Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/342

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��The Senators' Subway

���By L. W. Laiiini

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��With the Completion of the Senate Office Building in 1906 the Necessity of a Subway from the Building to the Capitol Became Apparent. The One Here Shown Has Just Been Comp'eted

���The Senate Office Building

���The Capitol

��Plan of the Senate Subway. It Is Nearly a Block Long and Its New Monorail Car Makes the Trip from End to End of the Route in About Thirty Seconds. The Car Is Equipped with Two Seven and One Half Horsepower Motors, Is Fitted with a Canvas Tread on the Wheels to Deaden the Noise, and Is Constructed Al- most Entirely of Steel with Oak Flooring. It Is Neatly Finished in Mahogany and Ash

��The House of Representatives

���ANEW nioiioniil car has been put into operation in the subway be- tween the Capitol building and the Senate Office Building, at Washington, D. C. A car of similar construction has been in service up to now, but I lie old car was slcjw and seated only twelve persons. This new car, which was designed and built under the direction of the oftice of the Superintendent of the Capitol, I'^Iliott Woods, has a seating capacity of eighteen, makes faster time and is less n(jisy.

Built for the most part in the machine shops of the Washington Navy Yard, the new car makes about one hun- dred and twenty-live round trips a day in the tunnel, on what is perhaps the shortest railway in the country, seven hundred and fifty feel long. The car

��weighs two thousand five hundred jjoiuids, is eighteen and ahalf feet o\'erall and forty-six inches wide.

One of the features of the new car is the seal for the "motorman." He sits in the center, and without getting out of his place, makes the car go either way. This, in itself, is a lime saver. It is estimated that the car can make twenly-fi\e miles an hour. It takes just thirty .seconds to go from one end of the subway to the other.

The car is eciuipped with two seven and one half horsepower motors, is fitted with a canvas tread on the wheels to deaden the noise, and is con- structed almost enlireh- of steel with oak floors, ll is finished in mahogany and ash.

In io(>wlien iheSenateOffice Building

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