New York panorama : a comprehensive view of the metropolis, Part 37

Author:
Publication date: 1938
Publisher: New York : Random House
Number of Pages: 630

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The outcome of this and other measures has had, and will very like continue to have, very little effect on the men who drive the cabs. Th are a colorful lot. Drawn from many nationalities and including all typ they know New York from end to end. They work hard, play hard, al talk among themselves in one of the most interesting of New York's ma jargons. They are hackies and their job is hacking. Sometimes they ri stick up, which means carrying passengers without running the meter; other times they ride the ghost, which refers to running an empty cab wi the flag down in order to bring the metered mileage to the minimum i quired by the company. Canaries are company inspectors, beefsteaks a

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icemen, and neutrals are crazy people. These are only a few of the ny odd terms one hears in the early morning hours at some beanery ere drivers have gathered to eat and to talk things over.

n 1934, the large-fleet drivers struck. Since then, efforts have been de to stabilize the business, especially that of the independently-operated s, which are outnumbered two to one by the fleet cabs. Rates are usually and 5"-20 cents for the first quarter-mile and five cents for each ad- onal quarter. Some independents charge 20-and-Io, or 25-and-5, these is being for converted private cars of the de luxe type.

Hacking is one job at which women have proved almost a total failure. March 31, 1937, there were only about 18 licensed women taxicab vers in the city, not one of whom appeared actually to be driving a cab.

rifries

All the major carriers within the city utilize one or more of three means transport-ferries, bridges and tunnels-between boroughs separated water.

Ferries are the oldest of the three, the first ferry having been operated 1641 by Cornelius Dirckman, a farmer who plied a rowboat between w Amsterdam and the straggling settlements on Long Island. This type service was followed by the pirogue, a two-masted flat-bottom sail- tt supplemented by oars. It was with a pirogue plying between Staten and and Manhattan that the first $1,000 of one of the country's great tunes was earned by Cornelius Vanderbilt in the 17th century.

Steam supplanted oars and sails on May 10, 1814, when the Nassau de the first steam ferry run between Brooklyn and New York at an aver- : speed of five miles an hour. It was owned and operated by the Fulton ry Company, headed by Robert Fulton and William Cutting, who had 5-year lease on service between Beekman Street slip and the old ferry › in Brooklyn. This side-wheel type of ferryboat gave place to the mod-

L screw-propeller vessel after 1885, when the Bergen was launched by Hoboken Company from the Delamater Iron Works at Newburgh, w York. Latest of all developments is the electric ferry, introduced in 26, and capable of a speed of from 15 to 18 miles an hour.

That the ferries still being used for interborough traffic have an impor- it part in that movement is shown by the figures for 1926-36, during ich period the ferries carried a yearly average of 32,384,566 passengers d 3,318,936 vehicles. In 1936, passengers totaled 29,237,507 and vehi-

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cles 2,621,652-a decrease of about nine percent for passengers and percent for vehicles from the yearly averages for the period.

Municipal ferries and those owned by railroads having their termir. een on the New Jersey side of the Hudson do the largest share of this businde The city operates boats over six routes, with a uniform five-cent fare passengers and a sliding scale of rates for vehicles. Service on these lind has been greatly improved since the city took them over from private ov th ers and operators. In addition to its six public routes, the city runs seve ade departmental ferry lines serving city institutions on islands in the E rit River.

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Bridges

As four of its five boroughs-Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and Ri mond-are either islands or parts of islands (only the Bronx is on i mainland ), New York has always had to consider the problem of water

0 ere its larger transportation plans. Before Brooklyn Bridge, first of the gr

WI East River crossings, was completed in 1883, a score of ferry lines cri Øst crossed the rivers and bay. Now almost all of these are gone, replaced 62 bridges and 16 tunnels-railroad, rapid transit and vehicular-whi hk af bear the tremendous daily flow of traffic within and to and from the ci Manhattan Island itself, surrounded by the Hudson, Harlem and E Rivers, resembles a many-legged insect, with all the tunnels and 15 of t bridges radiating from it into Long Island on the east, the Bronx on t north and New Jersey on the west.

