for having additional yard facilities, property was bought for about 100
ft. north and 100 ft. south of 32d Street, between Ninth and Tenth
Avenues, and an open excavation, lined with concrete retaining walls and
face walls, was made. Between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, 32d Street was
closed, and the property formerly the street was bought by the Tunnel
Company from the City of New York for a consideration by deed dated
April 18th, 1906. The Church, Rectory, and School of St. Michael's,
which was located on the west side of Ninth Avenue between 31st and 32d
Streets, was acquired by the Tunnel Company after it had acquired
property for and had built a similar institution on the south side of
34th Street west of Ninth Avenue.

Probably the most interesting feature of this contract was the support
and maintenance of Ninth Avenue, which has a three-track elevated
railway structure and a two-track surface railway structure, on which it
was necessary to maintain traffic while excavation was made to a depth
of about 60 ft., and a viaduct was erected to carry Ninth Avenue. The
length of this viaduct is about 375 ft., and the steelwork and its
erection was done apart from the North River Division work, but all
excavation and underpinning was included in this division. The contract
for this work on the Terminal Station-West was let to the New York
Contracting Company-Pennsylvania Terminal, on April 28th, 1906, and
included about 517,000 cu. yd. of excavation, about 87% being rock, the
construction of about 2,000 lin. ft. of retaining and face walls
containing about 18,500 cu. yd. of concrete, and a large quantity of
structural steel (1,475,000 lb.) for temporary use in underpinning Ninth
Avenue.

Fig. 4 shows cross-sections of the Terminal Station-West yard, and Fig.
5 shows the general method of underpinning the Ninth Avenue structures.