Adventures in Electricity

Part 3

"My aunt, your Great Grandaunt Harriet was married to an engineer that worked in the very same company your father is working in today." Grandpa began and I twisted around excitedly in my bed.

"General Electric!" I shouted the answer and Grandpa chuckled. He nodded and begaun to thumb through the journal he had on his lap.

"Well, not quite yet, but it was a forefather of the company." Grandpa laughed and said. I wasn't sure what a forefather was, but I guessed it meant that Dad's workplace is kind of the same as the one Great Granduncle worked in. Which meant it was General Electric.

"Your Great Grandaunt Harriet had always been fascinated by the rails." Grandpa continued, "Her brother, your Great Granduncle James was part of the team that worked on the Otisville Tunnel for the Erie Railroad. It is a straight tunnel that cut through a small hill through 5,314 feet of rocks just out of New York City, near where your Aunt Heather lives."

"Oh!" I couldn't help but shout, imagining what it must have been like to try and dig a tunnel without all the cool stuff we have today! Like those massive drills we saw in the museum the other day. Actually, they might have had those at that time. But Dad said it must have cost a lot, and it wasn't as safe for the people working there. Because apparently, ancient people cared less about safety than we do today. Weird.

"So your Great Granduncle James snuck his youngest brother and sister, your Great Grandpa and Harriet to see what it was like." Grandpa flipped open the journal carefully and I wondered why Dad couldn't work somewhere more exciting than an office. Visiting him at work was the most boring thing ever.

"It was one of the most adventurous things I had ever done in my life." Grandpa began to read from the journal, "James gave us some workers' uniforms he smuggled out of his work and told Dean and me to dress in them and pull the hats down tightly. My heart was pounding so fast when we approached the opening of

the tunnel that I swore everyone could hear it. Dean was clutching my hand so

tightly that my fingers were going numb. I was so scared that someone would catch

us and lord knows what would have happened; but luck was on our side and we

entered the working space undetected."

"Can I go underground to see a tunnel?" I interrupted Grandpa, and he had his thinking face on for a few seconds and tapped his fingers on his right knee. I knew it meant that he was considering it and I got excited.

"Maybe..." He said, "I will have a look tomorrow morning. But let's get back to the story." I nodded, feeling more awake just thinking about visiting an underground tunnel. It would be my epic adventure!

"It was very dark inside even though we were still on ground level, and it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust. The tunnel wasn't as big as I had imagined, with wooden planks and beams covering almost every surface of it. I was disappointed that I couldn't see more of the raw earth, but I was too in awe with everything that was going on to fully feel the disappointment. There was a lot of smoke drifting around and a few workers greeted James as they walked pass, but no one paid us special attention.

'I will give you a quick tour, then I better get you out of here before anyone notices.' James said and quickly led us further into the tunnel. He explained a little about what they did as well – all the drilling, blasting and clearing up the debris to create the tunnel, and how it was going to cut under the Hudson River. There were so many different roles, with some people who specialized in blasting rocks apart; others find the best place to do that. I had never seen anything quite like this before, it felt like I was glimpsing into a whole new universe and I loved every moment of it."