastern to the western portal the
distance is four miles and eighty-four hundredths;making
a longer tunnel than any now in operation in the world. The Mount
Cenis Tunnel, now nearly completed under the Alps between France
and Sardinia, is however about seven and three-fifths miles in
length. The longest one now in use is the Woodhead Tunnel near
Manchester, England, which is a trifle over three miles long.
The rock of the Hoosac Mountain is mica slate with occasional
veins of quartz. Except when the quartz seams occur, it is easy
to drill, but quite difficult to displace by blasting.
With these general explanations concerning
the character and magnitude of the work the reader will be prepared
to imagine himself a visitor, and to examine it in detail. Alighting
from the cars at Hoosac Tunnel station, on the eastern side of
the mountain, he crosses the Deerfield upon a wagon bridge, and
finds himself in a most romantic little valley, walled in on every
side by steep hills. The road which he follows leads for half
a mile along the southern bank, which soon becomes a precipitous
cliff as the mountain elbows the valley aside and comes down to
the water. Cut in the side of this steep hill, the road gradually
rises till it reaches that bend in the Deerfield heretofore described,
where it is fifty or sixty feet above the water. Here we are first
confronted with signs of the tunnel. A huge pile of broken rock,
which has been thrown down this high bank, pushes far out into
the bed of the river. Judging them by their chips, these miners
must be good workmen. A rough tramway running out to the brink
of this bank indicates the dumping place of the cars by which
the rock is brought forth from the mountain. Scattered about in
various picturesque localities upon the hillsides are the huts
of the miners and the houses of the engineers and superintendents
in charge. The store, at which all the necessaries of life from
a tobacco-pipe to a tarpaulin-axe furnished to the, workmen stands
upon the edge of this glacier of rock. On the other side of it,
a little farther up the stream, is the machine shop and the compressor
building, the machinery of which is driven by the water-power
of the Deerfield Dam, a short distance above. In this building
the power is generated by which work is done at the heading, nearly
a mile and a half away.
At the very outset the project of tunnelling
this mountain by machinery was entertained, and an enormous machine,
to which reference has already been made, was built at South Boston,
and set in operation here in the winter of 1852. This machine
was "designed to cut a groove around the circumference of
the tunnel thirteen inches wide and twenty-four feet in diameter,
by means of a set of revolving cutters. When this groove had been
cut to a proper depth the machine was to be run back on its railway;
and the centre core blasted out by gunpowder or split off by means
of wedges." Great hopes were entertained of the success of
this mechanical monster, but they were not realized. It cut a
very smooth and beautiful hole into the rock for about ten feet,
and then it stopped forever. Subsequently another boring machine
was tried at the west end. This was intended to cut the heading
onlya hole eight feet in diameter, which was to be enlarged
by manual labor and blasting. But this was even a more signal
failure than the other. It would not go forward an inch. And this
was the end of the boring machines. The fact is, that all machines
of this sort are built in disregard, of one fundamental principle
in engineering, viz., that in excavations of rock as little cutting
as possible should be done, and as much of the work as possible
should be left for the explosive agents to do. It is impossible
that any machinery should be made that will cut hard rock as cheaply
or as rapidly as nitro-glycerine will break it. No force that
can be harnessed to machinery bears any comparison with the forces
that are lodged in these chemical compounds.
After the failure of these boring machines
the work was for a long time done by means of hand-drills and
gunpowder. But it was found that the most rapid progress that
could be made with hand-drills, under the most favorable circumstances,
would not exceed sixty feet a month at either heading. Making
allowance for accidents and unavoidable delays, the average progress
would be much less than that; so that though by this means the
tunnel might ultimately be completed, it was not likely to be
done within a generation. This fact led to the introduction of
power drills. Several experiments were made with machines of this
description, resulting in the adoption of the Burleigh Drill,
invented by Mr. Charles Burleigh, of Fitchburg. This drill, like
all the others that were tried, is driven by compressed air. That
appears to be the only motive power which could be used in a work
of this kind. A steam-engine under ground would fill the air with
smoke and the steam could not, of course, be generated outside
and conducted to the machines in pipes, as it would condense before
travelling far. But air can be compressed by machinery and carried
anywhere, by means of strong iron pipes, without losing its elastic
force.
