constructed.

It may be stated that, since shortly after the year 1871, when the
Pennsylvania Railroad system was extended to New York Harbor through the
lease of the New Jersey Lines, the officers of that company have been
desirous of reaching New York City by direct rail connection.

The writer's first connection with the tunneling of the North River was
early in 1890, when he was consulted by the late Austin Corbin,
President of the Long Island Railroad Company and the Philadelphia and
Reading Railroad Company, as to the feasibility of connecting the Long
Island Railroad with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (or with the
Central Railroad of New Jersey, which was the New York connection of the
Reading) by a tunnel from the foot of Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, under
the Battery and New York City, and directly across the North River to
the terminal of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Surveys, borings,
and thorough investigations were made, and the Metropolitan Underground
Railroad Company was incorporated in the State of New York to construct
this railroad. Mr. Corbin, however, was aware that, in the
transportation problem he had in hand, the Central Railroad of New
Jersey and the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad were not as important
factors as the Pennsylvania Railroad, and, in consequence, he abandoned
the scheme for a tunnel to the Central Railroad of New Jersey for a line
direct to the Pennsylvania Railroad terminal in Jersey City.

Meantime, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, as a result of its
investigation of the matter, in June, 1891, thought that the most
feasible project seemed to be to build tunnels for rapid transit
passenger service from its Jersey City Station to the lower part of New
York, connecting there with the rapid transit systems of that city, and