The force consisted of one pipe-fitter and one or two laborers employed part of their time. When a considerable length was being grouted at a time, as in the full rock section, many laborers were employed for a short period.
Transportation and Disposal.
The transportation and disposal will be described under the following headings:
Receipt and Unloading of Materials,
Surface Transportation,
Tunnel Transportation,
Disposal.
Receipt and Unloading of Materials.—At the Manhattan Shaft the contractor laid a spur siding into the yard from the freight tracks of the New York Central Railroad, which immediately adjoins the yard on the west. There was also wharfage on the river front about 1,500 ft. away.
At the Weehawken Shaft there were four sidings from the Erie Railroad and one from the West Shore Railroad. Access to the river was gained by a trestle direct from the yard, and Baldwin Avenue adjoined the yard.
All the iron lining arrived by railroad. It was unloaded by derricks, and stacked so that it was convenient for use in the tunnel. The Manhattan derricks were a pair of steel ones with 39-ft. booms, worked by a 30-h.p., 250-volt, electric motor. There was also a stiff-leg derrick with 50-ft. boom, on a platform near the shaft, which was worked by a 40-h.p., 250-volt motor. At Weehawken there were two 45-ft. boom, stiff-leg derricks of 2 tons capacity, one worked by a 42-h.p. Lidgerwood boiler and engine, and the other by a 25-h.p., 250-volt, electric motor. These derricks were set on elevated trestles near the Erie Railroad sidings. There was a 50-ft. stiff-leg derrick with a 70-h.p. Lidgerwood boiler and engine near the cement warehouse on the West Shore Railroad.
The storage area for iron lining was 1,800 sq. ft. at Manhattan and 63,000 sq. ft. at Weehawken; the maximum quantity of lining in storage at any one time was 150 rings at Manhattan and 1,200 rings at Weehawken.
The cement, which was issued and sold by the Company to the contractor, was kept in cement warehouses; that at the New York side was at Eleventh Avenue and 38th Street, or some 1,200 ft. from the shaft, to which it was brought by team; that at Weehawken was adjacent to the shaft, with a 2-ft. gauge track throughout it and directly connected with the shaft elevator.
Surface Transportation.—In the early days the excavation was handled in scale-boxes of 1 cu. yd. capacity which were hoisted up the shafts by a derrick, but, when the iron period began, two-cage elevators were put in at each shaft. They were worked by a single, friction-drum, Lidgerwood, steam hoisting engine of 40 h.p.