Uptown Hudson Tubes - History - Initial Construction Attempts

Initial Construction Attempts

In 1873 a wealthy Californian Dewitt Clinton Haskin formed the Hudson Tunnel Company to construct a tunnel under the Hudson River from Jersey City to Manhattan. At the time constructing a tunnel under the mile-wide river was considered less expensive than trying to build a bridge over it. An initial attempt to construct the tunnels began in November 1874 from the Jersey City side. Work continued only until December 15, 1874, when progress was stopped by a court injunction brought about by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. Due to the lawsuit work on the tunnels was not resumed until September 1879.

The construction method in use at the time omitted the use of a tunneling shield but did use air compressors to maintain pressure against the water laden silt that was being tunneled through. Unfortunately, the pressure needed to hold back the water pressure at the bottom of the tube was much greater than the pressure needed to hold back the water at the top of the tube. In July 1880 an overpressure blowout at the tube top caused an accident that resulted in an air lock jam that trapped several workers. Twenty people died as a result of the accident. The liabilities incurred as a result of the accident meant that tunnel work was again stopped on November 5, 1882, since the company had run out of money. At that time water was allowed to fill the unfinished tunnel. On March 20, 1883 the air and compressors were turned back on and the tunnel was drained for a resumption of work. Work continued for the next four months when on July 20, 1883 it was stopped once more due to lack of funds.

In 1888 a British company that employed James Henry Greathead as a consulting engineer attempted to resume work on the Hudson tubes, but they too were unsuccessful in completing them and were also out of funds by 1891.