USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115
In perfecting the tunnel plans and specifications it was naturally necessary to consider with great care just what functions the traffic demands would require the tunnel to fulfill, and the question of car movement and anticipated volume of business, together with end-
134
DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY
less other problems, has entered very largely, in connection with physical conditions, into the matter of establishing grades at the approaches and the general alignment. In many ways the tunnel will be in the nature of an experiment in the handling of traffic. The expectations are that it will have an annual capacity of considerably more than one million cars, and when completed, will be the source of a great saving, increasing facilities from four hundred to five hundred per cent. The heaviest passenger and freight business han- dled by the Michigan Central is east bound, west bound freight cars being largely empties, so that the tunnel grade from the center of the river to the portal on the Canadian side is one and one-half per cent. That on the Michigan side is one-half of one per cent greater, the easier grade thus being provided for the heavier business.
The details of this great engineering work required a little more than two years for their final adjustment. The engineers' diagrams roughly divide the tunnel work under the following heads: Westerly open cut, 1,540.07 feet; westerly approach, 2,128.97 feet; sub- aqueous, 2,625 feet ; easterly approach, 3,193. 14 feet, and easterly open cut, 3,300 feet, mak- ing the total distance of excavation a little more than 2.42 miles from surface to surface. The approach tunnels are twin concrete structures, between which a bench or retaining wall of the same material is four feet in lateral thickness. In chambers along this wall will be placed conduits, through which power, telephone and telegraph cables will be strung. The side walls vary as earth formation and pressure necessitate, from two feet and nine .inches, to five feet in thickness.
When the tunnel is completed all cars will be operated at the terminals by means of high-power electric locomotives, a third-rail system being used.
In completing the final plans it was decided that the object of the work could best be attained by building steel tubes on shore, excavating in the river bed a trench, in which a steel cradle for the reception of the tubes should be imbedded in a footing of concrete, the sinking of the tube shells within the arms of the cradle and the final depositing around them of a complete covering of concrete. The cradle feature and the elimination of the use of a cofferdam, comprise a method never before attempted in sub-aqueous tunnel construction.
Each of the tubes is twenty-three feet and four inches in inside diameter, their cen- ters being about twenty-six feet apart. This diameter, it is estimated, will allow eighteen feet of clearance between the tops of the rails and the roof of each tube, which will contain a single track. When the submerged structure has received its outer covering of concrete it will be fifty-five feet in width and thirty-one feet in depth, over all. A lining of specially prepared concrete, twenty inches thick, will be placed inside the tube shells, which are made of three-eighths-inch steel plates, and this lining will be reinforced by one-inch longitudinal rods, placed horizontally at intervals of approximately eighteen inches on centers located about six inches within the interior surface of the thus reinforced lining.
To provide further rigidity for the structure, the tubes penetrate at regular intervals, a series of upright cross sections or steel diaphragms, extending below the bottom sur- faces of the shells. Between the cradle arms, above mentioned, heavy steel alignment beams, running parallel with the trench, will be placed, thus stiffening the arms on which will rest the lower edges of the diaphragms. Like the tube shells, the diaphragms are also made of three-eighths-inch steel plates, the outer edges being reinforced by heavy flange an- gles. Between these cross sections are frequent flanges to which as an additional rein- forcement, one-inch steel rods are connected to serve much in the manner of the spokes of a wheel in relieving tension.
135
DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY
The tube sections shoulder in heavy rubber gaskets at the joints, in each face of which are partially cylindrical chambers, extending along the entire circumference. Into these chambers is forced the best grade of cement grout by means of high-pressure tubes connected with air pumps on the river's surface. The joints are finally locked with heavy pins fitting into corresponding sockets in the adjoining section, and securely bolted by divers. To fa- cilitate this conjunction, the forward end of each of the tunnel tubes carries a seventeen- inch sleeve, and can thus be more readily fitted over the end of the section previously sunk.