In the upper story of this machine shop we shall find several
of these drills in process of repair; for, unlike the one-horse
shay of the deacon, Mr. Burleigh's invention has several "weakest
spots," and often breaks down, but never wears out. It stands
the severe strain, however, much better than any machine of the
sort heretofore invented. The Burleigh Rock Drill consists simply
of a cylinder and a piston. The compressed air being admitted
by a hose from the iron pipes, by its elastic force moves the
piston quickly back and forth in the cylinder, making about three
hundred strokes a minute. To the end of this piston the drill
is firmly fastened, and is thus driven into the rock by the strokes
of the piston. A ratchet upon the cylinder turns the piston and
the drill round a little with every stroke.
In the lower story of this building the compressors are at
work, packing the air into small compass for use at the heading.
A pressure of six atmospheres, or ninety pounds to the square
inch, is given to the air which is collected in the huge pipes
that lead from these machines into the tunnel. The compressor
is simply an enormous air forcing-pump worked by water or steam.
By the use of drilling machines the progress of the work has
been greatly accelerated. An average advance of one hundred and
fifty feet a month is made at the heading at this end, and at
the west heading, where the rock is harder, ninety feet a month.
The portal of the tunnel is only a few rods
from the bank of the river. Just before reaching it we pass on
the right the blacksmith shop, where the drills are sharpened,
and the engineers' signal station, a little octagonal building
standing directly in the line of the tunnel. Looking back across
the river another station is perceived on the top of the opposite
hill, and a slashed line through the forest on the hill-side leading
up to it. A similar station is built upon each summit of the Hoosac
Mountain, and another upon the hill west of the Hoosac River;
and the greatest care has been taken by the engineers to keep
the alignments accurate. Working from each end toward the middle,
and from the middle toward each end of an underground line nearly
five miles in length, it is evident that some care is necessary.
The portal of the tunnel at this end is in the solid rock, and
is twenty feet high and twenty-four feet wide. A little stream
comes down the mountain side on the right of the portal; and the
attempt was first made to follow this stream upward a considerable
distance before entering the mountain; but it was soon found that
the rock was more easily managed than the water; and instead of
fighting the stream they flanked it by this lower entrance.
Mule power only was employed in the removal of the broken rock
till recently; but the increasing distance made the employment
of a swifter and stronger force necessary; and a small locomotive
is now in use at this end of the tunnel. Clothed in a tarpaulin
and rubber boots for protection against the water, which drips
abundantly from the roof of the tunnel, the visitor mounts one
of the small platform cars attached to this locomotive, and is
drawn slowly into the tunnel. If it chance to be a sultry day
in summer, the change of temperature will be noticeable. A cool
atmospheric current, created by the air which the drilling machines
at the heading are liberating,and, if a blast has recently
taken place, freighted with unmerchantable odors,is blowing
outward continually. The reverberation of the noises of the locomotive
and the cars fills the air with an unearthly clangor, and timid
souls are usually willing to return before they have gone very
far.
From the portal to the heading the distance
is now (Sept. 1, 1870) seven thousand five hundred and thirty-five
feet, or nearly a mile and a half; but the tunnel is not complete
for this distance. First a heading, eight feet high by twenty-four
feet wide, is driven into the mountain; some distance behind these
workmen come another gang, who add about six feet more to the
height of the excavation; and some distance behind these another
gang, who complete the work. For about half a mile from the portal
the excavation is completed, or nearly so; at that distance the
roof drops down a few feet, and for half a mile further the excavation
is only about three-fourths completed; beyond that point is only
the first excavation, twenty-four feet wide and eight feet high.
On the car we may observe a fellow-passenger with a bucket
or a basket in his hand, containing a dozen, more or less, of
tin cans, a foot and a half or two feet in length, and an inch
and a half in diameter, and closed at the end with a large cork.