Except for the Outerbridge Crossing and the Goethals and Bayon Bridges, which span the waters between Staten Island (Richmond) a New Jersey, and the famous Hell Gate railroad bridge connecting the toria section of Queens with the Bronx, all of the city's notable bridg ak have a base in Manhattan. Over the East River are the Brooklyn, Manher tan, Williamsburg, Queensboro and Triborough Bridges; and above twe Hudson is the George Washington Bridge. Nine smaller structures ov Bot the Harlem River join Manhattan and the Bronx. Within the boroug We outside Manhattan-and connecting some of them-are 43 other bridge from 65 to 1,900 feet in length, which span such inlets as Gowanus Can: 0 i English Kills, Beach Channel, Shell Bank Basin, Bronx River and Ne lep town Creek.

Best known of all these structures is Brooklyn Bridge, which fty' many years after its opening on March 24, 1883, was considered one ur

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engineering wonders of the world. Costing more than $25,000,000 with a span of 1,595 feet, it was designed mainly for pedestrians be- iminen Brooklyn and Manhattan, but is now used almost entirely by sur- usinde cars, subway trains and automobiles. Brooklyn is further linked to are se li te ow seve ie E nhattan by the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges, opened in 1903 1909 respectively. Together with Brooklyn Bridge, they bear the bulk the Long Island-Manhattan traffic over the East River. Only occasional estrians use most of the large bridges, but the Williamsburg is a fa- ite promenade of tenement dwellers from both sides of the river.

Queensboro Bridge casts its shadow on fashionable Beekman and Sut- Places, Manhattan, as well as on the city hospitals and the home for insane on Welfare Island in the center of the river. This structure, of cantilever type, with a span of 1,182 feet and two upper levels-one elevated trains, the other for vehicular traffic-was completed in 1909; until the Triborough Bridge was opened in 1936, its narrow roadways e packed day and night with motor traffic between midtown and up- In New York and Long Island points. Now the Triborough, which t $60,300,000-more than half of it from PWA funds-connects up- Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens with a gigantic Y-shaped crossing, king the highways of Westchester and Long Island and relieving the fic burden on the streets and bridges of lower Manhattan. This newest the city's bridges is a model express sky-highway system with 19 miles roadway, including the approaches. In 1937, it was used by 11, 171,956 icles, which paid tolls amounting to $2,845,109.

For a while after its completion in 1931 the George Washington dge, whose main span is 3,500 feet long, was the longest suspension e A idgł dge in the world, but it is now surpassed in length by the San Francisco- kland Bridge over San Francisco Bay. Built at a cost of $60,000,000 nhder a period of 41/2 years, the George Washington rears two majestic Hvers on each bank of the Hudson River-at Fort Lee, New Jersey, and ovoth Street, Manhattan-and provides Manhattan with its only direct ugh jerwater link with the west. The slender span between the towers is 250 Ageet above the water and has two roadways and a footwalk, which afford ana incomparable view of the Jersey Palisades, on one side, and of upper Venew York on the other.

High Bridge, connecting Manhattan and the Bronx, is the oldest of the foy's bridges and most notable of the Harlem River crossings. It was built e @ 1839-48, long before modern bridge-building principles were known.

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In addition to its other facilities, this massive masonry structure carries aqueduct of the city water supply.

Three bridges link Staten Island with New Jersey and provide ac tional outlets between New York and points west and south. The Goet får Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing, both opened in 1928, are sister sp of the truss type, overhanging each end of Arthur Kill ("kill" is Dutch equivalent for "stream") on the west side of the island. On p north side, Bayonne Bridge, with a span of 1,675 feet, crosses Kill Kull into Bayonne and leads directly to the Jersey entrance of the Holl: te Tunnel in Jersey City. The three bridges cost a total of approxima $30,000,000.

Particularly impressive is the East River span, more than 1,000 i long, of the Hell Gate Bridge, above mentioned. The bridge in its tirety carries the four tracks of the New York Connecting Railroad, link the Pennsylvania and the New Haven railway systems; and it is used through freight and passenger trains between the areas covered by thes systems.

