Gillespie's 2011 book Crossing Under the Hudson: The Story of the Holland Lincoln Tunnels described the grueling work sandhogs who went down into the pressurized shaft performed, working for $10 a day in two three-hour shifts, with a three-hour break in between. The caisson acted as a prefabricated shaft, which could be extended down through river water, mud and muck until workers could reach the bedrock 20 feet beneath the riverbed and begin tunneling toward New Jersey.Īngus K. A 400-ton cutting shield was then constructed at the shaft's bottom, which would be used to burrow through the bedrock horizontally, driven by hydraulic jacks.Ī July 1934 article in The New York Times inaugurated the next phase of construction, describing the placement of a 600-ton caisson-a watertight "bright red, hollow cube of steel" floated upriver from its New Jersey fabrication site and nudged into position with tugboats. Workers got down the tunnel level via a slippery staircase. While both New York and New Jersey governors took part in the ceremonial tunnel completion, the actual work of constructing the three tunnels was performed by skilled "sandhogs," who began work on the tunnel after tense negotiations (including strongarm tactics from the New York Police Department) between 32 affiliated unions and the tunnel's contracting agencies, narrowly averting a general strike.Ĭonstruction on the Lincoln Tunnel began by blasting vertical shafts 80 feet deep into the bedrock on the west side of Manhattan. However, 15 sandhogs died building the original two Lincoln tubes." The Queens Midtown tunnel under the East river was completed in 1940 without a fatal injury. "The 5,486 foot tube was completed in 20 months without the loss of a single life-a rarity but not a record. "The new 100 million dollar third tube of the Lincoln tunnel was officially 'holed through' today with a flourish of bolt tightening," the article opened.
The Lincoln Tunnel's central tube (the first built), nearing completion in 1937.
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