Chicago Tribune, December 15, 1901
Chicago’s first municipal street railway is now In full operation. Its single narrow gauge engine puffs noisily up and down the middle of the aristocratic east end of Fifty-third street, towing a train of twenty cars. Like many a privately owned tram In the city it stops only at the will of the engineer, and pays no heed to the signals of would-be passengers. In fact, it isn’t a passenger train at all but a gravel train, constructed and operated in connection with the big intercepting tunnel that is being built in Cornell avenue, south of Fifty-first street.
“City of Chicago, No. 1,” is the lordly title if the municipality’s first locomotive. It is a narrow-gauge affair, built in Wilkesbarre, Pa, especially for this job, and is trim, and wrong, and handy. It cost the city $2,900, What it is expected to save more than that in the cost of hauling away the extra dirt tom out of the tunnel trench, besides wilting the work of construction. It has at present three-quarters of a mile of track,heading from Fifty-first and Cornell, south Fifty-third, thence east to the lake front, and thence northward along the edge of East End Park.
All the surplus dirt that Is taken out of the the hole in which the tunnel is to be built is loaded into the dump cars and towed around to the lake shore, where it is being used to fill in the space between the old shore line and the breakwater, increasing the acreage of this neglected pleasure ground and affording a shore promenade for Hyde-Parkers which will before long be as handsome a small park as the city affords.
New Machinery Invented.
But the municipal railway—welcome harbinger of a day to come—is not the only new bit of machinery to be found at the tunnel works. The excavation itself, which is being carried forward with great rapidity, is being done by a machine the like of which was never seen here before. It is a “Potter trenching machine”-a device consisting of thirty horse-power engine, a 272-foot trestle, and a car carrying two metal buckets traveling on the trestle and driven by a cable run by the engine. Trestle, engine, car, and all were built in Indianapolis and cost the city $4,700. The whole affair moves on a tramway and advances as the work progresses.
This machine is expected to do the greater part of the excavating for the new tunnel and all the back filling. Now that the brick laying has begun—which occurred last Wednesday—the covering up of the completed tunnel will speedily be under way. In advance of the bricklayers, diggers with shovels will be swiftly filling metal baskets. With remarkable speed the car on the trestle, carrying two men, will run to a point directly over two of these diggers—they work” in pairs—lower two empty buckets to them, pick up the buckets they have filled, run with them back over the completed tunnel, dump the dirt, run again to another point where digging is going on, and give the empty buckets to another team of men, repeating the operation indefinitely and handling 480 yards of dirt a day. Even In the advance stages of the work this machine loaded 300 yards a day on to wagons.
Unique “Orange Peel Digger,”
Farther in advance of the Potter machine runs an “orange peel” digger, a derrick machine of common type, such as has been used all along on the intercepting sewers. This takes out the dirt which will not be needed for back filling, loads its own bucket automatically, lifts the dirt and dumps it into the cars of the municipal railway to be taken away to the dump. It requires but one man for this operation. This machine was butlt on the work by the engineer in charge, Nelson A. Sager of the intercepting sewer division of the City Engineer’s office, and cost $5,000. By bullding It himself Mr. Sager not only got it quicker than he could have done had he ordered it from a contractor and waited for it, but he got it $2,500 cheaper. Bids were first advertised for, and the lowest price for construction on the specifications followed by the City. Engineer was $7,500.
Yet with all this outlay of modern machinery—these locomotive and stationary engines to do the work of men, these railways to supplant rough wagon roads, there automatic buckets and back fillers—the task of digging the intercepting sewer will be a long and a difficult one. Two years is the least time in which It can be done in the estimate of the most sanguine engineers, and not before then can the people who use water furnished by the Hyde Park pumping station hope to escape the contamination from the sewers now running into the lake.
Tunnel Nearly Three Miles.
The tunnel is a gigantic work. When completed this section of it alone will extend two and three-quarter miles north and south, from Seventy-third street and Stony Island avenue to Fiftieth street and Cornell avenue, where it will join on to the next section north, extending from there northward along the lake shore to Thirty-ninth street, and thence westward to the Stock-Yards slip at Halsted street.
At Fiftieth street the big bore is 14¾ feet in internal diameter and five rings of brick thick. At the south end it will be twelve feet in diameter inside and equally thick. The bottom of the tunnel at Fiftieth street is twenty-seven feet below the level of the street.
Although the construction of this important link in the Chicago drainage system appears to have been but now begun, since the bricklaying began last week and only a few feet of it have been built, Superintendent Sager and his men have accomplished a great work since the first earth was turned in August.
