Eugene Casey tunneling collection

The Eugene Casey Tunneling Collection comprises documents and photographs reflecting the history and technical aspects of tunneling methodologies in the US and internationally, in the 20th century. A brief historical review of the tunnels treated in the collection is provided below for the researcher’s reference and orientation.

Subway Tunnels in New York City

Early underwater subway tunnels (with the exception of the Harlem Tunnel, also referred to as the 149th Street Tunnel, which used a sub-aqueous tunnel method) were built using a tunneling shield method in concurrence with a compressed air system. These underwater tunnels were excavated by laborers known as ‘sandhogs’ performing one of the most dangerous construction jobs in the building of the subways. The two biggest dangers of the position included the possibility of Caissons Disease, more commonly known as “the bends,” as well as the danger of working underground in a compressed air system where the tunneling structure could be unstable, causing what would be referred to as blowouts. The majority of subway tunnels were built during the Dual Contracts Era from the 1910s-1920s. The Dual Contracts authorized extensions, additions, and rehabilitation of lines for the then privately-owned Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. These extensions saw the building of the Montague Street Tunnel, 60th Street Tunnel, Lexington Avenue Tunnel, 14th Street Tunnel, Clark Street Tunnel, and the purchase of the pre-existing Steinway Tunnel. The next big wave of tunnel construction for the subways took place in the 1930s when the City of New York began operating its own subway system, known as the Independent System. The founding of this competing subway in New York led to the building of the Cranberry Street Tunnel, Rutgers Street Tunnel, 53rd Street Tunnel, and the Concourse Tunnel. The last tunnel to be built for the New York subway system was the 63rd Street Tunnel, which was originally dug to grant New York City Transit and the Long Island Rail Road east side access between Manhattan and Queens. The tunnel was built using an immersed tube tunneling method which allows sections of the tunnel to be created off-site and later moved and sunk into place. The tunnel was created as a 2-level, 4-track tunnel with subway service on the upper level and Long Island Rail Road service on the lower level. Construction began in 1969 but was put on hold during the fiscal crisis New York City suffered in the 1970s. The tunnel opened partially for subway service in 1989 and entered into full subway service in 2001. The lower level is still not in use, but construction has resumed on the East Side Access Project to connect Long Island Rail Road commuter trains to Grand Central Terminal, which is projected to be completed sometime around 2023.

Railroad Tunnels in New York City

The planning and construction of the Hudson River Tunnels, now referred to as the Hudson Tubes, began as early as 1874 but in the face of costly accidents, legal issues, and loss of financial backing, the project was abandoned in 1882. After many attempts to build the tunnels, construction finally began again in 1902 and would see to the completion of the Trans Hudson Tubes. The original tubes, known as the uptown tubes or “Hoboken-Morton Tunnels“ would open in 1908; a year later, the downtown tubes or “Montgomery-Cortlandt Tunnels“ would open for service. The first transportation tunnel constructed under a major river, the Hudson Tubes incorporated sub-aqueous tunneling methods, tubular cast iron construction, and cut-and-cover construction. The Tubes developed by the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad Company are currently under the operation of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH) since that entity’s takeover in 1962.

The East River Tunnels and the North River Tunnels serving the Pennsylvania Railroad first opened in 1910. The East River Tunnels would run from Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan to Long Island City in Queens, allowing the Pennsylvania Railroad Company access to the newly created Sunnyside Yards. Long Island Rail Road, then a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, used the tunnels as its sole access from Queens into Manhattan. The North River Tunnels provided direct access between New Jersey and the newly-built Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. These tunnels were built by using a tunneling shield method in concurrence with a compressed air system. Their operation came under the jurisdiction of Penn Central in 1968 and of Amtrak in 1976. The East and North River Tunnels are currently operated by Amtrak’s Northeast and Empire Corridors, New Jersey Transit, and the Long Island Rail Road.

Vehicular Tunnels in New York City

The Holland Tunnel (originally referred to as the Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel) was the first vehicular tunnel to be built in New York, and the first to create an innovative transverse ventilation design. In 1920, the construction of the tunnel was awarded to Clifford M. Holland. The tunnel was constructed using the tunnel shield method and conceived of as a pair of tubes each containing two lanes for vehicular traffic. Following Clifford M. Holland’s untimely death in October of 1924, the Tunnel was aptly named for its original chief engineer. Holland was succeeded by Milton H. Freeman, who died of pneumonia in March 1925. Ole Singstad then became the chief engineer of the tunnel and developed its innovative ventilation design. The Holland Tunnel opened to vehicular traffic in 1927. The Lincoln Tunnel (originally referred to as the Midtown Hudson Tunnel) originally began under the New Deal’s Public Works Administration, designed by chief engineer Ole Singstad, who previously helped to build the Holland Tunnel. Construction began on the first tube (center tube) in 1934 and was completed in 1937. The construction of the second tube (north tube) was halted in 1938 and because of the War, was not completed until 1945. Originally the tunnel was designed to only have two tubes, but a third would be proposed, and eventually the third tube (south tube) was opened in 1957.

The Queens Midtown Tunnel and the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel were also designed by engineer Ole Singstad. Both tunnels would use the tunneling shield method in concurrence with a compressed air system. Construction on the Queens Midtown Tunnel bean in 1936 amid political riffs between Mayor LaGuardia and Robert Moses. In 1938, Mayor LaGuardia ran out of funds and eventually would have to go to Robert Moses to fund the two East River vehicular tunnels. The Queens Midtown Tunnel was completed in 1940 before the merge of LaGuardia’s New York City Tunnel Authority and Moses’s Triborough Bridge Authority into the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority in 1946. During this merger, the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, began in 1940, was still under construction, having been stalled by the outbreak of the Second World War. When Moses took over the building of the tunnel in 1946, he fired Ole Singstad and replaced design features for the tunnel walls. This design caused leaks in the tunnel, eventually prompting the reimplementation of Singstad’s original design. The Brooklyn-Battery tunnel opened in 1950 and is still the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in North America.

Eugene F. Casey

Eugene F. Casey was a civil engineer who worked on several major projects for the Transit Authority, including the 63rd Street Tunnel Connector. The Eugene Casey Tunneling Collection was donated to the New York Transit Museum Archives in 1996.