The New York Rapid-transit Subway

Proceedings.] DISCUSSION ON NEW YORK SUBWAY. 83 suffered again. He thought exactly the same remark might be Mr. Fitz- o e maurice made in connection with the New York subway. With regard to the methods of carrying out work, in either a tube railway or a shallow subway, the same Board, which had the advantage of the Author’s experience at that time, stated very properly that the question was not one that could be dealt with off-hand in any given place; it was a matter of detailed estimate under the particular conditions, and no law could be laid down with regard to shallow subways or tubes. Everyone would agree that during construction it would be of great convenience, both for the general public and for frontagers, to liave tube railways, but in actual working it would be to the great convenience of passengers to have shallow subways. He noticed that Sir John Wolfe Barry rather objected to tube railways in London, and he did not really know why Sir John should be so severe upon them. He thought it was largely sentiment, because he thought Sir John had never quite got over the excellent way in which the line from Cannon Street to Aldgate was made by him when a complete temporary roadway was made and the road-traffic was not interfered with. He believed the words “ Cannon Street to Aldgate” were engraved on Sir John’s heart in large letters, leaving no room for “tube railway,” even in small letters. The question of cost was a very important matter. He had looked up two Papers read at The Institution some years ago, one by the late SirBenjamin Baker1 and the other by Sir John Wolfe Barry2, and he noticed that Sir Benjamin Baker gave the cost of maintaining a timber roadway over excavation as 5s. per superficial foot. For an ordinary widtli of subway that came to £40,000 per mile. Sir John Wolfe Barry gave the cost of underpinning as about €30,000. The cost of tlie timber temporary road, of the underpinning, and of the diversion of pipes, sewers, and things of that kind, when added together, came to a very considerable amount, which was avoided by constructing tube rail- ways. He might say that in connection with the recent construction of a conduit tramway from Westminster Bridge to Wandsworth, a distance of 6 miles, the cost of the diversion of pipes to make room for the conduit was £76,000. But even when these expenses were incurred there was a little difficulty witli the subway, because he found that Sir John Wolfe Barry said, in connection with the Cannon Street to Aldgate line : “ It will be easily understood that the neces- 1“The Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways.” Minutes of Pro- ceedings Inst. C.E., vol. Ixxxi, p. 1. 2 “The City Lines and Extensions (Inner Circle completion) of the Metropolitan and District Railways," Ibid., p. 34. G 2