Superintendent Sager says:
- The layman hardly realizes how much more we have had to do than the mere work of tunnel building. In the first place, to put this big ditch down the middle of Cornell avenue we have had to take out every water pipe, sewer pipe, gas pipe, and electric conduit in the street.
But Cornell avenue is a street lined with dwellings, and it became necessary at once—in fact, before removing the old pipes—to provide new service. Consequently we had to lay not one, but two sets of pipes for each of these purposes down the whole length of the street, one set on each side of our excavation. In this way we have constructed 4,800 feet of tile sewer, twelve inches in diameter, and connected it with every house along the way. We have laid half as much water pipe, an equal amount of gas pipe. and have tapped these for every dwelling.
Then we have built our own pile-driver with a water jet attachment for boring is sand, and with it have driven Wakefeld sheathing along each side of our projected trench for 1,000 feet, having built the sheathing here on the street.
Even with all this to do we would have advanced much more rapidly had the data furnished us been correct. We expected to find cerlain depth of sand overlying the clay, but when we came to the work we found the sand from two to three feet deeper than the borings showed. This sand is full of water working toward the lake. As a result, if there is a crevice half the width of your finger in the sheathing, the sand and water will come in so fast that in an hour or so there is a hole back of the boards as big as a wagon, and the first thing we know the street caves in. We have had to be no end careful in driving the sheathing and even with our greatest caution have had trouble.
May Have Dirt to Spare.
Now that we are really at work laying brick work will progress rapidly. We can handle dirt fast with our new railway, and when we have finished filling East End Park we will run the dump line out one after another of the cross streets and fill each of them out to the breakwater line. Then we will still have dirt to spare and can probably sell a good deal to contractors for filling. We may be able to give some away to dwellers along the way for filling. You see, a hole sixteen feet In diameter and nearly three miles long means the displacement of considerable earth.
It is many years since Cornell avenue has presented such a scene of activity as it does now this work is In full progress. Seventy. flve men are at work on the digging or running the dump train; the engine and cars are puffing noiselessly about, the Potter machine rumbles and creaks and groans from daylight to dark, and the “orange-peel” dives and raises and swings with as much noise as any of them.
Then back at the beginning of the trench thirty-five men are at work as fast as they can move, mixing and carrying cement, passing bricks down into the trench, and laying them in rings to make the tunnel. Wagons are rumbling up continually with new loads of brick, and bosses are calling orders from street to trench. It is not on record that the Hyde-Parkers like this strenuous life, but, like Hans’ wife, they have to be resigned.
All this work is being done by the city on the day labor system under civil service rules, and is expected—by Mayor Harrison-to demonstrate the economy and the utility of that system over the old contract system. In the two years or more in which it is being done it will cost at the rate of $43 a foot—that is the engineer’s estimate—for 14,520 feet, a total of $624,160. But there are few who are sanguine enough to hope that it will really be kept within this figure.
Whatever it costs, this much is certain under the day labor system, there is no contractor to claim more than the original cost in extras at the end.
The tunnel being built by the city is designed to be operated by gravity. At Thirty-ninth street, however, will be a pumping station—not yet even designed—which will lift the sewage and water up to the ground level and give it a head to force it through the bore under Thirty-ninth street to the river The street section is sheathed in oak and will have to stand continual internal pressure. Its troubles are not likely to come from this, however, but from the fact that, in order to get the desired 120,000 feet of water a minute through it to dilute the drainage canal liquid and flush Bubbly Creek, the water must flow eight feet a second. As it contains a certain amount of solid matter this will in time wear out the brick and then it will all be to do over again.
Inter Ocean, May 4, 1902
If municipal ownershlp of public utilities Is mentioned to Mayor Harrison nowadays he immediately proceeds to change the sub-ject.
For the last month the mayor has been managing a street railway, and he has found that it is much different from what he expected. Moreover, he has lost dozens of votes as the result of his first practical trial of city ownership.
The railway which the mayor is controlling In behalf of the city of Chicago is on Cornell avenue, one of the most exclusive thoroughfares in Hyde Park. The rolling stock consists of a “dummy” engine and twenty flat cars. The line extends from the Chicago Beach hotel to East End park, a distance of two blocks, and carries stone and other material for the intercepting sewer which is being built near the lake.
After the track for the road had been laid along Cornell avenue Mayor Harrison christened it the “Chicago Municipal railway” and appointed himself general manager. Commissioner of Public Works Block was given the title of assistant manager.