Some idea of the traffic flow across New York's interborough brid C may be gained from the fact that during the period 1926-36 an aver of 15,104,815 subway and trolley cars, 289,741,745 vehicles, and I, I( 318,425 persons (passengers and pedestrians) crossed these structu yearly.

Tunnels

Far below Manhattan's bridges and the waters they cross, nearly a so of tunnels burrow into that island from adjacent land areas. Beneath East River are eight arteries of the city's subway systems and one of Pennsylvania Railroad. Three more subway tubes underlie the Har) River. Under the Hudson are the Pennsylvania Railroad tunnel, the To town and downtown Hudson Tubes used exclusively by the Hudson : Manhattan Railroad (a Newark-New York system), the Holland Tur. and the new Lincoln Tunnel. Underlying Newtown Creek on Long Isl.fno is a tunnel that connects Brooklyn and Queens over the Independent. s the way system.

The oldest of the under-river crossings is the Harlem River Tunnel the IRT's Lenox Avenue line, connecting Lenox Avenue between . and 143d Streets in Manhattan with 149th Street in the Bronx. It (50 opened on July 10, 1905. The latest tunnel within the city, the Indepe pc

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triest subway's East River crossing from Fulton Street in Manhattan to anberry Street in Brooklyn, was completed on December 12, 1933. The average length of the East River transit tunnels is about 2,500 feet, ile those beneath the Hudson are as long as 6,000 feet. They cost from ree to seven million dollars each. Although most of the under-water ossings are at about the same general level, at some points they are sunk deeply, because of obstructing bedrock or intervening land subways, at elevators or escalators are needed at their terminals to carry passen- rs to the surface.

The Holland Tunnel, a double-tubed vehicular passage between Canal reet in Manhattan and Provost Street in Jersey City, is one of the world's 0 its eatest engineering feats. Built by the States of New York and New Jer- y, it required more than seven years to build and cost $50,000,000. It intis opened on November 13, 1927. Its two tubes lie 72 feet below the rface of the Hudson River; the northern one, for west-bound traffic, is t557 feet long, and the southern, for east-bound traffic, is 8,371 feet. .ch tube has a 20-foot roadway. The interiors are white-tiled, brilliantly ghted, and ventilated by 84 huge fans. Policemen, stationed at intervals I a catwalk along the walls, supervise the movement of traffic.

Two important vehicular tunnels are in course of construction as this ok goes to press-the Lincoln, under the Hudson River from West hirty-Ninth Street in Manhattan to Weehawken in New Jersey; and the ueens Midtown, under the East River from East Thirty-Eighth Street in Manhattan to Long Island City in Queens. One of the Lincoln Tunnel's yo tubes was opened late in 1937; the other is expected to be ready for affic in 1940. The Queens Midtown Tunnel will be completed in time to rve as the pivotal link in a direct motor route from Manhattan to the rounds of the great World's Fair in 1939.

ommuters and Transient Visitors

What may for want of a better term be called the "in and out" traffic lovement of New York, as differentiated from traffic confined within the city limits, comprises an annual total of considerably more than 00,000,000 passengers, although its exact volume is for various reasons ither difficult to estimate. By far the largest number of these passengers re either commuters or transient visitors ; but they include also a relatively mall number of resident New Yorkers who travel either habitually or ccasionally beyond the city boundaries.

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Those who work in New York and live outside the city constitute tal largest army of commuters in the world. On every business day throug lave out the year, this army converges upon and moves into the city from tienn west, the east and the north-to retreat later in the day over the sar. prtl routes into a far-flung suburban area. erse

Of the commuting traffic that originates on the New Jersey side of tl In Hudson River, the largest part is handled by the Hudson & Manhatt: Railroad, an inter-city system between New York and Newark via Jers |er City and Hoboken, with its own under-river tunnels (known as the Hu the son Tubes ), its own terminal and subway in Manhattan. In addition, Netrp Jersey commuters utilize six major railroads-the Pennsylvania, the Eri A the Lackawanna, the Lehigh, the Central of New Jersey, and the Wellut Shore. Of these roads, the Pennsylvania and the Lehigh run their trains ditay rectly by tunnel to the Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. The four otherent terminate on the Jersey shore of the Hudson, and their passengers a thes transferred to Manhattan either by ferries owned and operated by the railut roads or through the Hudson Tubes-as a service included in the origin jan fare.