These are the cartridges of nitro-glycerine which are used in
the enlargement. When a sufficient number of holes are drilled
in the face of the rock, the corks are taken from these cartridges
and perforated; through the holes in the cork the wires of an
electrical fuse are drawn, and the cork is replaced, leaving the
fuse in the cartridge, with the short ends of insulated copper
wire projecting from the cork. Then the cartridges are carefully
placed in the holes which have been drilled in the rock (no tamping
being necessary), and the wires of the fuses are connected with
longer wires attached to an electrical machine some distance toward
the portal. The miners withdraw, a few turns are given to the
crank of the electrical machine, the circuit is completed, and
the rush of the air and the stunning reverberation proclaim that
the mightiest of all the chemical forces yet discovered by man
has dealt another crushing blow at this barrier of rock.
Simultaneous blasting by the use of electrical fuses is found
to be far more effective than the old-fashioned method. A very
ingenious fuse, invented by Mr. Charles A. Brown, of North Adams,
is used in this work. It consists of a hollow cylinder of wood,
about an inch and a quarter in length and half an inch in diameter,
one end of which is closed. Into the open end is thrust a little
wooden plug, the bottom of which is also hollow. In the hollow
of this little plug a very sensitive fulminate is confined, and
the points of two copper wires in the same little chamber are
separated only a little space. These wires connect with two others
which enter the main cylinder on either side.
The fulminate in the little plug answers as the priming of
the fuse; the main chamber of the cylinder is filled with a less
sensitive and less costly explosive material. The electric spark,
leaping from the one copper wire to the other in the little primer,
ignites the cap and thus explodes the fuse.
Several explosive agents have been tried in the progress of
this work. Gunpowder was used for a long time exclusively, and
is still employed in the softer portions of the rock. Dr. Ehrhardt,
a German chemist, sought to introduce in 1866 a blasting powder
which he regarded as very powerful. The experiments made with
it were not, however, satisfactory, a poisonous gas being evolved
which drove the workmen from the tunnel. During the last year
Lieut. Ditmar, a Prussian inventor, has been exhibiting a preparation which he calls Dualine, and for
which he makes great claims. Dualine is, according to Lieut. Ditmar,
much cheaper, much more powerful, and much less dangerous than
nitroglycerine. It can be handled and used, he says, with perfect
safety, not being liable to explode from concussion, and, unless
confined, harmless when ignited. It is certainly very innocent-looking
stuff, resembling nothing so much as sawdust. Indeed the inventor
admits that it is woody fibre, with which, by a process known
only to himself, the component parts of nitro-glycerine are chemically
combined. Other chemists are inclined to disparage Lieut. Ditmar's
invention, asserting that it is nothing in the world but sawdust
soaked in nitro-glycerine; and since the great explosion at Worcester,
in which this tranquil sawdust kicked up such a terrible bobbery,
there has been, if you will pardon the expression, considerable
dualine between the chemists in the newspapers, and several shots
have been exchanged, with what result I am unable to say. The
experiments with this explosive at the tunnel did not, however,
justify all the claims that were made in its favor; and nitro-glycerine
has not as yet been superseded. It seems difficult to believe
that anything can be more powerful than this; and, with proper
care in the handling, it is not more dangerous than gunpowder.
Several serious accidents have occurred at the tunnel through
its use, but these, so far as the circumstances are known, have
been occasioned by inexcusable carelessness. One of the most serious
casualties connected with it took place in the autumn of 1869
at the magazine where it was stored at the east end. The magazine
stood upon the hill-side, a quarter of a mile from the portal,
and it contained at the time of the accident about five hundred
pounds of the nitro-glycerine. Three of the miners, whose business
it was, went one morning to the magazine to prepare the glycerine
for the day's use; and by some unknown accident an explosion took
place, killing them all. One of the men was outside the building,
and he, though terribly lacerated, was identified when he was
picked up; but of the other men hardly a vestige was to be found.