“Now I’II have my first try at demonstrating the practicability of city control of a street railway, said the mayor to Mr. Blocki. That official thereupon became as enthusiastic as the mayor. and declared that the people of Hyde Park would learn a few things about how a road could be run when not dominated by a “grinding corporation.”
Before the “dummy” locomotive made its initial trip Mayor Harrison issued transportation to every member of the city council. Up to this point in his career as the general manager of a city railway the mayor’s success seemed assured. But the dummy engine and the twenty flat cars hadn’t started at that time. When the outft lid start General Manager Harrison’s troubles began.
Train on Chicago Municipal Railway on Cornell Avenue.
On the first day that the engine made its trips a cyclone of protests from property-owners on Cornell avenue bore down upon the city hall. Delegations of residents at the Chicago Beach hotel began ailing at the mayor’s office and telling General Manager Harrison what they thought of his road.
At this stage in his new position the mayor began to lose enthusiasm over his municipal line. He instructed Private Secretary Lahiff to refer all persons who wanted to discuss the road to Commissioner Blocki. The callers, however, would not be put off in that way.
“I’ll tell my husband to vote against Mayor Harrison, no matter what he runs for,” declared a Hyde Park woman who called at the city hall to complain against the road. “That line is a big nuisance, and it’s an imposition on the part of the city to spoil Cornell avenue with those unsightly tracks. I haven’t had any peace of mind since that engine began puffing along in front of my home. I have been in the habit of taking a nap every afternoon, but I can’t sleep any more. Besides this, my children run after those flat cars all day, and I’m sure one of them will be killed. The only way I can keep them away from the tracks is to lock them up, and I can’t do that, for they must have exercise.”
“But we had to build a line to haul stone for the sewer work,” protested Mr. Lahiff.
“Why couldn’t you haul it in wagons?” responded the woman angrily. “It’s much
cheaper and not so noisy. I’ve been looking up this railway scheme, and from what I’ve learned I suspect that there is something back of it. Mr. Harrison is always shouting
about municipal ownership, aud perbaps after the work on that sewer has been completed he will keep the engine there and haul passengers. I don’t like the looks of It at all. If you would let me in to see the mayor I would tell him a few things about his spending the people’s money for, an insignificant little steam engine and then puffing it along a nice quiet street. You may expect me back here tomorrow with my husband.”
The “general manager’s” secretary was just beginning to recover from this attack when an aged man rushed into the office, and insisted upon seeing the mayor.
“I own an apartment-house,” he shouted, and I demand to know what right the city has to drive all of my tenants out of my building.”
“The city has never been known to do such a thing.” retorted Mr. Labiff. “You must be insane.”
“Oh, I’m insane, am 17” roared the visitor. “I guess I have been making money in Chicago for the last thirty years and had an unbalanced mind during all that time. It seems very probable, indeed!”
“Well, kindly tell me how the city has been driving tenants out of your building.” said Mr. Labiff.
“How has it been doing it?” shouted the visitor. “I’II tell you in a very few words. It’s that steam railway you’ve got on Cornell avenue.’ Mr. Lahiff gasped and seized his hat.
“You had better tell this gentleman about that railway.” he said, pointing to Theodore Mayer, who is Mayor Harrison’s stenographer “I have a very important engagement.”
The visitor talked to Mayer for an hour and then left, declaring that if General Manager Harrison ever ran for another office he would spend half his fortune to defeat him.
Although these complaints form most of the mayor’s municipal ownership troubles, there are many other details about the “general manager’s” position which add greatly to his woes.
Just as the mayor was leaving his office one day last week he noticed a tearful boy standing near Mr. Labiff’s desk. Touched by the lad’s grief, he stopped and, patting him on the head, asked him what troubled him.
“I’ve bin- tryin’ to see the mayor,” sobbed the lad. “My dog was run over by the city
road on Cornell avenue an’ I want $2.”
A titter went up from several politicians who were in the room and the mayor looked at them reproachfully as he produced a $2 bill, handed it to the boy, and them hurried away.
“I don’t know how long the road will be on Cornell avenue,” said Commissioner of Public Works and Assistant General Manager Blocki. “We’ll certainly tear it up just as
soon as the work on the sewer has been finished, which will be sometime this summer.
“Have I heard of any complaints from Hyde Park residents? Well, a few, but every street railway company gets those things We can stand ’em. Up to date the municipal ownership road has proved a brilliant success. I am not in a position to say what the mayor thinks of it.”
Huge Derrick Used on Cornell Avenue Sewer
Leave a Reply