Skip to main content

Dug Under Pressure

Fall 1986 | Volume 2 |  Issue 2

In “Notes from the Field” (Spring 1986), you write, “New York City’s Holland Tunnel, completed in 1927, was the first of many built using compressed air.” I believe there were accounts of sandhogs being blown up to the surface of the East River during the construction of the IRT and BMT tunnels well before the twenties.

Emma Cobb replies: Correct. The Holland Tunnel was the first automobile tunnel so built.

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.