They were literally blown to atoms. Of the building, not a plank
nor timber was left in the neighborhood and nothing but an ugly
fissure in the ground remained to mark the spot where it stood.
This ride into the tunnel is far from being
a cheerful one. The fitful glare of the lamps upon the walls of
the dripping cavern,the frightful noises that echo from
the low roof, and the ghoul-like voices of the miners coming out
of the gloom ahead, are not what would be called enlivening. It
therefore occurred to me, on seeing the miner, with his basket
of tin cans, take passage on the same car with us, that it might
be agreeable to while away the moments of this rather anxious
ride by telling these soothing tales of nitro-glycerine.
About four-fifths of a mile from the portal passengers change
cars for the heading. Beyond this point mule power is still employed
to bring down the broken rock. Our friend with the basket goes
no farther; powder, instead of glycerine, being used in the soft
rock at the heading. The roof of the tunnel for the rest of the
journey is very low, and the scenery does not on the whole improve
as we go forward. Through the smoke before us spectral lights
are seen flitting about, and a frightful din in the region of
the lights grows louder as we approach. Presently we dismount,
and conclude not to go any farther. Mr. Shanly has not the slightest
objection to our pursuing the journey if we choose; but it is
probable that circumstances entirely beyond our control will make
it inconvenient for us to do so. We are in the heading, almost
a mile and a half from daylight horizontally, and about a quarter
of a mile vertically. A huge iron frame-work, resting on rollers,
is pushed up against the face of the rock; to this the drilling
machines are securely clamped, and at various angles they are
pounding holes into the mountain. The clamor which they make is
absolutely terrific. When the blast takes place, the carriage
upon which the drilling machines are fastened is moved back a
short distance, and two firm plank doors are shut before it, to
protect the machinery from the flying rock. About fifteen men
are employed at this heading; and here, as on all other portions
of the work, there are three relays or "shifts," as
they are called, in the twenty-four hours; each shift working
eight hours only. The men are brawny fellows, principally Irishmen,
though there is a large sprinkling of Cornish miners among them.
The average number of men employed upon the work is seven hundred
and fifty.
Having explored the works at the east end to our satisfaction,
we are prepared for a visit to the other side of the mountain.
From the Hoosac Tunnel Station to the North Adams Station, the
distance, when the tunnel is completed, will be about seven miles.
By, stages it is nine miles. The journey through the mountain
will be much more quickly made than the journey over the mountain
can be; but travellers who hurry through. this dark passage in
future years will miss the very best part of the journey between
Boston and Troy. For pleasure-travel this line has been, since
its opening in the summer of 1868, constantly growing in popularity;
and the stage-ride over the mountain is the grand feature of the
journey. It might be difficult to find anywhere in New England
a public road which affords within an equal number of miles an
equal variety and magnificence of scenery. The elegant six-horse
coaches are crowded every day in the summer with tourists, who
have discovered that quite the pleasantest journey from the east
to the west is that which includes the ride over the Hoosac Mountain.
The western portal of the tunnel is two miles south of the
village of North Adams. The road leading to it passes over and
among a series of conical foot hills that rest against the base
of the mountain. These immense tumuli are no doubt the remnants
of a terrace of the drift period, which has been washed away in
part by torrents from the mountain, leaving a row of mounds where
the terrace once stood.
Leaving the road, we follow the high embankment on which the
track is to be laid up toward the mountain. Soon the road which
runs beside the embankment has reached its level; then, taking
the track, we enter a deep cutting, and are soon at what was once
the western portal of the tunnel. At the end of this cutting Mr.
Haupt first began tunnelling on this side; and the short excavation
in front of us is still known as Haupt's tunnel. At the foot of
all the hills which surround this valley, a secondary formation
of limestone rocks is found overlaying the mica slate which forms
the body of the mountains. When Mr. Haupt began his tunnel here,
in the limestone, he expected to pass directly through it into
the solid primary rock; but his expectations were not realized.
