Dewitt Clinton Haskin

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Col. Dewitt Clinton Haskin (circa 1824 – July 17, 1900) was an American engineer whose innovations in tunnel construction allowed tunnels under the Hudson River to Manhattan to be completed.

Haskin gained experience in California on construction of the Union Pacific Railway. In 1874 he began digging a shaft in Jersey City, New Jersey. He had patented a compressed air method for reducing cave-ins, but in 1880, 20 workers were killed in a blowout. Another blowout in 1881 and a gradual loss of funding halted the project in 1887. After a British firm worked on the project from 1889-1891, lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo completed the project in 1908. [1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cudahy, Brian J. Rails Under the Mighty Hudson: The Story of the Hudson Tubes, the Pennsy Tunnels and Manhattan Transfer. Fordham Univ Press, ISBN 0823221903

[edit] External links

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