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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1908)
' V ' PORTLANU OREGOFi ' SUNDAY MORNING FEBRUARY ' 23, 1903: 1 10r V it i 1k. lb f ! rm ."V. It- II WY flll 1, till I I' II II ' , 7 s f ' ri : v ti iul ii niAi vm -.111 vvr i c r )( I m r - i SWl 'V V T.V 1U v - : 7 .( sftft mm n mt. ItJJ- "l " - I " I " ' 'l r t irk iky 7 i.f iX- f1 V AT-1 . i c- a- vv ' s . 2 A it C Co. coo. coo. A ST'" J J THAT is the ly value of a r ' minute of time? Do you think $i, 000,000 too extravagant a figure? Considerably more than this is being paid by some of the big rail roads of the country in their eforts to van quish Father Time. In order to save about thirty minutes in reaching the heart of New York, the Pennsylvania Railroad is spending about $60,000,000 to burrow under the Hudson river. That is paying $2,000,000 for a minute. When the New York Central's plans, involving an expenditure of $70,000,000, are completed, engineers figure that the run ning schedule of each train will be reduced six or eight minutes. Not all of this vast sum for improvements can be charged to a desire to save time, however. Still, every minute lopped off will cost very near the high-water mark-. Leading railroads of the country, in the last ten years, have spent more than $800,000,000 in their determined fight against time. It is figured that the gain, in all, amounts to something lke thirteen or fourteen hours on schedules. Almost as startling is the assault made upon Father Time by great steamship lines. No sooner does a Deutschland eclipse the ocean record than rival owners set out to build a Lusitania and a Mauretania; when v0n,;o. .or, , . , . j .kL ' , ,, Walking, except for exercise, became too thpv hmir rntitur'n th nine nnhnn rtt tli i . .1 , ,1 , .... . - biow many yearaago, men - iae norsecara ap 1 n.. P 5 (VI sA,'! , . s - ' ,.(,4; 4Hf A, f 3 1 4 1, jj i' v j j-j competitors plan even a mightier vessel with which to wrest from them the prize. Millions are lightly regarded in the scales as against a few minutes clipped from the record. N' "OT long since a genius for statistics figured that, based upon the earnings of the people of New York city, each minute of the working day is worth $30,000. Doubtless the average holds good else where. This illustrates forcibly the old adage that "Time is money." Minutes are viewed as dol- .lars in the great, game of making money. Everywhere the demand is for haste, and then ' more haste. If millions must be spent to gain minutes why, spend them. peared in .the cities. After a time the trollev took up the burden in response to 4he demand f6r greater speed. Congestion often impeded the. surface trol ley lines, and so feverish humanity built ele vated roads and scooped out costly subways. Ferryboats plying between large centers of population proved too slow in time, end great bridges were flung across the intervening water gaps. For bridges, tunnels and their equip ment and terminals, $500,000,000 is now being spent in and around New York. Most striking of the many assaults on time have been those made of recent years, or now being made, by the great railroad systems of '. the teountry. They have poured out money like water in improving physical conditions and en larging terminals. There is a reason for it all. From a ter minal having) say, 120 trains a day. a minute saved on each train means just two hours saved in each twenty -four; this is 730 hours a year, or a month gained. And the income ca pacity of an additional month is something de voutly to be wished by any business enterprise. If the actual value of the time thus saved to one company be multiplied by all of the many transportation concerns of the country, one may readily see why all are striving to economize the minutes. A pioneer in the tunnel-to-save-time move ment was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Some fifteen years ago engineers and public alike were discussing with more or less wonder its bold project to dig a way for its trains under the 'city of Baltimore instead of taking a longer route around. . True, the " Pennsylvania at least a line friendly to the Pennsylvania had already tun neled under Baltimore; but this enterprise was necessary in order to get -into the city. The ' Baltimore and Ohio already had its terminal within the city, on the southern side, and this "sufficed as long as the road was not directly competing for northern business. When the Baltimore and Ohio, then more antagonistic to its formidable rival than now, extended its lines to Philadelphia and made arrangements to continue on to New Yorl, it was obliged to skirt around Baltimore a to cross the Patapsco river by ferry. This seriously interfered with schedules in tended to compete with the running time of the Pennsylvania between New York and .Washington. So the plan to tunnel under the city origi nated, and was promptly put into execution. J ohn B. McDonald, who was to come into wider fame later by constructing the New York sub way system, undertook the work, which was to cost something like $7,000,000. This was considered an immense sum to spend in the race for time, especially as it was estimated by many that only about fifteen min utes would be saved. Still, the work was com pleted and the straightened line placed the Baltimore and Ohio on a much better basis in bidding for through traffic. Paralleling in percentage this cost was an engineering feat in New Mexico known as the Belen cut-off on the Santa Fe line. There for merly trains had to climb a steep grade of over 180 feet to the mile. , " A modern engine with C-Id-faihioned cars could negotiate this grade without great trou ble, but. as traffic and competition increased the size and carrying capacity of cars grew pro portionately. There - was nothing to be done but avoid : - this grade, hence the costly cut-off. For the" construction of seven milea of new track' about $10,- .400,000 was expended. The time saved is something , like twenty minutes a coat of half a million dollars a minute. The gain is count ed as greatly exceeding the cost. This isn't the limit of money the Santa . Fe is prepared to spend in order to increase4 its rapidity of train service. Already it is put-1 ting many more millions into tunnels through " the Raton range in improving its long-miles of - , trackage. l . In order to gain a point on Father Time,. , the longest bridge in the world was constructed f by a railroad. This is the famous Lucin bridge across Salt Lake, in Utah. It consists : of j twelve miles of trestlework, and is well known; to travelers between the East and the Pajsifioj slope. This bridge Baves about two hours, time. While it did not cost as much as some- more j . recent enterprises, still the expenditure repre- rented a charge against time of about' $35,000! a minute. . , -, '-' A railroad has constructed the largest con-' crete bridge in the world. It spans the Santa ' Ana river near Riverside, Cal., is 60 feet high,! 1000 feet long, and contains 13,000 cubid, yards'," of concrete. Its cost was great, but 'it' saves ! the minutes that count for so much in tho - " making of train schedules. , .'.,-,,- One of the most remarkable? of -latter , day 1 romances of millions ha3 to deal with the t freight subway system of Chicago a marvel of j enterprise requiring a staggering expenditure. While this great enterprise was. not in tended primarily to economize in time, its pur pose was to facilitate the local receipt., ship ment and exchange of freight to prevent con i- gestion of streets, and in this way to insure a - ', more prompt transaction of business' in the t second largest city in the country. . . A swifter transaction of the business ofj the great city has been the result,- so that this ) expenditure of $30,000,000 -for forty-five miles f of tunnels beneath Chicago's streets may be charged up to the world-wide fight to gain time.; - In its simpler commercial aspect -this sub-1 way system is' a forty-five-mile network of un derground conduits to facilitate the movement of freight from depot to" depot, from ware-, -house to warehouse, from factory to store and from merchant to consumer, , Every street within an : area - nearly two miles square is I duplicated except as to build-' ings at a depth of from 25 to 40 feet under-' ground, each street intersection, name and di , rection below corresponding; to i tho same on ,the surface." i ' '- ' ; f 'That such? underground facilities will .. . .; CONTXNUia) ON INSIDE PAQS) . ( r.