After a few feet the limestone began to dip, and he found overhead
a soft material, which made it necessary for him to build the
roof of his tunnel of masonry. Soon the limestone disappeared
entirely below the grade of the tunnel, and in place of it was
the famous demoralized rock which has brought such grief to engineers.
This was a disintegrated mica schist, dissolving readily in water
(of which there was plenty in those parts), and utterly unmanageable.
Hoping to escape it a little farther on, the engineers went a
few hundred feet farther up the hill, and made a deep excavation
to the grade of the tunnel. But, instead of finding solid rock,
here again Was the porridge, and the tunnel must in some way be
carried through it. The task of tunnelling a bed of quicksand
would be no harder; but by some means it must be done. The excavations
were made with the greatest difficulty. Drifts were run out for
considerable distances on either side the line, to drain off the
water; and then, as the excavations were advanced, a complete
casing of timber was necessary to support the crumbling and dissolving
walls. Inside this casing of timber the brick arch of the tunnel
was built. The porridge would not, of course, support the walls
of the arch, and therefore an inverted arch or trough of brick
was laid in the bottom, and on this the side-walls of the tunnel
rest. For about seven hundred feet at this end the tunnel is,
therefore, a complete tube of brick, seven courses in thickness;
beyond that point, for fourteen hundred feet, the rock, though
soft enough to require arching, is firm enough to sustain the
walls of the arch, so that an invert is not needed. Of the twenty-one
hundred feet of brick arching, about thirteen hundred are now
completed.
The western portal of the tunnel is therefore,
at present, at the bottom of a deep hole in the ground. The little
Haupt tunnel will eventually be cleared away, and this portal
will be approached through a deep open cutting.
The greater part of the progress, on this side the mountain
has been made, however, not from the west end, but from the west
shaft. While the engineers were floundering in the porridge at
the west end, they wisely resolved to climb a little higher up
the mountain side and sink a shaft to grade. This shaft is about
half a mile from the portal, and its depth is three hundred and
eighteen feet. Working outward from the bottom of this shaft a
few hundred feet, the miners came upon the soft rock, and their
progress was checked in that direction. Going westward from the
shaft, their only difficulty was with the water, which appeared
in troublesome abundance. In spite of the most careful provisions
for its removal, the water several times got the better of the
enormous pumps, and drove the miners from the tunnel, delaying
the work for long periods. At length a narrow drift or adit was
pushed through from the west shaft to the west end, permitting
the water to escape in that direction, and dispensing with the
use of the pumps.
From this shaft the heading is now advanced eastward two thousand
seven hundred and seventy-five feet, making the whole linear excavation
from the western portal five thousand two hundred and twenty-two
feeta few feet less than a mile.
This, then, is what the visitor sees at the
west side of the mountain. Climbing out of the cutting, at the
end of which the Haupt tunnel begins, he follows the road up toward
the mountain a few hundred feet to a point where he can look down
into the deep pit, at the bottom of which the portal of the brick
tunnel is seen. South of this pit is the brickyard, where the
bricks for the tunnel are manufactured. Good clay is found in
abundance within a few rods of the portal. It would not be a very
perilous adventure to clamber down the sides of this pit and walk
up the track a quarter of a mile to the place where the miners
and bricklayers are at work. There is nothing to fear save noise,
darkness, and dirt. When completed, the western portal is to have
a fine facade of granite.
Along the northern verge of this pit runs a little stream:
in dry times a very tame and innocent rivulet, but, like other
mountain streams, not to be trusted in a storm. In the great flood
of October, 1869, this brook, swollen into a torrent, made havoc
for a little while. At that time the embankment by which the brook
is separated from the tunnel was much less strong than at the
present time; and before any one had suspected the danger, the
brook had torn the embankment away, and was pouring its whole
volume down into this pit. The little Haupt tunnel was quickly
filled with debris, and then the water rushed into the
portal of the tunnel. The alarm was quickly given to the men at
work; and by running for their lives all but one of them escaped.
