Although the accounts between the contractors and the corporation are understood to be settled, it may be interesting to examine the account of the Commonwealth with the enterprise and compare the value of the work done by the contractors at the time of its abandonment by them, with the payments made to them therefore, from the treasury of the State.
| The amount paid from the State treasury for work and materials upon the tunnel, | $170,131 95 | |
| Amount paid upon the road west of the tunnel, | 50,000 00 | |
| Amount paid upon the road east of the tunnel, | 505,256 92 | |
| $725,388 87 | ||
| Amount earned by contractors under the contract upon the tunnel, | $129,475 00 | |
| Amount earned by contractors under the contract, upon the road west of tunnel, | 50,000 00 | |
| Amount earned by contractors under the contract, upon the road east of tunnel, including temporary work, | 410,204 00 | |
| 589,679 00 | ||
| $135,709 87 | ||
| Overpayment in reckoning sterling exchange, say, | 44,000 00 | |
| Overpayment when the work stopped in July, 1861, | $179,709 87 | |
| Further payments made upon the work by the State from July 1861 to January 1867, | 140,226 95 | |
| Total amount paid more than earned, | $319,936 82 | |
From the foregoing statement it appears that the contractors with the Troy and Greenfield Railroad corporation, have received from the State, three hundred and nineteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-six dollars and eighty-two cents more than the value of the work which the corporation surrendered under the mortgage, and that the State has lost that amount of money in its efforts to assist in the construction of the work. It is proper to add as the judgment of the very intelligent chairman of the commissioners (Mr. J. W. Brooks,) from whose statement to the Committee the foregoing figures are taken, that the loss to the State in the transaction by the failure of Messrs. B. Haupt & Co., to perform their contract in a proper manner, will reach the sum of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. (See statement, Appendix C.)
The Commonwealth having taken possession of the road and tunnel, and by the legislation of 1862 and 1863 undertaken their construction with the free consent of the corporation, the directors by an appropriate vote, expressed their concurrence with the proceeding, and their reliance upon the "good faith of the legislature" to complete the enterprise which had exhausted the resources of its immediate projectors. The last act of the corporation, as appears by the records, was the choice of officers in August, 1865, when Alvah Crocker was chosen president and Wendell T. Davis, clerk and treasurer.
Description of the Tunnel.
The tunnel enters the eastern side of the Hoosac Mountain, in the town of Florida, a few rods from the right bank of the Deerfield River. The eastern summit of the mountain is 2,210 feet above tide-water, 1,499 feet above the Deerfield River, 1,429 feet above the grade of the railroad, and is distant from the East Portal of the tunnel 6,100 feet. The western summit is 2,510 feet above tide-water 1,788 feet above the Hoosac River, 1,718 feet above the grade of the railroad, and 6,700 feet distant from the West Portal. Each portal of the tunnel is 766 feet above tide-water. The summits are 241/100 miles distant from each other, and the valley between them at its lowest depression is 801 feet above the grade of the railroad.
The length of the tunnel, from the East End to the West End, as commenced by Mr. Haupt, is 484/100 miles. Its base is, at the East End, 70 feet above the Deerfield River, and at the West End, 70 feet above the Hoosac River. Its grade, from the East End to the Central Shaft, is 18 feet per mile; from the West End to West Shaft, 264/10 feet per mile; and from the West Shaft towards the Central Shaft, 2112/100 feet per mile. These grades are calculated to allow the free passage of water from the centre. Should the quantity of water found in the tunnel render feasible a reduction of this grade, a change is contemplated.
