HARBOR AND MARINE REVIEW distributing food, milk, express and possibly baggage and The Improvement of the Harlem River mail. 4. Of great value in an emergency for use, either of passenger or freight service, in the event of the necessity of temporary diversion of traffic from existing channels. This report is approved of by Mr. Wilgus. LOCATION AND COST OF TUNNEL Jesse B. Snow, tunnel engineer for the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the City of New York, gives in detail his reasons for the choice of location, the latter being described as follows: "The route that I recommend extends from the Long Island Railroad, near Sixth Avenue, Brooklyn, under private property and city streets to the bulkhead near the foot of 86th Street; thence under the Narrows to Staten Island, near the foot of Maryland Avenue; thence under private property to a crossing under the Staten Island Railway between Grasmere and Dongan Hills; thence on a private right of way and parallel with the Staten Island Railway to Grant City; thence curving to the westward and continuing on private right of way to the Classification Yard, located near Richmond, Staten Island. The total length of the above line is about 81⁄2 miles." By James Brackenridge, Fresident, The Bronx Board of Trade TH The preliminary estimate of cost of a two-track tunnel on the southerly route, says Mr. Snow, is as follows: Tunnel construction, including connection to the Stapleton piers and based on present-day prices for labor and materials, with an allowance for contractors' contingencies and profit, $34,261,000; equipment, including track, third-rail, substations, transmission, ventilation, pumping, lighting, signals, telegraph and telephone lines, etc., $2,073,000; engineering, in which is included design, supervision and inspection, estimated at six per cent of cost of tunnel construction and equipment, $2,180,000; administration and legal expenses, estimated at two per cent of the cost of tunnel construction and equipment, $727,000, making a total of $39,241,000, to which add for real estate and easements $1,500,000, and the total is $40,741,000; to this is added for contingencies, to provide for fluctuation in cost of labor and materials, claims, accidents, etc., estimated at 10 per cent of the above total, $4,074,000, which brings the amount up to $44,815,000, to which is added for the Brooklyn Freight Connection, including real estate, engineering, administration and contingencies, $6,000,000, making the grand total $50,815,000. The time required for construction is estimated at from five to six years. HE improvement of the Harlem River, "an arm of the sea," the natural connecting-link between points on the Great Lakes, the New York State Barge Canal, and the Hudson and North Rivers, on the one hand, and the East River, the Long Island Sound and the ports of the world, on the other, is a matter of utmost importance, not only to The Bronx and Manhattan, but to the entire City, the State, and the Nation. In its present far-from-perfect condition, this waterway, in the calendar vear 1917, carried 15,822,342 tons of merchandise, valued at $1,788,331,171, more than one-third the valuation of the merchandise carried on the Hudson River, and more than one-half that carried on the East River. What limit could there be to its usefulness, should this stream be widened to four hundred feet and deepened to twenty feet, as proposed and favored by The Bronx Board of Trade? In 1919 there were more than 5,000 vessels entered and 5,000 vessels cleared the port in foreign direct service, and probably nearly that many more in coastwise, river and sound service. A vessel enters the port and another leaves the port on an average every twenty minutes during the day-light hours. New York's waterways, rivers, channels and bays are among its greatest assets, forming free and convenient intercommunication between the different parts of the harbor. Such a development of the waterway will prove a great benefit to shipping, since it will enable many classes of vessels now debarred from using it to navigate upon it, and by accommodating these vessels, which now make use of the East River-Hell Gate-Battery-North River-Hudson River route, congestion of water traffic off the Battery will be lessened, and the use of the hazardous Hell Gate channel avoided. When the present many improvements in the waterfront of the Port of New York are completed it will no longer be open to the charge of exorbitant wharfage rates and intolerable transshipment charges. Also, such a development of the waterway will permit of the enlargement of the existing railroad terminals (every trunk line entering the Port of New York has a terminal on the Harlem River), by the addition of storage warehouses, grain elevators, transshipment depots, etc. Further, if the plan on which The Bronx Board of Trade is working is successful, a marginal railway, an industrial belt line, linking up all these terminals, will be an integral part of the waterway's development. A Municipal Terminal Market is about to be authorized by the city authorities. Great industrial enterprises, the stream once improved, perforce must locate on its shores, affording employment to untold thousands. So far, but one State Barge Canal Terminal (at 138th Street) has been provided for the Harlem River, on The Bronx side. The growth of The Bronx, following