The New York Rapid-transit Subway

60 DISCUSSION ON NEW YORK SUBWAY. [Minutes of Whitealiam surmounted, but it would be interesting if the Author would state whether it had been serious or exaggerated, and also how the ventilation was dealt with. To anyone visiting the line it seemed almost certain that the motion of the trains and the free access to the outer air would make the problem of ventilation a simple one, but he would be much obliged if the Author would state what the facts were. He thought Sir John Wolfe Barry had sufficiently expressed the importance attaching to the Paper and its wealtli of detail, but he was sure that those who read it in the Proceedings would agree with the members present in saying that the Author had conferred upon them the greatest possible kindness in coming himself to England while the Paper was being read, and in placing at the disposal of The Institution such a mass of valuable information. Mr. Ross. Mr. A. Ross, having been one of those who had the great pleasure and benefit of joining the party which was so well received all over the States, especially in New York, desired to say that the attention paid to them on their visit to the works of the Subway, then coming to a conclusion as regarded its inner lengths, was extremely courteous and profitable. The Author spared no pains or trouble in giving details and information which would be likely to interest the party. As regarded the Paper itself, the conditions regulating the means of transport in New York and the conditions in London were entirely different. London was a huge area enclosed by an outline resembling a complete circle, the radius of which was about 5 miles. All the traffic to and from London converged at some point within that circle, generally speaking on a base-line which extended from the City to Victoria Station. As in all large towns, the traffic consisted of a vast influx of people in the mornings, and a similar exodus in the evenings, with a general flow up and down throughout the day. New York, on the other hand, was enclosed in what might be called a great parallelogram about 14 miles in length and only 13 mile in width. There the traffic in the morning was from north to south, practically all of it going to the business quarter at the extreme south, while in the afternoon and evening the traffic was all the other way. In both cases there must be a more or less even traffic either way during the day. The conditions for laying out a railway in those cases must be entirely different. With regard to the question of sub- soil, in London there was a great depth of London clay under- lying the surface, whereas in New York there was the hardest material imaginable—gneiss rock. There could be no doubt that the fact that London clay was an easily-penetrated material had led up to the construction of the tube railways. The shield had been