Commuters from the east stream in from Long Island, where the Lor fer Island Railroad dominates the whole area beyond the limits of Brooklyh and Queens. In 1936, this railroad carried a total of close to fifty millic passengers. No such traffic volume was ever dreamed of when the Broosec lyn & Jamaica Railroad Company completed connections between Broolike lyn and Jamaica on April 18, 1836. Even in 1861, when the road openem its first South Shore division to Islip, or in 1883, when the Montauk diviio sion was opened, the 1936 totals would have been considered fantastic. Ana a matter of fact, the company's original plan was not so much to hand in Long Island traffic as to provide a short cut to Boston by ferry across Lonilie Island Sound at Greenport, that being the primary purpose of the Broolt lyn-Jamaica-Hicksville line, opened July 25, 1844. But the New Haven all-land route to New England proved much more attractive, and the Lonti Island Railroad turned instead to the business of transporting Long Islandbu New York passengers almost exclusively. The railroad uses the Pennsy to vania's tunnel under the East River, and lands its passengers at th Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan.

Commuters from the north and northeast are for the most part resident of Westchester County or of the neighboring Connecticut area to the eas They travel to and from the city on two principal railroads, the New York Central and the New Haven, both of which utilize the Grand Cer

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te t1 Terminal in the midtown section of Manhattan. Certain of the New ougiven's trains, however, run directly to another Manhattan terminal, the m t hnsylvania Station. The volume of this commuting traffic from the tth and northeast is considerably smaller than that of either the New sey or the Long Island traffic.

of tIn addition to the army of commuters that daily throngs the city, New rk is host each year to a tremendous number of transient visitors from ery part of the United States-and indeed, from every part of the world. ley are constantly coming and going, by railroad, bus, private motor car, plane, and steamer.

An average of between 60 and 70 million passengers, other than com- iters, enter or leave New York annually by means of the trunk-line rail- lys and their subsidiary facilities, making this city one of the busiest thenters of railway passenger travel in the world. The more important of s aese railways are mentioned above, in connection with commuting traffic, rat there are some others that serve the city. Four of them-the Pennsyl- ginnia, New York Central, New Haven, and Lehigh-land their passen- rs in Manhattan, at either the Pennsylvania Station or the Grand Central oterminal. The others have their metropolitan terminals on the adjacent kl ore of New Jersey, chiefly in Jersey City.

The extent of New York's in-and-out motor traffic cannot be estimated, 00 00 cause one of the five boroughs is part of the mainland and two others cupy only a relatively small section of Long Island-so that vehicles may ens ter or leave these three boroughs by many thoroughfares. But some no- liton of the volume of motor traffic into and out of the island of Manhattan .May be formed from the fact that (taking into account only two of several dlain connecting links) nearly twelve million motor passengers were car- ored through the Holland Tunnel and more than seven million over the ogeorge Washington Bridge, in 1936.

en A large proportion of these passengers, whether commuters or transient on sitors, consisted of bus patrons. New York is the most important motor nis center in the United States, being served by lines to every part of the sypuntry and to hundreds of suburban points. In midtown Manhattan are thalf a dozen principal bus terminals, with ticket offices, waiting rooms, in- ormation booths, etc .; and subsidiary stations are scattered all through mthe main business sections of the five boroughs.

Although by no means inconsiderable in itself, the total number of erTew York's transient visitors who arrive and depart by steamship consti- olites less than one percent of the in-and-out traffic as a whole. The facili-

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ties and other factors involved in this particular phase of the city's passen ges ger movement are described elsewhere in the present volume (see articl dealing with Maritime Affairs).

Airports

Air travel to and from New York is chiefly served by the Newark Met ropolitan Airport, at Newark, New Jersey. This is the metropolitan por of entry and departure for four major airlines-the American, Eastern Transcontinental & Western, and United. New York business accounts fo 1 about 90 percent of this airport's traffic. Passengers are transported bexxist tween Manhattan and the airfield by special limousine buses. During thefay first nine months of 1937, 227,252 passengers arrived at or departed frontud the Newark Airport-an increase of 42,486 over the corresponding perioddja in 1936.