the waterway's improvement, will soon make it imperative that at least two more be constructed at strategic points. An integral part also of the scheme of development for the Harlem River is the establishment of "Ports of Call" at the Hudson River (Spuyten Duyvil) and East River (Port Morris) entrances to the waterway. Final phases of the development, toward which we must work in the very near future, will be: 1. The removal of all the highway bridges now crossing the stream, excepting Washington Bridge, and the substitution of tuunels for them, in order to carry the various thoroughfares and transit arteries into Manhattan; and 2. The bulkheading of both shores of the waterway, for its entire length, and the installation of a cement bottom, so that future dredging operations may be unnecessary, because of the fact that tidal action will be able to carry away each day the sewage, silt, etc., now deposited on the bottom of the channel, and clinging there, causing annual decreases in channel depths. These are the outstanding features of the development of the Harlem River, as The Bronx Board of Trade views them. The importance of this project to the City, State and Nation should unite in its behalf every forward-looking citizen of the community. The Port of New York is the premier port of the world. HARBOR AND MARINE REVIEW Barge Canal Is Great Waterway State Superintendent of Public Works Describes Prepared for Greater New York, the weekly organ of the Merchants' Asso- T HE movement of freight by water is the cheapest method of transportation, and it is of the highest interest to trade and commerce that such a great competitive influence as the New York State canal system should be maintained. Water transportation furnishes trade with the surest regulatory influence on freight rates. THE STATE CANAL SYSTEM The New York State canal system is a magnificent engineering achievement and possesses many physical and economical advantages. It extends from Buffalo, on Lake Erie, through the State of New York to New York City, a distance of 500 miles. The zone traversed is a fertile one and within twenty miles of the canal route there reside 8,000,000 people or 87 per cent of the population of the State. cities of Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo have a combined population of more than a million people. There are 6,000 manufacturing industries in these cities and the many smaller cities and villages which touch the canal line. A GREAT WATERWAY The The New York State canal system includes a series of canalized rivers and lakes and, with the exception of the locks and dams, the conditions encountered are such as are fcund in ordinary river navigation. The total mileage in canalized rivers and lakes is 382. One of the greatest inland waterways in the world offers its wonderful facilities to commerce in its movement from the West to the Atlantic and from the seaccast to the Great Lakes regions. A depth of twelve feet has been provided. The width of the new channel necessarily varies. Through canalized rivers and lakes the channel is at least 200 feet wide. Through rock cuts in land lines there is a minimum bottom width of 94 feet, and through earth sections 75 feet. LOCKS 310 FEET LONG The dimensions of all locks are identical. The length of the lock chamber from the lower gate to the breast wall is 310 feet. which, considering the operation of the gates, will permit the locking of a barge 300 feet long. The width of the lock chambers is 45 feet. From the Hudson River at Waterford, just above the head of tidewater, this wonderful waterway connects with Lake Erie at Buffalo and with Lake Ontario at Oswego. A lateral canal extends southerly to Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, while on the north the Champlain Canal taps Lake Champlain at Whitehall and serves the northern districts into the interior of Canada, through the Richelieu Canal and the Chambly Canal. THE TERMINALS The terminals at the various ports offer every facility for the aid of commerce. All the municipalities have splendid docks, owned and operated by the State, with warehouses where goods may be stored temporarily. Modern freight handling machinery also is provided. Interchange between rail and canal has been effected at Albany, where connection exists with the Delaware & Hudson and the New York Central Railroad; at Troy with the New York Central and Bcs(Continued on page 33) Port Newark Development By E. W. Wollmuth, Secretary, Newark Chamber of Commerce HE City's project to deepen the ship channel in Newark Bay is about 75 per cent completed. Under aver TH age weather conditions, the $1,000,000 dredging and bulkhead job will be finished by March, 1922. The improved channel will provide 31 feet of water (M. L. T.) from the Kill Van Kull to a point about 1,000 feet inside the ship channel at Port Newark. Continuation of the 31 foot channel to No. 5 warehouse of the Quartermaster's Depot located on the Port Newark ship channel will be provided under a contract to be awarded by the City next year. With the completion of the dredging, ample leeway will be afforded for navigation and the boats plying between Port Newark and other ports will experience no difficulties in negotiating the channel. The effect of the progressiveness and independence of Newark in performing a federal function, is becoming apparent in the interest shown by