Before launching the first of the tube sections, which were built at the plant of a ship- building company on the St. Clair river, some forty miles from the tunnel location, the open ends of the section were enclosed with immense bulkheads, that the structure might be floated down to position, as the hull of a ship is towed to her moorings. At the bottom of the bulkheads are a series of inlet valves for the admission of water ballast to serve in helping submerge the shells. A similar series of valves is placed along the upper area as vents for escaping air, all the valves being so arranged as to permit their manipulation from the river's surface.
Several steel cylinders, sixty feet long and over ten feet in diameter, capable of sus- taining the six hundred tons weight of each tube section, were made fast temporarily to the various diaphragms, by heavy chains, and thus served as buoyant air chambers. The lower series of valves in the bulkheads are opened, admitting water into the tubes. The upper valves are then adjusted to permit the discharge of air displaced by the entering water, and the buoyant cylinders are placed in the proper positions to maintain the tubes on a hori- zontal plane, as they are gradually submerged. These cylinders are provided with a com- pressed air mechanism and with such valves that they also may be partially submerged by the admission of water ballast, or elevated by the forcing in of air, as the circumstances of the moment may demand.
In this way the engineers have complete control of the entire structure at all times as the tubes can not sink except as the buoyancy of the air chambers is overcome by the weight of the water admitted through the bulkhead valves and that allowed to enter through the intakes of the air cylinders themselves.
To surmount difficulties anticipated in effecting a safe and exact conjunction of the submerged sections, pilot pins between five and six feet in length and six inches in dia- meter, extending parallel to the axis of the tubes have been provided on the alternate sec- tions. These pins are so arranged as to fit into corresponding sockets of cast steel bolted to the outer surface of the adjoining section.
The marine facilities of Detroit have not only given a distinctive stimulus to trade and offered profitable investments in navigation interests, but the city has now gained prece- dence as the leading ship-building port on the Great Lakes. From a most interesting ar- ticle written by William Stocking for the Book of Detroiters, published about the beginning of 1908, are taken the following statements relative to the ship-building industry: "Ca- noes, bateaux and other small craft have been built here from almost the earliest times. The first large vessel was built in 1852; the first double-decked vessel for carrying iron ore was built here. The first yard in the west for constructing iron hulls was located in the neighboring village of Wyandotte and was owned by Detroit capital. All types of ves- sels, from the scow and tow barge up to the largest freighters and the finest passenger steamers have been built at yards in the Detroit district. Always prominent, this port has in the past three years held a position of undisputed supremacy. The addition of a new company and improved facilities of the old brought it to the front in 1905. Of large freight
136
DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY
vessels its two companies that year launched fourteen, with a total tonnage of 134,400. The output of the next largest port on the lakes was ten, with a tonnage of 85,500. For some of the vessels built in Detroit the contracts were made, the keels laid, the vessels launched, equipped and put in commission before the close of the season in which they were com- menced, showing a degree of expedition in construction that was a marvel to old vessel- men. The freighters, with a floating dry dock, a large tug, with some smaller work and repairs, made an aggregate of about five million dollars in value. To this nearly half a million dollars was added in yachts, launches, rowboats and canoes. The industry gives employment to over five thousand men. In 1906 the Detroit yards launched thirteen freighters, with 108,000 tonnage, besides a large passenger steamer and a large car ferry. On the Ist of January, 1907, the freight vessels under contract in the Detroit district for delivery during the year numbered seventeen, with aggregate tonnage of 135,500. The Detroit contracts for the year also included the largest and most costly passenger steamer ever built on the lakes, to cost $1,250,000. This vessel is the magnificent 'City of Cleve- land,' of the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company, which was put into service at the beginning of the season of 1908."
Records of the year 1880 show that at that time Detroit had only nine hundred manu- facturing establishments, employing about sixteen thousand persons and representing a capitalization of about fifteen and one-half millions of dollars. During the ensuing decade there was an increase of only one hundred in the number of manufactories, but the capi- talization showed the noteworthy aggregate of forty-five million dollars, while employment was afforded to thirty-five thousand persons. In 1900 there were twelve hundred factor- ies, capitalized at sixty-eight million dollars and employing thirty-eight thousand five hun- dred hands. The state census of 1904 showed thirteen hundred factories, with a combined capital of ninety-one million dollars. These afforded employment to more than forty-eight thousand hands, and the valuation of the output for the year aggregated one hundred and forty million dollars.
