Part 2

Six years ago, and _twenty-three years after the Western road was opened_, the population lying west of Springfield within ten miles of the Western road on a distance of forty-four miles, was 42,050; while that west of Greenfield, within ten miles of the Tunnel line on the same distance, without any railroad at all was 32,146. According to the average rate of increase, the population along the Tunnel line, would be more than doubled in twenty-three years. Were the mountain barrier pierced, and communication opened with the West, and the magnificent water power of the Deerfield made available, who doubts that this population would be increased fourfold in that space of time: or that more than one town would spring up between Greenfield and the Hoosac, in a few years, which would rival North Adams in growth and prosperity; or that in far less time than it has taken Lowell to acquire her present importance, a larger city than Lowell would stand on the banks of the Connecticut at Turner's Falls?

With the requisite railroad facilities supplied, it is certain that the growth of a region so abounding in the most essential reliance of mechanical industry, as Northwestern Massachusetts, cannot be measured by the snail's pace which marks the progress of an agricultural district. The farmer's interests are indeed equally promoted with those of other industrial classes, by the opening of railroads, but these do not increase the number of farms or farmers within our borders, nor stimulate the growth of agricultural towns. It is mainly by her manufactures and commerce that Massachusetts has become so prosperous and wealthy. It is because the commercial and industrial interests of the whole State require it, that another route to the West has become a necessity; and it is because such immense resources yet remain to be developed, and such a gigantic power to be employed, in Northern Massachusetts that the new route must pierce the Hoosac Mountain, if it is possible and practicable.

That it is possible to tunnel the Hoosac Mountain cannot be doubted by any sane person who has inspected the half mile already excavated. All of the eminent engineers, whose reports upon the enterprise have been published, say it can be done; nor do any of its opponents pretend to question its practicability. But in order to estimate properly the magnitude of the work, its possible and probable cost, and the time within which it can be done, it is necessary to know what has been accomplished in this department of civil engineering. Fortunately, this needed information is contained in Mr. Charles W. Storrow's very able report on European tunnels. Mr. Storrow is a distinguished civil engineer, who made a journey to Europe in the summer of 1862, by request of the Hoosac Tunnel Commissioners, and with the approval of the Governor and Council, for the purpose of examining the most important tunnels there constructed, and, especially, the one in progress under the Alps. He describes twenty-two tunnels which he visited, besides that of Mt. Cenis. Fourteen of these are in England, seven in France, and one in Switzerland. Two of them are upwards of three miles long, and many of them between one and two miles. Some of the shafts were nearly as deep as the central shaft of the Hoosac. Some of these excavations were made without the aid of shafts, others wholly by means of shafts, without working from the ends at all.

It might be supposed that in the construction of so many subterranean ways, in such different sections of the continent, almost every conceivable geological formation must have been traversed; and so it appears from Mr. Storrow's report. Granite, quartz, oolite, limestone, shale, slate, sandstone, gravel, sand, clay and marl, were the material through which with pick and spade, drill and shovel, the patient workmen made their way. Not unfrequently, more than half the varieties of rock and earth we have named were met with in the same tunnel. Sometimes the work would be interrupted and temporarily abandoned in consequence of an inundation of water; sometimes enormous masses of gravel and sand would work through into a shaft or tunnel, with disastrous and, in two instances, with fatal consequences. In many instances, work was discontinued for years, for want of funds, and then afterward renewed, with eventual success. In fact, about the average amount of those ordinary and inevitable obstacles which stand in the way of all great enterprises, were encountered by the engineers and contractors, in the building of these tunnels; but time, money, and skill, never failed to remove every difficulty. But we propose to extract, and condense from Mr. Storrow's report, a few of the main facts about some of the most important of these works; as the report has, not been read, or even seen by one in a hundred.

The "Box Tunnel" between Chippenham and Bath is more than a mile and three quarters in length. Nearly one half its length passes through a kind of limestone rock, and the other through clay, the clay end being lined with masonry. Five shafts were sunk, the deepest being about three hundred feet. "During the construction of this tunnel, great difficulties were encountered from the excessive quantity of water which inundated the works, sometimes even occasioning their partial suspension, and powerful means were required to overcome the obstacles. At one time the water fairly got the mastery over the machinery used for its removal, and it was only after an additional set of pumps worked by a fifty horse power engine, that the work could be resumed." This tunnel was built in five years, and its cost was about $1,750,000, or about $547 a yard.

