When the construction of the embankment was commenced, it was expected
that there would be considerable trouble by settlement due to the
displacement of the soft material underlying the surface of the meadows
to a depth of from 10 to 15 ft.; but, with the exception of the trouble
the contractors had in maintaining their temporary trestles, the
embankment as completed has settled very little. The section east of the
Hackensack River was made, in great part, of rock excavated from a
borrow-pit in the Town of Secaucus, north of the eastern end of the
Division. The embankment was built under two contracts, one for the work
east of the crossing of the Boonton Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna
and Western Railroad, under contract dated January 15th, 1907, with
H. S. Kerbaugh, Incorporated, the material being taken from the
borrow-pit in narrow-gauge cars and dumped from a strong pile trestle
along the total length of the section, the same being completed in 19
months; the other for the embankment west of the Boonton Branch,
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, under contract dated April
10th, 1906, with Henry Steers, Incorporated, of New York City, the
material, consisting partly of cellar earth, and partly of rock and
earth excavated from other sections of the Pennsylvania Tunnel and
Terminal Railroad, being brought on scows up the Hackensack and Passaic
Rivers from New York City. The material was handled expeditiously from
the scows by orange-peel buckets operated from the shore, deposited in
standard-gauge dump-cars, and transported by locomotives at one time
used on the elevated railroads in New York City. No excavation whatever
was required on the Meadows Division or in the Harrison Yard.

[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.--Details of Shelters and Platforms, Harrison
Transfer Station.]