These observations are written with the purpose of outlining briefly,as far as the writer was concerned, the evolution of the scheme ofbringing the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Long Island Railroadinto New York City, and also, as Chief Engineer of the North RiverDivision of the New York Tunnel Extension of the PennsylvaniaRailroad, to record in a general way some of the leading features ofthe work on this division, which is that portion of the work extendingfrom the east line of Ninth Avenue, New York City, to the HackensackPortal on the westerly side of the Palisades, as an introductionto the papers by the Chief Assistant Engineer and the Resident Engineersdescribing in detail the work as constructed.
It may be stated that, since shortly after the year 1871, when thePennsylvania Railroad system was extended to New York Harborthrough the lease of the New Jersey Lines, the officers of that companyhave been desirous of reaching New York City by direct railconnection.
The writer's first connection with the tunneling of the North Riverwas early in 1890, when he was consulted by the late Austin Corbin,President of the Long Island Railroad Company and the Philadelphia[33]and Reading Railroad Company, as to the feasibility of connectingthe Long Island Railroad with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad(or with the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which was the NewYork connection of the Reading) by a tunnel from the foot of AtlanticAvenue, Brooklyn, under the Battery and New York City, and directlyacross the North River to the terminal of the Central Railroad of NewJersey. Surveys, borings, and thorough investigations were made, andthe Metropolitan Underground Railroad Company was incorporatedin the State of New York to construct this railroad. Mr. Corbin,however, was aware that, in the transportation problem he had in hand,the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Philadelphia and ReadingRailroad were not as important factors as the Pennsylvania Railroad,and, in consequence, he abandoned the scheme for a tunnel to theCentral Railroad of New Jersey for a line direct to the PennsylvaniaRailroad terminal in Jersey City.
Meantime, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, as a result of itsinvestigation of the matter, in June, 1891, thought that the mostfeasible project seemed to be to build tunnels for rapid transit passengerservice from its Jersey City Station to the lower part of NewYork, connecting there with the rapid transit systems of that city,and also extending under New York on the line of Cortlandt Street,with stations and passenger lifts at the main streets and elevatedrailroads.
The late A. J. Cassatt, then a Director of the Pennsylvania RailroadCompany, and previous thereto as General Manager and Vice-President(and later as President) of that company, was deeply interested inobtaining an entrance into New York City, but was not satisfied withthe proposed rapid transit passenger tunnels which required thetermination of the Pennsylvania Railroad trains at its Jersey CityStation. Therefore, upon his request, in September of the same year,another study and report was made by Joseph T. Richards, M. Am.Soc. C. E., then Engineer of Maintenance of Way of the PennsylvaniaRailroad, on a route beginning in New York City at 38th Streetand Park Avenue on the high ground of Murray Hill, thence crossingthe East Riv