The Woodhead Tunnel, on the Manchester and Lincolnshire Railway, is upwards of three miles long. It was originally built for a single track, its dimensions being 14 feet wide at the head of the rails, and 18 feet 3 in. high from the rails to the under side of the arch; which are almost exactly the dimensions of the present section of the Hoosac Tunnel. After a few years of use, the increase of business required another track and so a second tunnel of exactly the same size was built parallel with the first. It is a double tunnel with a thick dividing wall between, pierced with twenty-one arched openings. Five of the original shafts have been kept open. The deepest of these is more than six hundred feet, and the least about three hundred. The rock through which the tunnel passes consists of millstone grit, a hard material, and shale, a kind of indurated clay.

The Kilsby Tunnel is more than a mile and a quarter long, and is built in Roman or metallic cement, under a bed of quicksand, from which it took nine months to pump the water, through shafts on either side of the sand bed. During a considerable portion of that time, the water pumped out was two thousand gallons a minute. The quicksand extended over 1350 feet of the length of the tunnel.

The Watford Tunnel is a mile and one tenth long, excavated entirely from chalk and loose gravel, the treacherous nature of which rendered it a work of great difficulty, streams of gravel and sand sometimes pouring through the fissures of chalk, like water.

The Netherton Tunnel is one mile and three quarters long. For its construction 17 shafts were sunk, their total depth being 3,083 feet, the least depth of any one being 63 feet, and the greatest, 344 feet. There were 36 faces to work at, and the progress at each face was 10 1-2 feet per month. The tunnel was completed in two years.

From these brief descriptions of a few of the tunnels in England examined by Mr. Storrow, one can form a pretty correct opinion of the ordinary difficulties in tunneling which have been met and overcome by the English engineers. Mr. Storrow says that tunnels are not considered there such formidable works as they have generally been esteemed in our Northern States. They are so common that they have long ceased to attract the attention of travelers, more than eighty miles in aggregate length being already in use. Mr. Storrow estimates the average progress made in the construction of the English tunnels at about thirty feet per month on one face, and that the cost per yard varies from $125 to $250, for ordinary tunnels; but where peculiar difficulties were met, the cost has reached to from $500 to $750 per yard.

The Hauenstein Tunnel in Switzerland, one mile and an eighth in length, was from four to five years in being constructed. Two shafts were sunk, one 417 feet, and the other 558 feet deep. Portions of the shafts and tunnel were lined with masonry on account of the water and sand, and varying firmness of the strata passed through, all of which caused many difficulties and delays. The progress made between the intervals of obstruction, varied from fifty-six to one hundred and nine feet per month on a face. The cost was about $400 per running yard.

The Nerthe Tunnel in France, is nearly three miles in length. For nine hundred and fifty yards of its length it is in rock cutting, where arching was unnecessary. The remainder is lined with masonry. Twenty-four shafts were sunk, varying in depth from sixty-five to two hundred and sixty-two feet. The work was completed in three years, and cost $412 per running yard.

The Tunnel of Rilly, on the line from Paris to Strasbourg, is a little more than two miles long. Eleven shafts were commenced, two of which were abandoned on account of the abundance of water, the others were completed. In some of the shafts the water was so troublesome that it was necessary to use for curbs cast iron cylinders, five feet in diameter, and about three feet long, bolted together. The time consumed in the construction of this tunnel was three years and four months. It passes through a chalk formation, which was, in some places, so seamy, that great precaution was necessary to prevent the falling in of large masses. The cost was $432 per running yard.

Mr. Storrow visited and examined several other French tunnels, and his reports upon them are full of interest; but the abstracts given are sufficient to show the various obstacles and difficulties encountered by the English and French engineers in the prosecution of their work, as well as the cost, and the success which rewarded their skill and perseverance. We now come to the great tunnel under the Alps, the most remarkable and gigantic enterprise ever attempted in civil engineering. Our facts in regard to it are derived from Mr. Storrow's report, (which it will be remembered was made in November, 1862,) and from a very able account in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1865.

The object of this work is to connect France and Italy, by a continuous line of railroad, by piercing the great Alpine barrier which separates Savoy from Piedmont, and thus connecting the valleys of Rochmolles and the Arc. When the scheme was first suggested it seemed like a dream of enthusiasts. The distance would be more than seven miles. No shaft could be sunk, as it was estimated that it would take forty years to reach by that means the line of the axis of the tunnel. The gallery must then be constructed by horizontal cutting from the two ends. How were the workmen to breathe? What chasms, unfathomable abysses and resistless torrents might not be encountered? Was it certain that the two sections commenced from the opposite ends would not miss and pass each other in the middle of the mountain? But as the subject was more thoroughly discussed, these doubts and fears seem gradually to have faded away, and a conviction took possession of the public mind that such a tunnel was practicable. This conviction at last assumed form and development through the genius of Messrs. Sommeiller, Grattoni and Grandis, three young Italian engineers, who have won for themselves a nobler fame than that of either of the great generals who led their armies over the Alps. It was their good fortune to have secured the confidence of one of the most enlightened statesmen of modern times, Count Cavour, the energetic minister of Victor Emanuel, who, throughout all the doubts, perplexities and embarrassments attending the first stage of a new and bold enterprise, exposed to criticisms, sometimes ignorant, sometimes malevolent, on the part of politicians and professional men, gave these engineers his "constant, earnest and sanguine support and encouragement."

