erils of a Sandhog
Catapulted Through
Tons of Silt Into Black
River Waters, Yet He
Lives to Tell of His
By WILLIAM HORNE
TT 18 perhaps the "sandhog.* the
-*■ human mole who goes about his
death-defying trade of burrowing into
the Innards of the earth constructing
subways. tunnels and mammoth
foundations who holds first place In a
swiftly moving world of high adventure
and glamorous drama. And well might
his Job be called the world's moat
dangerous game.
Unlike his brother, the miner, who
works hundreds of feet below the sur
face In gloom and shadow, the sandhag
must have glaring light at his constant
command. Unlike his brother-ln-trade,
he can work only in three-hour shifts
at most, and under certain conditions
only one hour each day. cut Into two
UUrty-minute periods.
Picture, If you can. a gigantic steel
tube, twenty feet la diameter, being
# built through the bowels af the earth
a hundred and fifty feet below the sur
face.
An enormous cylinder with the front
able, circular steal cap that precedes
construction, pushed forward by mighty
hydraulic Jacks that have a combined
thrust of a million and'a half pounds.
Hundreds of tons of sand and dirt and
water press constantly on the steel walla
and seek admittance through any pas
sible opening.
As the gigantic atari cap to forced for
ward to make room for additional sec
tions of the tube, the muck and-silt and
sand and water are esposed in a gush
ing, naked circular wall. But M does net
come far into the tube.
end open Vnd protected only by a nov
i
What holds It all back and makes con
struction possible? Nothing but a ter
rific pressure of compressed air. ttkough
pressure must always be kept inside to
equal the pressure without—be It twenty
pounds to the inch or fifty
If. when the cutting cap, or shield, la
hitched forward, there comes a “leak*
or a . “fissure" in the naked, newly ex
posed wail befdrs an additional section
can be bolted in place, or the air within
the locks may escape, there is,great
danger.
This is called a "blow." and with no
resisting air to hold it back the land,
muck, silt and water will gush in and
fill the tube, often drowning or ■mother
ing to death the men working in that
oompartment.
ALWAYS there is constant danger of
a “blow.” the moat dreaded of all
catastrophes that can befall a burrow
ing sandhog. Many men have died,
caught like rats in a trap; others have
been iteraly shot through the earth to
the surface where the air escapes above.
But only one. so far as la known, has
ever lived through this awful experi
ence to toll about It. That was during
the construction of the Battery Tunnel
beneath the East River In New York
City.
There were three men in the “head"
of the tube when the unexpected Mow
oame. First, a fissure appeared as if hr
magic in the newt/ exposed, naked wall
at aand and mud.
Suddenly there came a deafening re
port aa it broke wide open, and the three
hapleaa men were sucked bodily through
the opening with the escaping oo—
pressed air.
Richard Creedon was one of the men,
and his breath was sucked sera/ by the
terrific gush of air as he went hurtling
through the 190-foot length of the As
sure.
His breath came back to him as he
h was thrust upward through the bed of
the river, and the Icy water revived him.
Choking and gasping he was expelled
upward and shot high above the surface
Uke a straw caught in a typhoon at sea.
He fell back with a splash, unhurt,
and swam ashore unaided.
It all happened In seconds. He sensed
no conscious moment between the time
of the actual blow and his expulsion
through the bed of the river.
It was just one at those things that
happen—a miracle.
But his two companions were not to
fortunate. The body of one of them was
fished from the river s quarter of a
mile away within an hour; it took a day
and a night to locate and dig the third
man’s torn body out of the silt and muck
of the river bed.
Story of a “Sandhog"
r’ TOOK seven years to construct the
Holland Tunnels, those twin tubes that
connect Manhattan and Jersey beneath
the Hudson River. Bach tube is 9250
feet long, and cost between 940,000,009
and 949.000.000.
Indeed, high adventure and glamorous
drama went hand in hand during this
vast undertaking, and many are the
weird and thrilling stories related about
the muckers and aandhogs who defied
death daily in their hidden, steel tombs
far beneath the murky waters of the
Hudson.
Bobby Pinch, a veteran who labored
five years during the construction, re
calls a hair-raising escape from death
in a smaller but simllsr tunnel being
He wh the only man m the
forward lock whom there came
a sudden “blow" and the two
net began filling with water.
A fissure appeared m the silt
and his body shot up through
the murky blackness
eonetnaeted In Oermany. *hea a "Wee"
“X was the only man in tbs forward
lock." he says. “wheel a sudden 'Mow'
came and -the tube began rapidly Oiling
with swirling water. I frantically
climbed to a low ahelf as the water rone,
and within a few minutes It had crept
up to my neck.
“I held my taoe right up against the
ceiling in order to breathe, and I stayed
in that position for more than an hour.
I couldn't more, for I couldn't swim,
and if I’d fallen off I'd not hare had a
chance.
“Well. sir. the water kept rising, and
I kept pressing higher against the ceil
ing. but there must hare been enough
air left to keep the water from com
pletely filling the tube, for I’m still Us
ing to-teU about it.
*1 guess that hour was about the
longest hour I*vo ever spent, until they
finally got in to ate and pumped the
water out.*
rWAS when this same tunnel was
about half completed that a fissure
dribbling in.
nen worked feverishly
trying to chock ttae
took. During that
to bold It bock, but
for
roar B
Ik They
But everything they atuffet
Into the crevice iu swiftly. violently
sucked up sad out of aighi.
The fissure grew steadily larger sad
the sir from the compartment
suddenly out la one ter rifle burst.
A Swede named Steve Stenjordf
crouching nearest. He was
mightily into the cavity. Mud and sand
and muck followed, the edges of the
hole eating away and sucking
Stenjordf's body stuck somewhere ia
the Assure before it reached the river
bed above. The mud and sand and muck
packed in behind it and the “blow'’ was
stopped.
11118, too, was nothing short at a
miracle. Only one man paid with bis
life.
rflC life of a "sandhog" is, at best, aa
uncertain one. His Job is. indeed,
the most hazardous of all death-defying
trades.
Living in his subterranean chamber
under the terrific pressure of compressed
air may wreck him physically, impair
his health to the extent of total dis
ability and leave him a helpless invalid.
Taking these chances, he must rollow
a strict routine in order to work under
any conditions at his trade.
It would prove instantly fatal if he
should step immediately Into one of
these chambers so highly charged with
air. Or, once safely inside, it would be
equally fatal for him to go Instantly
out Into normal atmosphere.
Bobby Pinch was laid up several days
after his narrow escape when he waa
trapped like a rat in the turgid water
and boiling silt that Ailed the tube in
he was working when the Mow
But he was back an the Job
have
ao Steve Stenjordf would ha<
back on the Job had be lived, i
all mt them whose Uvea have
After wm Accident while
grim game with