One poor fellow, who was doing his first day's work in the tunnel,
and who was probably hindered in his escape by his lack of familiarity
with the ground, was swept back by the torrent and drowned. In
an incredibly short time the whole tunnel was brimful of water.
The road to the west shaft follows this brook upwards. On the
right of the road, a short distance above the western portal,
is the school-house provided by the town for the children of the
miners. From seventy-five to a hundred children receive instruction
here during the week, and for a part of the year the house is
occupied on Sunday by two Sunday-schools, meeting at different
hours; one of which is under the care of the Roman Catholics,
and the other of which is conducted by one of the Protestant churches.
The wooden buildings of the west shaft stand upon the mountain
side, a little way above where the gradual slope up which the
road has brought us, changes to an abrupt acclivity. The road
winds up to the buildings through rows of huts occupied by miners,
at the doors of which numerous young children and other live stock,
both biped and quadruped, some with feathers and some without,
may be seen at any hour of the day. A vast pile of broken rock
lies upon the mountain side, and the little hand-cars that are
running out every few moments, upon the tramway at the top are
adding every hour to its bulk. A little farther south are the
buildings where the nitro-glycerine is made. In the building which
stands over the mouth of the shaft are the blacksmith shop, where
the drills are sharpened, the machine shop, where the drilling
machines are repaired, the four large air-compressors, by which
power is furnished for drilling below, and the steam-engines,
by which the compressors are driven, and the hoisting of the shaft
is done. Over the wide door by which the little cars are, trundled
out is the legend, "No Admittance;" but, armed with
the proper pass from Mr. Shanly, we step inside, and find ourselves
immediately upon the Brink of the shaft. In this shaft, the section
of which is eight by fourteen feet, a timber frame-work has been
set, and in this frame-work two strong wooden cages run up and
down-the one ascending while the other descends. The wire cable,
by which these cages are lifted, passes over a large drum in the
other room, which is turned by the engine. The cages are
provided with automatic brakes, by which they would be instantly
stopped in the descent if the cable should break. Into these cages
the little cars of, rock are rolled at the bottom of the shaft;
and on reaching the top they are pushed out and rolled down upon,
the tramway to the dumping place.
It is quite worth while for the visitor to make the descent
of the shaft. Provided with old clothes and rubber boots, he will
suffer no damage whatever, and the sensation is worth experiencing.
The feat has frequently been accomplished, by ladies sometimes
to the detriment of their skirts, but never with any worse disaster.
If you walk out to the heading about this time, you will have
the satisfaction of knowing that you have stood directly under
the western summit of the Hoosac Mountain, with seventeen hundred
feeta full third of a mile-of solid rock between your head
and the sky.
And now, if you have seen what is underground, it may be well
enough to turn about and devote a moment to what is visible above
ground. One of the fairest little valleys your eyes ever rested
on lies at your feet; on your right, at the foot of its encircling
hills, the outskirts of the village of North Adams are visible;
South Adams is on your left in the distance, and directly across
the valley, Old Greylock, the highest mountain in Massachusetts,
lifts his hoary head. It is a scene you will not be likely soon
to forget.