It appears that an English engineer had patented a machine for drilling by steam, by means of which the drills were darted forward against the opposing rock with great velocity and force. But steam could not be used in the tunnel, where the great desideratum is a supply of fresh air. In the meantime Messrs. Sommeiller, Grattoni and Grandis had turned their attention to the question of compressed air as a motive power, and after a long series of experiments; gave to the world as the result of their joint ingenuity, a machine which acts simply by the force of air reduced to one-sixth of its ordinary volume, by means of the pressure of water. The quick perception and practical genius of our three engineers soon enabled them to combine their machine with the perforating apparatus above named, so that the compressed air took the place of steam, and performed its work perfectly. This combination is the machine which has been in successful operation under the Alps since June, 1861, and which, greatly improved and perfected by Yankee ingenuity, is about to be applied to the Hoosac Mountain.

Before proceeding to give some account of the Alps Tunnel, it should be stated that it is a national work, and not a commercial speculation. It was originally undertaken by Sardinia, within whose territorial limits it was then wholly included. The cession of Savoy to France brought nearly half the tunnel into French territory, and by the convention establishing the new boundary between France and Italy it was stipulated that this great national work should be continued, should remain exclusively under the control of the Italian engineers, and that France should pay into the Sardinian treasury its proportion of the cost, according to an estimate then made and considered final, and fixed at 3000 francs for each running metre, equivalent to $550 for each running yard of its length in French territory. The work has remained, therefore, as it was, under the exclusive direction of M. Grattoni and M. Sommeiller, the engineers; and a French commission visit the work from time to time, by order of the French government, to view its condition, ascertain its progress, and vouch for the amount to be paid to Sardinia.

It is hardly necessary to give a detailed description of the mode by which the compressed air is made to act on the perforating machines at Mount Cenis. The problem was how to get a constant equable supply of air compressed to one-sixth of its ordinary bulk. To effect this a reservoir was constructed at Bardonneche, elevated to a height of eighty-two feet above the works, which furnishes a moving force of two hundred and eight horse power, that being all which is required to operate the drills and ventilate the tunnel. The reservoir is supplied by a never failing mountain stream. From the compressing works, the air is conveyed in a pipe into the tunnel to the drilling machines; another pipe conveying water to wash out the drill holes. At the Fourneaux end of the tunnel, the reservoir is supplied with water by means of pumps.

The compressed air and water being ready for their work, an iron frame containing the perforating needles moves along the rails and confronts the rock which is to be attacked in the gallery or heading. The frame is armed with nine or ten perforating machines arranged so that the greatest number of holes can be bored in the center of the opposing mass of rock. To each of these are attached flexible tubes, one containing the compressed air which drives the drills, and the other water, which is injected into the holes as they are bored. The machine consists of two parts; the one a cylinder for propelling the drill, by means of a piston, and the other a rotary apparatus for working the valve of the striking cylinder, and turning the drill on its axis at each successive stroke. To bore eight holes of the required depth, the piston rod gives 57,600 blows. The action of each machine is independent of the other, so that if one of them is broken, or gets out of order, that of the rest is not delayed. The drills act at different angles so as to pierce the rock in all directions, and when the requisite number of holes have been drilled, the iron frame is pushed back, and the central holes are charged and exploded. The smaller surrounding holes are then charged and fired. At each blast, a strong jet of compressed air is thrown into this advanced gallery to scatter the smoke and supply air for respiration. Wagons are next pushed forward and filled with the fragments of broken rock, which are conveyed to the mouth of the tunnel and dumped down the side of the mountain. After each blast a fresh relay of workmen come in, and the same operation is repeated night and day.