The year 1905 ushered in for Detroit its era of magnificent and unprecedented indus- trial and commercial progress. Within a single year the city gained as many new manu- factories as it had done during the entire period from 1900 to 1904. The Board of Com- merce made an independent canvas at the close of the calendar year 1905 and by the same established the fact that the city had more than fourteen hundred factories, with an aggre- gate capital of one hundred million dollars and employing over fifty-five thousand workers. The product for the year represented a valuation of about one hundred and seventy million dollars, and that for 1906 was one hundred and eighty million dollars. The output for 1907 was slightly larger than that of 1906. The output for some of the leading industrial con- cerns for 1906 is here noted :
Car building, freight, passenger and electric. $25,000,000
Automobiles
12,000,000
Druggists' preparations 10,900,000
Clothing, knit goods, boots and shoes, etc. 10,500,000
Paints and varnish . 10,000,000
Coarse chemicals 10,000,000
Stoves and steam-heating apparatus
9,300,000
Food products, aside from meats.
9,500,000
Foundry and machine-shop products 9,500,000
Slaughtering and meat packing.
5,500,000
137
DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY
Newspaper publishing
5,200,000
Other printing and publishing 5,000,000
Furniture
5,500,000
Tobacco and cigars
4,500,000
Malt liquors
3,600,000
Twenty other industries showed a product of one millions dollars each.
From the previously mentioned article by Mr. Stocking are taken the following perti- nent extracts, and his position as a statistician for the Board of Commerce gives special weight and authority to his statements :
One of the striking features of this industrial expansion is the development in new channels. The automobile industry is entirely the growth of the present decade. For the assembling of automobiles twenty companies are in actual operation in the city. About thirty others devote the whole or part of their energies to the manufacture of automobile parts and accessories. They employ together nine thousand hands and are second only to car-building in the value of their output. The manufacture of computing machines is the growth of the past five years. The manufacture of rubber goods is another new enter- prise that adds a very important branch to Detroit's specialized industries. The making of coke and the establishment of the first coke iron furnace in Detroit belongs to the same period. The alkali and pharmaceutical industries have increased immensely in their product in the same time. A large copper and brass rolling mill and a number of smaller brass industries belong to the same period. Three things are especially notable about Detroit's manufacturing interests-the supremacy in certain special lines, the great variety of prod- ucts not thus specialized, and the number of separate manufacturing districts. Detroit not only has the largest single pharmaceutical establishment in the country, but it also has a large lead over any other city in the total value of all products of this class; it leads every other city in the world in the manufacture of stoves and heating apparatus; it makes more than half in number of all the automobiles in the country and surpasses every other city in the value of the product; it makes over eighty per cent. of all the computing machines manufactured in the country ; it manufactures more soda ash and kindred alkaline products than any other section; it is the leading city in the country in the manufacture of paints and varnish.
Aside from these specialties, in which it is beyond competition, the city is remarkable for the variety of its products. It is not especially known as an iron city, yet its iron in- dustries are large and varied, and it is one of the largest consumers of pig iron in the coun- try. The brass and copper industries are almost as varied as those of iron, including nearly every variety of mechanical appliance in which precision is desired, and every article of household furniture and use. Michigan was for many years the leading white-pine state, and is still one of the largest producers of ornamental and useful hard woods. Among De- troit's industries are included a great variety. of those in which wood is the chief material. The city is a small producer of textile fabrics, but a large manufacturer of clothing, particu- larly for the miner, the lumber camp and the factory. It makes many varieties of elec- trical appliances and a host of other things. This diversity of manufacture is one of the best elements of its prosperity. Whatever temporary depression may fall upon one indus- try, others are prosperous. Skilled mechanics are trained in every branch, and work is to be had in almost every line. More important yet is the home market that is created for a variety of products. In many manufactured articles Detroit is its own best customer.