several steamship lines which are giving careful consideration to the plan of locating at the Port. Negotiations for leasing the Quartermaster's Depot warehouses are pending between the City and the War Department. The question as to the rental to be paid therefor by the City is still unsettled. Under the terms of sale of the property occupied by the Quartermaster's Depot, the City is in the position where it may buy back the property sold to the Government before it is offered for sale to anyone else. The City's claim that it should be given preference in connection with leasing the warehouses from the Government was sustained by the War Department as being in conformity with the spirit of the sale of the land originally. Until the additional municipal piers are available, the City is endeavoring to lease the Army warehouses in order to meet an insistent demand for warehouses and wharfage along the waterfront of the City. The warehouses are substantial structures fronting on the ship channel and having railroad sidings. There are nine of these buildings, 200 feet wide and 1,200 feet in length, constructed of wood and tile. They are now being used by the government for storage of war material and trophies. Preliminary surveys for the proposed additional piers south of the present city channel have been completed. The estimated cost of constructing the piers, bulkheads, warehouses, and railroad connections is $8,000,000, while the dredging to be done to bring deep water to the proposed piers is estimated at $4,000,000. Haynes Avenue, a new main artery extending through the industrial sites of Port Newark, is expected to be in general use next year and will provide a much needed cutlet for traffic. Under the direction of the Municipal Bureau of Information the industrial sites will be offered to manufacturing concerns; negotiations are now being conducted for the location on this tract of a number of manufacturing plant At this time surveys are being made to determine the feasibility of establishing a large depot for coal for metropolitan distribution; another for storing lumber shipped by water from the Pacific Coast. The indications are that Newark will be a unit in the stand taken by the Newark Chamber of Commerce with respect to the plans of the Port Authority; the preliminary report embodying the establishment of belt line railroads has been approved by a committee of the Chamber, but approval of the comprehensive plan has been withheld pending the announcement of more detailed plans. Application is expected to be made to the Board of Com(Continued on page 32) Ꮤ Written for THE PORT OF NEW YORK by E have not got an up-to-date dock, wharf or pier, or call it what you want, in Manhattan. There is no reason in the world why we cannot have docks with loading and unloading devices which will coal large ships in fifteen minutes as is now done in the South, instead of several days, and make similar advancement in handling of every other commodity. To do this in old Manhattan would be some job. So what we propose to do is to extend Broadway six miles down the Bay, then via tunnels to Staten Island, continuing down to the lower end of Staten Island, increasing the length of Broadway some twenty-one miles thereby. With this for a back-bone, we can reclaim six square miles of new land from the Bay, and add twelve miles of water front. Everyone knows how very much easier.and much more satisfactory it is to make a brand new dress with the latest material at hand, than to patch up an old dress with equally old materials. So by building a brand new city, we can avoid thousands of mistakes that have been made in the past. Here we propose to have each slip and pier for a onesized boat only. That means that the loading and unloading devices will be in a fixed position, instead of moving up and down the wharves. It means that the slips can face up the Hudson River for Hudson River boats, face up the East River for the East River boats, pointing towards Brooklyn and Jersey for the ferries, etc., and towards the Narrows for the great ocean liners. Which means that thousands of dollars will be saved for tugs trying to warp boats into their slips. By the Belt Line Railroad all railroads in the country will have direct access to every cross street and every pier, so that all the merchandise, etc., can be delivered to the piers and then to the consumers direct as quickly as first-class mail. After working over this project for twelve years, scarcely a day passes that I do not think of some new improvement for this truly modern metropolitan city. For instance, as every building will cover a whole block without being hampered by the old twenty-five foot city lots it will be possible to arrange a post office with pneumatic tubes to each building, so that all the mail for one building will be delivered direct to the building itself, and the letter carriers will never have to leave the building. This will save the carting of mail through the streets. in the world by the thousands to insure this satisfactory consummation of a nearly as possible ideal city. We also propose to have (from Niagara) hydro-electric light, heat and power at lower rates than we now pay, and it will never be necessary to haul coal through the streets, as the only coal that we ever expect to have on Manhattan Extension will be that for the steamships, which will be brought in by