Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/454

440 were begun here in July, 1869, for the construction of a coffer-dam between high and low water marks; and in the following October the excavation of a shaft, conforming in shape to that of the dam, and 32 feet in depth, was begun. Thence tunnels radiating through the rock, with transverse galleries, 25 feet apart, to connect them, were excavated till thirty-five tunnels and ten galleries were constructed, having an aggregate length of 7,426 feet. The tunnels were from 17 to 22 feet high and from 9 to 12$3⁄4$ feet wide at the shaft, and tapered off in both dimensions as they went out; and the galleries were from 12 feet high by 9 feet wide down to smaller dimensions.



The work of excavation was commenced in the latter part of October, 1869, and terminated in June, 1875. Deducting the time lost by suspension of work due to the exhaustion of current appropriations, the actual period consumed in this work was four years and four months. The appropriations were, under the law, devoted to many reefs in the East River and Hell Gate besides the one at Hallet's Point; the result being that the work was rarely prosecuted in full force at the latter place. With a more generous grant of money the time consumed until the explosion, which amounted in all to six years and ten months, could have been reduced to four years.