Detroit's manufacturing industries are not, as in some cities, collected in a single con- gested and unwholesome district. They throng the river front and adjacent streets from
138
DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY
Woodward avenue to Belle Isle bridge. They follow the belt-line railroad around the city. They make a sizable manufacturing city by itself of the Milwaukee Junction district, and one almost equally large about West Detroit Junction. They occupy a number of separate blocks in the down-town districts. They scatter along the banks of the River Rouge, and their tall chimneys and derricks dot the landscape along the salt and soda district for eight miles west of the city limits. This separation of industries over large areas gives great advantage of profit, convenience and accessibility. It prevents the crowding of freight into one section. It prevents the raising of factory sites to a prohibitive or speculative price. It gives opportunity to intersperse the factory districts with cottage districts, so that wage- earners may live reasonbly near their work.
During the past four years a new element has entered into the growth of Detroit, in the removal here of industries established in other cities. About thirty companies have either moved bodily from other localities or else have established branches here. They have come not by reason of artificial inducements, bonuses, free lands or exemption from taxation, but for residence and business considerations alone. Nearly all of them have en- larged their operations since they came here and several are among our largest and most prosperous industries. Twelve companies that in the aggregate employed nineteen hundred wage-earners when they commenced operations had seven thousand one hundred on their pay rolls in the summer of 1907.
The articles of incorporation of companies organized for manufacturing purposes are significant. In the three and one-half years ending June 30, 1907, they numbered five hundred and fifty-six, with 34,662,500 of authorized capital, of which $21,498,807 was paid in, either in cash or other property. In the same period one hundred and forty-nine old companies added $12,069,000 to their capital, and four hundred and thirty-six permits were issued for new buildings in connection with manufacturing plants, the estimated cost of which was $4,346,750.
The annual report of the committee on manufactures of the Board of Commerce pre- sented at the annual meeting held April 21, 1908, gives the following pertinent statements concerning the city's industrial progress: "During the board's fiscal year to March 31, 1908, there were one hundred and forty-nine new industries incorporated, with $4,306,810 subscribed capital, of which over $3,500,000 was paid in. Forty-four established companies increased their capital $11,310,000. The aggregate sum put into industrial production for the twelvemonth exceeds $15,500,000. This is a notable record when it is remembered that fully half of the period was marked by extreme financial depression. The following table of statistics is most interesting and instructive as indicating the growth of the 'Greater Detroit,' where, as is emblazoned on the escutcheon of the Board of Commerce, 'life is worth living':
1900
1904
1907
Area, square miles
29
29
41.44
Population
285,704
317,591
410,000
Number of families
60,524
70,087
87,968
Public school enrollment
34,865
36,42I
44,318
Postoffice receipts
793,978
1,208,677
1,675,002
Exports
17,669,535
23,400,851
40,488,295
Building construction-cost
4,142,400
6,737,105
14,226,300
Banking-capital and surplus
9,815,100
13,211,500
17,393,000
Deposits in banks.
75,691,898
92,190,715
117,674,983
Total resources of banks.
87,283,385
108,413,823
138,345,786
139
DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY
Bank clearings
427,800,392
525,513,705
711,610,404
Capital employed in manufacture.
67,544,972
91,228,214
125,000,000
Employes in factories.
38,481
48,879
71,000
Wages paid
15,392,527
22,786,576
35,000,000
Value of manufactured product
88,649,635
128,761,658
180,000,000
Manufacturing capital-new and old.
2,770,500
5,904,296
17,482,880
Electric H. P., central plants
1,948
5,334
20,378
Shipbuilding-tonnage
14,300
9,800
139,500
City assessment
244,371,550
277,983,370
335,759,980
City tax levy
3,662,877
4,083,40I
4,207,556
Net public debt.
