The New York Subway, Its Construction and EquipmentInterborough Rapid Transit Company
History
The New York Subway, Its Construction and Equipment
Interborough Rapid Transit Company
Local transit -- New York (State) -- New York; Subways -- New York (State) -- New York
It will be noted that in the case of the City Hall Station three
separate plants are required, all of considerable size, and intended
for constant use for a multiplicity of movements. It is, perhaps,
unnecessary to state that all the mechanism of these important
interlocking plants is of the most substantial character and provided
with all the necessary safety appliances and means for rapidly setting
up the various combinations. The interlocking machines are housed in
steel concrete "towers," so that the operators may be properly
protected and isolated in the performance of their duties.
CHAPTER X
SUBWAY DRAINAGE
The employment of water-proofing to the exterior surfaces of the
masonry shell of the tunnel, which is applied to the masonry, almost
without a break along the entire subway construction, has made it
unnecessary to provide an extensive system of drains, or sump pits, of
any magnitude, for the collection and removal of water from the
interior of the tunnel.
On the other hand, however, at each depression or point where water
could collect from any cause, such as by leakage through a cable
manhole cover or by the breaking of an adjacent water pipe, or the
like, a sump pit or drain has been provided for carrying the water
away from the interior of the tunnel.
For all locations, where such drains, or sump pits, are located above
the line of the adjacent sewer, the carrying of the water away has
been easy to accomplish by employing a drain pipe in connection with
suitable traps and valves.
In other cases, however, where it is necessary to elevate the water,
the problem has been of a different character. In such cases, where
possible, at each depression where water is liable to collect, a well,
or sump pit, has been constructed just outside the shell of the
tunnel. The bottom of the well has been placed lower than the floor of
the tunnel, so that the water can flow into the well through a drain
connecting to the tunnel.
Each well is then provided with a pumping outfit; but in the case of
these wells and in other locations where it is necessary to maintain
pumping devices, it has not been possible to employ a uniform design
of pumping equipment, as the various locations offer different
conditions, each employing apparatus best suited to the requirements.
In no case, except two, is an electric pump employed, as the
employment of compressed air was considered more reliable.
The several depressions at which it is necessary to maintain a pumping
plant are enumerated as follows:
No. 1--Sump at the lowest point on City Hall Loop.
No. 2--Sump at intersection of Elm and White Streets.
No. 3--Sump at 38th Street in the Murray Hill Tunnel.
No. 4--Sump at intersection of 46th Street and Broadway.
No. 5--Sump at intersection of 116th Street and Lenox Avenue.
No. 6--Sump at intersection of 142d Street and Lenox Avenue.
No. 7--Sump at intersection of 147th Street and Lenox Avenue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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