Battery-Joralemon Street Tunnel
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 20, Issue 1
Abstract
The construction of the Battery-Joralemon Street Tunnel is described. Built between 1903 and 1907, it was the first subway tunnel placed in service under the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Both heading-and-bench rock tunneling and pressurized shield soft-soil tunneling techniques were used. Loss of control of the tunneling shield in partially saturated sands caused variations in alignment that made portions of the tunnel nonfunctional. Approximately 3,000 ft of the tunnel had to be reconstructed to enable subway cars to use the tunnel safely. Additionally, due to concerns regarding the stability of the tunnel in the soft soils, piles were installed under the tunnel to bedrock. The project was a crucible for subway contractors and engineers of the Rapid Transit Commission, especially Clifford M. Holland. His experience on the Joralemon Street Tunnel enabled him to efficiently and safely complete four other East River subway tunnels after the Dual System Agreement of March 1913.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers wish to thank the Case Western Reserve University Library staff, especially Susie Hanson, Special Collections Librarian, for access to the Clifford M. Holland Collection. Robert A. Olmsted P.E. provided us with important references. Both he and Robert Vogel critically reviewed the paper.
References
Aims, W. I. (1896). “Notes on the construction of the East River Gas Tunnel.” J. Assoc. Eng. Soc., 15, 409–421.
“The Belmont Tunnel, New York.” (1907). Engineering Record, 55(5), June 8, 689–690.
Black, A. (1937). The story of tunnels, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Bobrick, B. (1981). Labyrinths of iron: Subways in history, myth, technology, and war, Henry Holt and Company, New York.
“The Brooklyn Tunnel of the New York Rapid Transit Railroad.” (1903). Engineering Record, 48(18), Oct. 31, 530–531.
“Completion of grade rectification in the Battery Tunnel, New York.” (1907). Engineering Record, 56(3), July 20, 76–77.
“Compressed air for tunneling.” (1904). Compressed Air Mag., 8(11), 2720.
“Difficulties encountered in driving the Mersey Tunnel.” (1892). Engineering News, Sept. 1, 196–197.
Doctorow, E. L. (1975). Ragtime, Random House, New York.
“Driving concrete piles below the Battery-Tunnel, New York.” (1907). Engineering Record, 55(23), June 8, 678.
“East River Tunnel shields.” (1915). Engineering News, 74(20), Nov. 11, 952–955.
Forgie, J. (1907). “The construction of the Pennsylvania R.R. Tunnels under the Hudson River at New York City.” Eng. News, 57(9), Feb. 28, 223–231.
“The freezing process in the Battery Tunnel, New York.” (1906). Engineering Record, 54(24), Dec. 15, 656–657.
Gilbert, G. H., Wightman, L. I., and Saunders, W. L. (1912). The subways and tunnels of New York: Methods and costs, Wiley, New York.
“Grade corrections in the Battery Tunnel, New York.” (1906). Engineering Record, 53(22), June 2, 671–672.
“Grade correction in the Battery Tunnel.” (1907). Engineering Record, 55(9), Mar. 2, 286–288.
“Grade correction and pile foundations in the East River Tunnel of the New York Rapid Transit Subway.” (1907). Engineering News, 57(26), June 27, 717–718.
Greene, A. (1837). A glance at New York, Asa Grene, New York.
“The Harlem River Tunnel section of the New York Rapid Transit Railway.” (1904). Engineering News, Oct. 13, 325–326.
Holland, C. M. (1914). “Two of the dual system tunnels under the East River.” Public service record, Public Service Commission, New York, 1–9.
Holland, C. M. (1916). “East River Tunnel surveys.” Engineering News, October 5, 655–657.
Hood, C. (1993). 722 Miles: The building of the subways and how they transformed New York, Simon and Schuster, New York.
Hyde, C. K. (1995). “The St. Clair Tunnel: A triumph of Canadian engineering.” Ind. Archaeol., 21(1), 47–56.
Katz, W. B. (1979). “The New York Rapid Transit decision of 1900: Economy, society and politics.” HAER NY-122, HAER Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
“The meeting of the Four East River Tunnels of the Pennsylvania Railroad.” (1908). Engineering Record, 57(14), April 4, 468–470.
McCabe, J. D. (1883). New York by sunlight and gaslight, Douglas Brothers, Philadelphia.
McCullough, D. (1972). The great bridge, Simon and Schuster, New York.
“Memoir of Clifford Milburn Holland.” (1926). Trans. Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 89, 1625–1629.
Miller, M. S. (1915). “Reconstruction of the Steinway Tunnel for temporary operation.” Public Service Record, Public Service Commission, New York, 2(5), 1–7.
Moran, D. E. (1924). “Foundation development during fifty years.” Eng. News-Rec., 50th Anniversary Number, 670–679.
National historic civil and mechanical engineering landmark: Holland Tunnel. (1984). ASME and ASCE, Reston, Va.
“The New York and Brooklyn Tunnel for the Rapid Transit Railroad—I.” (1904a). Engineering Record, 49(1), Mar. 5, 304–306.
“The New York and Brooklyn Tunnel for the Rapid Transit Railroad—II.” (1904b). Engineering Record, 49(11), Mar. 12, 329–331.
“The New York and Long Island Railroad Tunnel.” (1906). Engineering Record, 53(9), Mar. 3, 259–261.
Noble, F. C. (1908). East River Tunnel from South Ferry To Joralemon Street, Brooklyn Engineers’ Club, No. 80, Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Opening of the St. Clair River Railway Tunnel between The United States and Canada.” (1891). Sci. Am., LXV, No. 24, Sept. 26, 196–197.
Peters, T. F. (1996). Building the Nineteenth Century, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Prelini, C. (1907). “The East River Tunnel of the New York and Brooklyn Rapid Transit Railroad.” Engineering (London), 83, May 3, 573–578.
“Progress on the Battery Tunnel, New York.” (1905). Engineering Record, 52(11), Sept. 9, 297–298.
“Railroad building under and over the streets of New York—III—Tunneling through rock and sand in the bed of the East River.” (1915). Sci. Am., 113, July 31, 96–97.
Record drawings of completed tunnel, contract 2—Section 2-A. (1924). State of New York Transit Commission, Engineering Department, Tunnel Division, June 7.
“The remarkable tunnel crossing of the Seine by Line 4, Metropolitan Railway of Paris.” (1906). Engineering News, 55(7), Feb. 15, 177–178.
“Report on the defects of the Brooklyn Tunnels of the New York Rapid Transit Railway.” (1906). Engineering News, 55(22), May 31, 611–612.
“Section nine of division three of the New York Rapid Transit Railroad.” (1903). Engineering Record, 48(10), Sept. 5, 268–270.
“Sinking the Detroit Tunnel tubes.” (1907). Engineering Record, 56(19), Nov. 19, 511–513.
“The St. Clair tunnel.” (1890). Engineering News, Oct. 4.
“Test borings in the bed of the East River, New York.” (1902). Engineering Record, 45(2), Jan. 18, 53–54.
“Ventilation of the Battery Tunnels of the New York subway extension to Brooklyn.” (1907). Engineering Record, 56(14), Oct. 5, 371–372.
Vogel, R. M. (1964). “Tunnel engineering: A museum treatment.” United States National Museum Bulletin 240, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
West, G. (1988). Innovation and the rise of the tunneling industry, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 20 • Issue 1 • February 2006
Pages: 92 - 107
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 17, 2004
Accepted: Oct 22, 2004
Published online: Feb 1, 2006
Published in print: Feb 2006
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.