3,464,190
3,359,294
5,637,365
The population of the city as estimated by the Board of Commerce, through the cus- tomary and reliable mediums, is placed at 425,000 the water-board records show the num- ber of families served in the corporate limits of the city in June, 1908, to be 92,697, and this is the basis of the conservative estimate made of the total population. The permits for building construction during the first nine months of 1908 indicate an aggregate of some- what more than three-fourths that of 1907. Statistics of building done in forty leading cities compiled by the American Contractor and covering the first nine months show that Detroit leads the country with forty-nine per cent. gain in building over the same period last year. The official statements of the Detroit banks for July 15, 1908, show a total capi- tal and surplus of $18,585,000; deposits, $112,485, 128, and total resources, $134,647,985. The bank clearings for the first nine months of the year were about nine per cent. less than for the same relative period in 1907. In the first nine months the number of manufacturing companies incorporated was eighty-nine, with subscribed capital of $2,025,150. In the same period existing companies increased their capital by $3,303,000. The exports for the nine months show a decrease of sixteen per cent. as compared with 1907, while the imports, the internal revenue receipts and the postoffice receipts show a slight increase. The assess- ment roll for 1908 is $349, 163,590, and the tax levy $5,204,001. The net city debt July I, 1908, was $5,863,544.
Detroit controls a larger export trade than any other of the twenty-three customs dis- tricts on the Great Lakes and northern frontier from Maine to Montana, and the percent- age of increase has been large within the present decade, having been about thirty-two per cent. from 1900 to 1904. Statistical matter compiled under the auspices of the Board of Commerce offers the following information: As touching export trade Detroit is distinct- ively a strategic point in this field of commercial operations. It is the natural gateway be- tween the east and west and is a terminal point of the two principal railway systems of the Dominion of Canada, besides being the crossing point of several American railroads, so that it early gained precedence as a border shipping point for goods to be sent to the foreign markets. Its shipments are far in excess of those of any other port on the Great Lakes system. For a number of years they were about one-sixth of the whole. There have been periods of fluctuation, especially during times of uncertainty as to tariff policies. Since 1892 the tide of domestic merchandise that flows across the Detroit river to foreign ports has steadily risen. The total in 1892 was about $6,000,000; in 1897 it was $11,500,- 000; in 1902 it reached $18,694,000; in 1907 it exceeded $40,000,000. In a foregoing paragraph it has already been stated that there has been a considerable decrease during the first nine months of 1908, but this is to be predicated as the result of abnormal conditions and not as an index of permanent conditions. These exports are as varied in character as
140
DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY
they are large in volume. Of the three hundred and fifty classes and sub-classes into which the schedule is divided, two hundred and ninety are represented in the tables of De- troit exports.
It should be remembered that the government statistical tables in regard to export trade indicate the point of departure of merchandise sent abroad, and not the point at which it originates. The location of Detroit with reference to both the United States and Canada, as well as the character of its manufactures, brings about a clear demarkation be- tween these two classes. . Many of the heaviest exports sent forth from the gates of the Michigan metropolis come from the west and south, while the major portion of its own manufactures reach foreign markets through Atlantic and Pacific ports. Exports of the latter class are numerous and varied, including some very bulky products as well as those of finer order. It may be noted that three or four of the largest dry kilns in Russia are of Detroit manufacture; Detroit cars are in use on the railways of Canada, Mexico, Spain and Russia; the largest brewery in South Africa is equipped with tanks made in Detroit, and one of the most extensive mines in that far country is fitted with pumps and water- valves manufactured in this city; Detroit automobiles are to be found in use in nearly every country that has passable roads, including the mystic Orient; Detroit-made agricul- tural implements find sale in a number of European countries, where is also being gained an increasing demand for the furniture here manufactured; Detroit pianos and piano self- players are found in the homes of a number of countries in Europe; Detroit stoves and radiators are sold in England and on the continent; adding machines manufactured in this city are sold in almost every country that has any system of commercial accounts. In De- troit factories were originated ready-mixed paints, and these products are now widely dis- tributed over the world; pharmaceutical preparations manufactured in Detroit are to be had in every country where human ills demand medical treatment; heavy clothing finds its way from Detroit factories to the mines and lumber woods of Canada; boots and shoes go to the various Canadian provinces and the West Indies; toys to France and Germany ; plum- bers' supplies to Great Britain, the continent of Europe and South America ; picture-frame mouldings to Germany ; carriages to the mountain districts of South America; motor boats to England, Russia and Africa; smelting furnaces to the foundries of Germany-and these constitute only a part of the contributions made by Detroit to foreign markets. The im- ports of Detroit are less varied and less extensive, but they are steadily increasing.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.