One of the objections urged against the use of compressed air as a motive of force was, that if it were conveyed a long distance it would lose so much of its elasticity or expansive power, that it would be unavailable for any practical purpose. But this conjecture was confuted by facts. It was found that the loss of pressure at the ends of the conduit pipes where the air is applied, as compared with the pressure in the reservoir is only one sixteenth of the whole. M. Sommeiller calculates that in the center of the tunnel, a distance of three miles and three quarters from the reservoir, he will be able to apply the necessary pressure of six atmospheres. That M. Sommeiller is correct in this opinion appears to be conclusively proved by the latest accounts from Mt. Cenis, which state that the work is steadily progressing, that one half of the entire length would be excavated by the first of January 1866, and that at a distance of nearly two miles from the reservoir, the drills were operating with as much force as ever, and that there was no appreciable loss of motive power.

In the middle of the tunnel line beneath the rails, there is made at the same time with the excavation, a covered way or drain, in which are laid the pipes for gas, water, and compressed air. By this drain the waste water runs off, and it is also intended to serve as a means of escape for the workmen, in case of a fall of rock, or other accident which might block up the tunnel. Of course the tunnel must be continually supplied with fresh air along its whole length, as well as at the heading. This is easily done from the compressed air tube in the covered drain.

The whole length of the Mt. Cenis tunnel is through rock varying in hardness, and veined throughout with quartz. In many parts it is liable to flake off, and in some places considerable masses have broken away during the construction. The full section of the tunnel is twenty-six feet and three inches wide, and twenty feet and eight inches high. The heading is carried forward about eleven and a half feet wide and nearly ten feet high. At the time of Mr. Storrow's visit the drilling machines were used only in the heading. The whole of the enlargement was done by hand labor in the ordinary way. The drills when brought up to the work drill eighty holes before any blasting is done. About ninety workmen are employed at each end. It required from five to seven hours to drill the eighty holes. Mr. Storrow visited a workshop where some machines were ready, and a large block of stone was placed in front of them for trial. The air was let on and a drill put in motion. In 6 1-2 minutes it drilled 5 1-2 inches. The engineer stated that they would make better progress than that at the rock in the tunnel. The average progress made by hand was about sixty-six feet a month. That rate was about doubled by means of the machines; but since Mr. Storrow's visit these machines have been greatly improved, and the rate of progress latterly has been about two hundred feet a month.

The opening of the Mt. Cenis Tunnel was commenced in October, 1857. Up to July, 1861, about 2142 feet had been excavated, the average progress being about sixty-six feet a month. The machines were then introduced, and at the present time, upwards of three miles have been excavated, and at the rate of progress now being made the tunnel will be completed in four years. Mr. Storrow's estimate of its cost is $640 per running yard.

We have now placed before our readers such facts in relation to European tunnels, and more particularly in relation to that under the Alps, as will enable them to judge for themselves of the feasibility of completing the Hoosac Tunnel, and of the weight of the objections which are urged against it by the opponents of the enterprise, as well as the nature of the obstacles which have been encountered, and the means of surmounting them. We shall next present a brief history of the work, the progress made, the delays which have occurred, and the causes; and the sources, nature, and motives of the opposition which has been made to it. In the course of this history we shall have occasion to expose the gross misrepresentations and deliberate falsehoods which have, from time to time, been put in print and scattered broadcast throughout the State, for the purpose of sustaining and extending a great railroad monopoly, already too powerful, against the vital interests and actual necessities of the Commonwealth.

The first section of the Tunnel Line obtained its charter in 1842, under an act incorporating the Fitchburg Railroad Company, in spite of the strenuous opposition from Boston, Springfield, Pittsfield, and the whole power of the Western Road, which a few years before, had only obtained its charter by the aid of some twenty-five members of the House, from Northern Massachusetts, who held the balance of power. Of these twenty-five gentlemen, to whom the State was thus early indebted, one was Hon. Alvah Crocker, of Fitchburg, whose name in connection with the Fitchburg, the Vermont and Massachusetts, the Troy and Greenfield roads, and with the Hoosac Tunnel, has since become "familiar as household words." The appeal of the late Judge Kinnicut, one of the pioneers of the Western line, contains this passage: "Assume if you please, that your route is better than the Southern or Western one; if you are willing to identify the Commonwealth with such an enterprise, you establish a precedent, and the Commonwealth, to be just, to be consistent with herself, must aid you in like manner. Nay, every other section. She will never be partial, as you suppose, but fair to all. She will certainly go as far as she safely can, to develop and increase her growth." Such appeals could not but prevail with fair minded men, and these twenty-five members, with a spirit of liberality and almost of self sacrifice, which should put to shame the narrow minded and selfish policy of the Western Railroad Company in regard to the Tunnel line, gave their voices and votes in favor of an enterprise, the commencement of which would otherwise have been deferred for years. The result was that by the first of January, 1843, the receipts of money by the Western Railroad Company, from the stock and scrip of the state amounted to $5,565,610.86.