INTERIOR OF PNEUMATIC PASSENGER CAR.
PORTAL OF THE BROADWAY TUNNEL.
Unfortunately for the rapid prosecution of the enterprise, the Pneumatic Railway was not, for the purpose of carrying passengers, a chartered institution; and up to the time of writing, it has never progressed farther than a single section, between Warren and Murray Streets. Its projectors have full faith in its ultimate success, and certainly the result of their enterprise, so far, has been satisfactory. They claim to be able to drill their tunnels for any distance, under any part of the city, without interfering with business; and they even propose to push their way under the East River, and thus extend their route to Brooklyn. They propose to have stopping-places every half mile, where passengers can be taken up and left, and they promise to run their cars from one end of New York to the other inside of half an hour. They promise that there shall be comfortable weather at all seasons of the year, and are very certain that their route will never be blocked with snow. They assert that collisions are impossible, because their mode of propulsion is such that two cars cannot approach or go from each other on the same track at the same time. One of the great troubles of operating a line of railway by steam is the impossibility of making two trains pass each other on a single track. Many a railway engine-driver has attempted it, but on every occasion he has come to grief, and has generally brought some of his passengers to an unhappy end. On an atmospheric railway the attempt to make such a meeting and passage is, from the nature of things, impossible; consequently accidents from this cause can never occur.
AN ELEVATED RAILWAY.
Another atmospheric railway proposed for New York is to be elevated in the air. An iron arch is to be thrown over the streets or avenues, sufficiently high to permit the passage of vehicles beneath it, and sufficiently strong to sustain a great weight. On the top of this archway two large tubes are to be placed, each tube nine or ten feet in diameter, and having a railway track inside, where car-wheels can run. The pneumatic system is to be applied to the propulsion of these cars, very much as it is used to propel the cars on the underground line already described. It would possess most of the advantages of the underground system, and there is no good reason to predict the failure of a line constructed in this way.
Another elevated railway has an iron arch, similar to the one just mentioned; but the roadway is open, and the cars are propelled by steam. Its advocates are sanguine of success, and its opponents say that it would frighten all the horses that come anywhere in sight of it when its trains are in motion. But if the horses choose to get frightened, that is their affair; and the probability is, that they would soon become accustomed to the strange noise, and behave themselves properly. Horses can be accustomed to anything. All that is wanted is proper training.
Somebody has proposed a three-tier railway, having one line or track under ground, another at the surface, and another elevated high in the air. His scheme is a magnificent one, and has a good many advocates; but the probability is, that some of the rival enterprises will be completed before this is adopted, mainly for the reason that the cost of their construction is much less.