Dewitt Clinton Haskin

Dewitt Clinton Haskin (1824 – 1900) was an American engineer and landowner. He developed the initial methods for construction of the first tunnels under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan.

Haskin gained his early experience in the the late 1960s when he worked on the construction of the California Pacific Railroad, in Vallejo. In 1867, 350 men and 100 teams of horses began construction of the railroad bed that ran from Vallejo through Jameson Canyon to Suisun City. The tracks then spanned to Marysville and Sacramento. Finally, on an auspicious summer day - June 24, 1868 - excited sightseers in Vallejo clamored on board a five-car train and traveled the route to Suisun City.

Haskin was the original projector of the Hudson River tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan. He commenced the construction for the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad project in 1874, after he founded the Hudson Tunnel Company in 1873.

The construction began in 1874 by digging a shaft in Jersey City, New Jersey.

He had patented a compressed air method for reducing cave-ins, but in 1880, 20 workers were killed in a blowout. Another blowout in 1881 and a gradual loss of funding halted the project in 1887.

In the years 1889-1891, a British firm worked on the project. Around 1900, American politician and lawyer, William Gibbs McAdoo took on the leadership of the project and completed the construction in 1908.

Haskin died on 17 July 1900.