Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910: The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad,; The North River Division. Paper No. 1151Jacobs, Charles M. (Charles Mattathias)
History
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910: The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad,; The North River Division. Paper No. 1151
Jacobs, Charles M. (Charles Mattathias)
Civil engineering -- Periodicals; Railroad tunnels -- Design and construction
One result of the determination of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to
extend its lines into New York City and thus move its principal station
from Jersey City, was that the down-town local and suburban as well as
through business was not provided for properly. Mr. William G. McAdoo,
appreciating this opportunity, revived the scheme of an electric subway
from Jersey City to New York, originally promoted by Mr. Corbin and
associates, but not including the extension _via_ Maiden Lane to
Brooklyn, and entered into negotiations with the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company to provide for this down-town business by extensions of the
tunnel lines of the New York and New Jersey Railroads to Exchange Place,
Jersey City, under the Pennsylvania Railroad Station, and thence across
the Hudson River to Cortlandt and Church Streets. As a result, the
Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company was organized in 1902, and
contracts were made with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for the
sub-surface use of its station in Jersey City, and for the interchange
of passenger business at that point between the trains of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the tunnel of the Hudson and Manhattan
Railroad Company. Later, a further contract was made with the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company providing for the construction of the
tunnel of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company westward under the
tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Jersey City to a junction with
the latter at Summit Avenue, at which point can be installed a joint
station, and the operation effected of a joint electric train service
between Church Street, New York City, and Newark, N. J., the
Pennsylvania Railroad tracks between Summit Avenue and Newark to be
electrified for that purpose, with a transfer station established east
of Newark, at Harrison, at which point the steam and electric
locomotives will exchange. By means of this, all down-town passengers
will transfer to the electric service at Harrison Station, and thus the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company is expected to be relieved of maintaining
a separate steam service for passenger traffic to Jersey City and a
large down-town station with extensive contingent facilities at that
point.
From the foregoing it will be seen that the final decision to extend the
Pennsylvania Railroad into and through New York City by a system of
tunnels, and erect a large station in that city on a most eligible site,
was not reached in a hurried or off-hand manner, but after years of
painstaking study and a full and extended investigation of all routes,
projects, and schemes, whether originating with the company or suggested
by others.
[Illustration: Plate VI.--Pennsylvania Railroad Extension:
Map Showing Proposed Lines Leading to Those Finally Adopted]
Plate VI is a map of New York City and vicinity on which are shown the
various lines contemplated in the evolution of the New York Tunnel
Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad hereinbefore outlined.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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