In the order of time, as the philosophers would say, we should
have visited the central shaft on our way from the east to the
west end; but the order of logic required that we should describe
both ends before visiting the middle, and the inspection of that
part of the work has therefore been postponed till our return
over the mountain. About midway between the two summits a road
turns southward, and following it a mile and a half we reach the
central shaft. This is not located at the bottom of the valley
between the two ridges, but is half a mile west of the lowest
point, on the slope ascending to the western summit. The bed of
Cold River, the little stream which flows southward through the
valley, is two hundred - feet lower than the spot where the central
'shaft is sunk. The higher ground was chosen for two reasons:
In the first place, the work might be greatly impeded at the bottom
of the valley by water, the engineer's worst enemy. In the second
place, the bed of the Cold River is much nearer the east than
the west end. Work on the eastern section of the tunnel has progressed
much more rapidly than on the western section; if, therefore,
the shaft had been located at the lowest point near Cold River,
when it was sunk to grade, much less work would remain to be done
on the east than on the west side of it. It was for this reason
judged expedient to locate the shaft at a point on the western
ridge nearer to the west end, in order that at its completion
the work on either side might be more equally divided. The distance
from the shaft to the east end is, in round numbers, thirteen
thousand feet, and to the west end twelve thousand. The shaft
is of an elliptical form, the longer diameter, on the line of
the tunnel, being twenty-seven feet, and the transverse diameter
fifteen feet. Its depth is one thousand and thirty feet. It was
only during August, 1870, that grade was reached; and the preparations
are now nearly made for beginning the excavations east and west
from the bottom of the shaft. The hoisting is done here, as at
the west shaft, by steam; but, instead of the heavy cages and
cars, large copper buckets are here employed for bringing up the
rock. The bucket is attached to cross-bars of wood, which slide
in a frame-work, of timber, thus preventing it from swinging back
and forth in its passage. It goes up and down, at a fearful rate,
only two minutes being occupied in the ascent or descent of more
than a thousand feet. The miners ride to and from their work,
sometimes sitting in the bucket, and sometimes standing on its
rim, or on the cross-bars, and holding on by the cable. Most of
those at the central shaft are Cornish miners, and their life-long
experience in such holes in the ground has made them reckless
of danger. The fatal accidents that frequently occur among them
have no effect to in make them more cautious. When the whistle
blows for the "shift" of hands, every man at the bottom
wants to come up in the first bucket, and generally the whole
dozen of them do all come up at once, two or three sitting in
the bucket, and the rest standing on the rim and the cross-bars,
and clinging fast. If a man can get one foot on the cross-bar
and one hand on the cable, he had much rather come up in that
way than wait three minutes for the bucket to return for him.
The rock of the Central shaft, like the rock
of the East end, is much softer than that of the West end. During
the last year the average monthly progress downward has been about
thirty feet. The drilling has for the most part been done by hand:
drilling machines have been employed to some extent, but handwork
has been found, on the whole, more economical. The electrical
machine by which the blasts are discharged is kept in the office
at the top of the shaft; two permanent wires, well insulated,
extend from the top to the bottom; and when the blast takes place
the miners are all brought up to the surfaceout of danger.
The shaft is expected to serve an important purpose in ventilating
the tunnel when it is completed. By dividing it into compartments,
after the manner of the ventilators now in general use, it is
supposed that a strong current of air can be constantly maintained.
Another expectation is entertained concerning the Central Shaft,
it is said, which is perhaps less likely to be realized. This
lofty plateau between these mountain peaks includes the town of
Florida, called by that name probably on the lucus a non principle,
because it is the coldest and the least flowery spot this side
of Greenland. The only tropical fruit raised in Florida is the
potato, for the culture of which it is deservedly famous. It is,
however, somewhat difficult for the Florida farmers, or planters,
if you please, to get their potatoes to market, owing to the long
and steep hills down which they must be carted. Now it appears
that it is necessary for a railroad to obtain the right of way,
not only when it runs over a man's farm, but also when it runs
under it; the theory of the law being that freeholders own all
the ground within their boundaries down as far as the centre of
the earth, be the same more or less. (This, being the case, how
vast must be the possessions of the Florida farmers!) To the Hon.
Alvah Crocker, of Fitchburg, the duty of securing for the railroad
the right of way under these Florida farms was committed. Mr.
Crocker is a man of immense, energy and unfailing resource; from
its first inception until now he has been one of the stoutest
friends of the tunnel; and the success of the project is in a
very large degree owing to his exertions. It is said, with how
much truth I do not know, that the denizens of this elevated region
had high notions about the value of that portion of their land
which lay a thousand feet, more or less, beneath the surface;
and were not disposed to grant the right of way until Mr. Crocker
shrewdly suggested that there might be a depot in Florida, on
the line of the tunnel, and that potatoes might be shipped to
the North Adams market via Central Shaft. That suggestion silenced
all objections and the right of way was readily granted.
