[This letter, like a few prior ones, is the text of a news article that was kindly sent to us by a reader named James Ayers. This one is from the Catskill Mountain News on January 31, 1941.]

Rosoff Finds Vast Underground River

A 400-foot-wide river 700 feet underground is delaying construction New York City’s new Delaware aqueduct near Wawarsing.

Since last June, $500,000 has been spent in an effort to drive through the water Samuel R. Rosoff, Ltd., contractors for that section of the tunnel, disclosed Sunday night.

Engineers estimate another $500,000 and six more months of work will be required before the river is "crossed."

The water is part of Rondout creek, one of the major water sources of the new aqueduct. To reach the tunnel level, where its pressure is as high as if it were 700 feet deep in the ocean, it had to drop through 450 feet of quick sand and gravel, and 250 feet of crushed rock.

Unable to drive a tunnel smaller than had been constructed, tunnelers now are shooting cement and water under high pressure into the broken rock in an effort to cement it up.

So far 47 carloads of cement have been shot into the rock. It is estimated 940 more carloads may be needed before the rock is solidified enough to cut through.

James Ayers

Kerhonkson