Saturday, November 28, 2009

Alfred E. Beach and New Jersey's other Bill Bradley

There is a section of Bridgewater, New Jersey named "Bradley Gardens," which name derives from William Bradley (1852-1924).
Of relevance to recent discussion in Bilski oral argument about horse training methods, Bradley got his start by using horses to move things. One of Bradley's early jobs was moving dirt from a subway tunnel constructed under part of Broadway (near Warren and Manning) in 1869. Alfred E. Beach had invented a bore/tunneling shield, which was used in the demonstration tunnel, which has been mentioned in Ghostbusters II, An American Tail, and CSI: NY. Beach did work with pneumatics, and separately was co-owner of Scientific American. Landowners in Manhattan opposed the subway (favoring elevated railways), which set back the subway technology for more than thirty years.

William Bradley bought land from Benjamin E. Duke, which later became Bradley Gardens.

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