Here, on the 19th of October, 1867, occurred the most terrible
tragedy that has ever been enacted upon this public work. Early
in the progress of the shaft, the experiment was made of lighting
it with gas produced from gasoline. The experiment was not, however,
deemed successful by the engineer, and after a short trial the
apparatus was condemned by him as unsafe. In the summer of 1867,
the work at the Central Shaft and the east end was placed in the
hands of contractors, and these gentlemen, finding this lighting
apparatus in the buildings at the shaft, determined to make a
new trial of it. On the very first day of the trial, by some accident,
the gasoline in the tank, which was situated near the engine,
took fire. In an instant, the whole building was in a blaze. Thirteen
men were at work at the bottom of the shaft, which was then nearly
six hundred feet in depth, and it was impossible to rescue them.
In a very few seconds the engineer was driven, badly singed, from
his post, and no way was left of communicating with the miners.
Two minutes more would have answered, the engineer said,three
minutes would have been ample timeto send a man down for
them, and bring them all up safely; but it was impossible for
him to remain at the wheel another moment. So the poor fellows
all perished there in the darkness. Nobody knows how soon, or
by what means they became aware of the danger they were in; nor
is it certainly known in what manner they died, but the more probable
conjecture is that they were suffocated. Very quickly after the
air-pumps stopped working, the supply of pure air would be exhausted;
probably the intense heat at the top of the shaft would accelerate
the exhaustion of the oxygen; and it is not likely that any of
them were conscious half an hour after the fire broke out. After
the stoppage of the water-pumps the shaft rapidly filled with
water, and if they had escaped suffocation from the bad air, they
must have been drowned in a very few hours by the rising water.
The fire broke out at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. At two
o'clock the next morning the flames had been extinguished and
the rubbish cleared away from the mouth of the shaft, so that
tackling could be rigged for a descent. A workman named Mallory,
who had superintended the timbering of the shaft, and was familiar
with every part of it, volunteered to make the descent. A rope
was fastened round his body, three lanterns were attached to him,
and a small cord for making signals was put into his hand. In
this way he was slowly lowered into the darkness. Those who watched
at the top saw two of his lanterns go out as he neared the bottom;
then heard him shout, but heard no reply; then felt a nervous
jerk of his signal cord. On this he was quickly drawn up, and
when he reached the top was nearly insensible from the effects
of the foul air. He reported about fifteen or twenty feet of water
at the bottom, and no signs of the men. Before any appliance could
be obtained for procuring their bodies the water was so deep as
to render it impossible. Within a few days the shaft was full
of water, and for its removal buildings must be erected and machinery
prepared. It was not till October, 1868a full year after
the accidentthat the shaft was emptied of water, and the
bodies were secured. They were all in such a state of preservation
as to be easily identified, though quickly crumbling after exposure
to the air.
By the contract, Mr. Shanly agrees to finish the tunnel by
the first day of March, 1874, and if the work goes on at the present
rate that time will not be exceeded. The tunnel is twenty-five
thousand and thirty-one feet in length; and there is now from
both ends a linear excavation of twelve thousand seven hundred
and fifty-seven feet, more than half the entire length. With two
new faces to work upon at the bottom of the Central Shaft and
with improved facilities the work will be greatly accelerated.
If the contract be fulfilled, more than twenty-six years will
have elapsed between the chartering of the road and its completion;
and more than twenty-two years since work was begun upon the tunnel.
During a part of this time work has been suspended, but it is
probable that nearly if not quite eighteen years of steady work
will have been done upon the tunnel by the time it is finished.
As to the cost, that is a mere bagatelle. Before the State took
the work in charge the State Treasurer had paid something more
than a million of dollars. The Commissioners expended in round
numbers three millions and a quarter; the Messrs. Shanly are to
have for finishing the tunnel $4,594,268, making the whole cost
of the work in the neighborhood of nine millions of dollars. That
is the price which Massachusetts consents to pay rather than be
left out in the cold.
Hoosac Tunnel
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