The Great Bore
A Souvenir Of The Hoosac Tunnel

 18 the central shaft an elevator was constructed capable of making the descent of 1,028 feet in a minute and a quarter, and of hoisting enormous quantities of rock. I he water which collected in the shaft at an average rate of 15,000 gallons per hour was pumped out by a pump bought for the purpose at a cost of nearly $90,000. At times 1,000 miners, Germans, Danes, Irish, French Canadians, English from Cornwall, with a sprinkling of Savoyards and Pied- montese from the Mont Cenis tunnel, were em- ployed. They were divided into three shifts, work- ing night and day, each shift being on duty eight hours, 1 he efforts of this gang of men were di- rected and controlled by the Shanlys and the engi- neers having charge of the major divisions of the work—Benjamin D. Frost, at the west end; Carl O. Wederkinch, at the central shaft; and A. W. Locke, at the east end,—men of pronounced ability, skill and energy. Day by day, step by step, the rate of progress was advanced until, on Thanksgiving day, Novem- ber 27, 1873, at a distance of 10,134 feet from the western portal and of 2,050 feet from the central shaft, the headings of the Hoosac tunnel met. The last blast was discharged at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon in the presence of some 600 people, in- cluding state legislators, railroad officials and engi-