Page:New York arcade railway as projected .. (McAlpine, William Jarvis, 1884).djvu/8

8 The New York Railway will be built beneath a series of moveable bridges with tramways underneath, on which all of the materials will be conveyed, so that no portion of either the main or cross streets will be used or interrupted.

Fifth:—The construction of the London Railways required radical changes in the lines and grades of the sewers (some of immense size), water and gas pipes, many of which were very old and decayed.

There are no continuous sewers in lower Broadway, New York. The few existing are generally of small size, and the changes in their grades and outlet can be easily made. Continuous vaults will be made on each side of the Railway, or under the road bed, in which will be placed complete systems of sewer, water, gas, telegraph wires, heating and other pipes, where they will all be open for inspection, repairs and replacements, without interrupting the street or railway traffic, and do away forever with the present almost constant interruption of the trade and travel.

Sixth:—The ventilation of the London Railway tunnels, with 20 stations of 300 to 500 feet in length, open more or less to the air above, is generally considered good, though the heavy, humid atmosphere and very dense fogs of London, taken in connection with the consumption of coal, and imperfect condensation of steam of the locomotives used, render it more difficult to secure perfect ventilation.

There is one continuous tunnel of 2¼ miles from Kings Cross to Edgeware Road, where small narrow openings of 3 by 15 feet extend from the tunnel roof to the street surface, and even here the ventilation is made moderately good.

On the New York Arcade Railway there will be five times the number of stations with openings to the air in a corresponding distance, and the openings will be larger than on the London Railway. This, with a continuous opening of about feet on each side of the Arcade, adjacent to the buildings, the absence of fuel combustion in the engines, and the use of steam condensing locomotives, would, beyond a question, render the atmosphere of the Arcade pure, and the ventilation perfect.

Seventh:—There are 530 trains dispatched daily between 5 A. M. and midnight on the London Railway, of which half are sent at intervals of three minutes, and the other trains usually at four and seven minutes.

By means of the "Lock system," trains on other Railroads in London are dispatched every two minutes. The maximum capacity both ways of the London underground double track railway at two minute intervals for twenty-four hours (for passengers and freight ) would be 1440 trains daily.

The New York four track railway, with trams every two minutes, would have a maximum capacity of twice that of the London, which, with its more powerful engines and larger trains, would be equal to the