our Belt Line Railroad. So we will never have to dig up the streets, nor have a horse on the streets, and neither mail nor coal will be transported on the streets, and so, much useless congestion will be avoided. Hon. Alton B. Parker, formerly Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, and Democratic candidate for the Presidency in 1904, is quoted as saying: It may be found desirable to have moving platforms across the city from wharf to wharf, and it may even be possible to have similar moving platforms the whole length of the Extension. There are no formidable legal obstacles to the plan to extend Manhattan Island four miles down the bay. There will be much legal labor involved, and legislative grants of the necessary land under water must be obtained and the consent and co-operation of the City Government and of the War Department and Congress must be secured. But the project is unquestionably legally feasible. These details are simply mentioned to show that we want every item from a latch key to a roof garden or airplane landing, to be a very marked advance over anything done in the past. We hope to be able to retain the best intellects To the suggestion that the work should be done by the city instead of by private capital so that the city might realize the profits, I would reply that in the first place, even if the work were done with public funds rather than private capital, the city would not receive the profits, for the land under water needed is not city property. It belongs to the State, and, therefore, if any public exchequer was to be swollen with the gains it would be that of the State. But the public has had no experience which would justify the supposition that such a public work would result in any profit to the public. The Post Office, the Erie Canal, the municipal ferries, and every other large public work shows a deficit-never a profit. This is no place to detail the reasons for this. The fact is, however, not to be denied. a public expense. Public work is And the fiscal results are found not in the public exchequer, but in the tax levies. Such excuse as may be found for Government ownership and Government operation is found not in its possible return or even in its economy, but is found alone in the services to the public. Now this project offers no public service in the common meaning of that phrase. This project is not what we call a public utility. The public benefit from it will be enormous. But it creates no public servant, like a canal, railroad, ferry or lighting plant. Therefore, the assumption by the public of the responsibility of carrying out the reclamation of this vast tract would be a mere entry into business for a possible profit and would be no more justified than the making of a contract by a city to build a skyscraper, automobile or sewing machine, or to engage in speculation in securities. It seems inconceivable that the people of the State would pass any constitutional amendment increasing the debt limit so as to allow even $600,000,000 for this improvement, especially when the matter is disconnected from any public utility. Who shall say what sum it would cost the public to do this work which a private corporation may do for $600,000,000? The city will need for a time at least all it can borrow to furnish rapid transit to its millions. Docks and streets will go gratis to the city throughout this new territory, and the additional property subjected to its taxes would enormously increase revenue and radically reduce the tax rate. It should be patent to every thinking mind that this is an enterprise for private capital. Let it bear the burden and heat of the day and receive its hire of which it is worthy. And let the city and State and the entire country, without HARBOR AND MARINE REVIEW the expenditure of a single dollar, without the addition of any fraction to the tax rate, reap the very evident increase in revenue and the less evident but greater benefit of the salvage of realty and values and the increased facilities for conducting the vast business which gives New York its imperial position among the cities of the world. Walter Russell, President of the Manhattan Extension Company, Inc., which will undertake this engineering feat, is also quoted as saying: Three times the population of Albany is being added to New York City every year. It seems only yesterday that we were two million. It will be only tomorrow that our six millions will be fifteen millions. The Manhattan extension will add to the Wall Street zone an area about equal to the land from Forty-second Street to the Battery. This new six square miles shown on the map will preserve and increase all present values; it will give terminals on Manhattan Island for all railroads, thus increasing the radius of centralization; it will open up the vast territory of Staten Island and Scuth Brocklyn for the coming millions and will keep the Wall Street zone the permanent logical centre of Greater New York forever. The necessities of this overgrowth of New York has used up the city's credit. It can borrow no more. Its taxes are threatened with an increase. Mayor Mitchell scunded the warning long ago and appointed a committee to lock for new sources of revenue. The This committee found no new scurces of revenue. Manhattan extension will give vast revenue in taxes on about $5,000,000,000 of increased values, also on rentals of twelve miles of docks and also on subways which will be erected for the city without expenses to the taxpayers of the city. The Manhattan extension plan will be erected by a peoples' corporation and not by the municipality. This corporation will erect the entire new city on steel and concrete, including all its streets three decks high, all sewers and spaces for pipes, all wharves and docks and the great seawall without costing the city one cent. It will be financed by baby bonds. Ten million people will eventually own the equity in it. It will be erected as fast as it can be absorbed and taxed as it is improved, thus constantly reducing the ratio of tax. Besides the vast revenue to the city by the addition of this extension it would have the following advantages: It would immediately insure New York being the greatest metropolis of the world. It would open the greatest real estate and building boom in the history of New York. It would save the Wall Street zcne from the menace of the "northward pull." the area of Manhattan Island would, with South Brooklyn, become the logical residential section of the swiftly increasing population of New York. It would forever insure lower Manhattan being the permanent pulsing heart of the city because it would then be easily accessible from all directions instead of from only one. The Literary Digest, of New York, in its issue of December 10, 1921, devoted considerable space to this subject, saying: It would make New York a continous city instead of isolated in its parts by water barriers. It would save land valued at $700 a foot from depreciation to $30 a foot. Shall a great part of New York Bay be filled in so that Manhattan Island may be made larger? To do this would merely be to carry out on a greater scale what has already been done with Governors Island, in the bay, whose size has now been greatly multiplied by filling in the shallows just to the south. That enlargement would be engulfed in the proposed new filling and Governors Island would cease to be a separate entity. The extension would make Manhattan about six miles longer, and the North and East Rivers would join at a new "Battery" not far from the entrance of the Narrows. The plan is detailed in the following description which we quote from The Illustrated World (Chicago): It would raise the debt limit of New York by at least five billions of dollars in a few years and increase the taxable value of every foot of land within thirty miles of City Hall. It would make Staten Island into as valuable a residential section as Brooklyn and the Bronx. From $100,000,000 assessed value it would speedily leap to billions. This vast inaccessible territory of more than three times "New York, now credited with being the most populous city in the world must find more territory. The congestion in certain areas is tremendous. Manhattan Island, Staten Island and Long Island-the last ninety miles in length-would seem to offer sufficient land for even so great a metropolis, but the commercial interests must have certain favored sections for proper cperation, and also the problems of getting to and from work are becoming more and more serious. The most up-to-date methods of transportation cannot overcome these obvious drawbacks, and more land is necessary. "But where is this additional territory to be found? If man has used up all the available resources nature had placed at his disposal, apparently there is nothing to do but get along as best he can. However, it has suddenly occurred to the New Yorker that the land he has been seeking lies at his very door. The map shows that Manhattan Island is a narrow strip of land about thirteen miles in length and in no place wider than two, lying between the Hudson on the cne side and the East River on the cther. At the north it terminates at a narrow stream, known as the Harlem River, and on the south at the Battery, overlooking the Upper Bay. Now it is proposed to extend Manhattan out into the bay sc as to include alcut six more square miles and come within close range of Staten Island. Congress, Ly its passage of the Fdoe-Anserg bill, signed by President Harding, has given free rein to New York City to make their great improvement. Plans are already being drawn up to put this permission definitely into effect. "As an engineering feat the filling-up of this part of the Lay will not le a gigantic one. The water is shallow and no exceptional features are involved, at least none that have not already been met and sclved by engineering science. The building of a series of great coffer-dams, the pumping cut of the stagnant and-it must be confessed-rather dirty waters, the pouring of endless loads of earth and stone upon the erstwhile sea bottom-these are the steps that will constitute the procedure to be taken. "The 3,840 acres of terra firma thus added to the great city's area will be worth considerably over a million dollars more than encugh to pay off the present total indebtedness of the municipality. "It is proposed to construct a model city on the most scientific pattern compatible with the peculiar needs of the business section on this new land. Every building-if this part of the admirable plan goes through-will be a block square. There will be three, perhaps four. levels. There will be streets in as many tiers or decks. The lowest level will be used for subway and trains; the next higher for |