Most important of the ports within the city is Floyd Bennett Field and municipal airport of the City of New York, at Barren Island, Brooklynport When dedicated in 1931 this was considered one of the best fields in thera East, but so far it has had small success in competing with Newark for major share of the metropolitan air traffic. At present (1938) the city ifif spending several million dollars upon improvements and additions herein in an effort to bring more business to airports within the city limits.

Even more extensive is the projected development of North Beach Municipal Airport in Queens, which was purchased from the Curtiss ker Wright interests for $1,300,000 in 1937. In collaboration with the Federa me WPA, the city will spend approximately $12,000,000 in a large-scale im he provement program to be completed before the opening in 1939 of theit World's Fair, the site of which is only a short distance from the airport.

The city is also pushing a proposal designed to utilize part of Gover nors Island as an air field. This move has the support of many civic leader: and is being urged vigorously before Congress, which must grant permis sion to use this Federal property for the purpose.

Commercial airports of minor importance in the metropolitan area in clude Holmes Airport, in Queens; Flushing Airport, near Flushing, L. I. Brentwood Airport, Brentwood, L. I .; American Airport, Farmingdale L. I .; and Patchogue Airport, on Great South Bay, near Patchogue, L. I Seaplane anchorages for aerial commuters include the Wall Street Skyport foot of Wall Street, East River; the Thirty-First Street anchorage on the East River; and the 125th Street facilities on the Hudson River. Anchor-

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es are also provided at North Beach Airport, in Queens, and at Edo aplane Anchorage, College Point.

Mitchell Field, near Hempstead, L. I., is the principal United States rmy airfield in this area; and Miller Field, at Dongan Hills, Staten land, is a subpost of Fort Wadsworth used by a squadron of the New ork National Guard Aviation Corps.

orward Look

Two proposals of major importance in the extension of New York's isting transportation facilities were advanced in 1937. On February 8, Layor La Guardia requested the New York City Tunnel Authority to udy plans for a vehicular tunnel that would link Staten Island with the Adjacent New Jersey mainland. The second proposal, submitted March I y the Port of New York Authority to Governor Hoffman of New Jersey nd the legislature of that State, contemplated linking the communities of orthern New Jersey with midtown Manhattan by means of a new rapid ansit system costing $187,500,000. The outstanding feature of this enor- nous development would be the creation of a new rapid transit center at ifty-First Street, Manhattan, in the vicinity of Rockefeller Center, with n extension of the Hudson Tubes and other existing facilities to this enter.

By such constant planning for the future, New York has in recent years ept abreast of its traffic needs and moved steadily forward in the develop- ents necessitated by a population pressure that has no equal anywhere in he world. To a city thus able to cope with its own perennially evolving ituation, population density and other primary factors hold no terrors.

XIX. TRADE AND INDUSTRY

World Market Place

U NDERLYING the diverse factors that brought about New York's ascer fid to supremacy among cities, trade-the buying and selling of goods-wa tent and still is, that function with respect to which all other of the city's Iolos calized economic processes occupy an ancillary position. New Yorkers wer put traders before they were colonists, they were tradesmen before they wentllo industrial entrepreneurs, and they were merchants before they were bank ban ers. Whether it consisted of bartering with the Indians, dealing with richlfol laden pirates, marketing the prizes of privateers, selling the Governmer bin condemned ships and rifles, or simply carrying on a legitimate exchang with the general public, trade was the driving force that overcame all barpos riers and reduced all obstacles to New York's future greatness.

To sell something for more than it cost, to buy something at less than :oth could be sold for-this was the key that unlocked the door to riches, thi Ch was the formula that engendered New York's great fortunes. Shipping! transportation, banking, even industrial production, were but necessary apl pendages of trade, grafted to the primary economic organism as the urgi and possibilities for greater profits increased.

This was not peculiar to New York alone. It was characteristic of th entire historical epoch and civilization that sprang from the wreckage of feudal society. But New York, more than any other of the world's metrolth politan monuments to the glittering achievements of trade, symbolizes theb fabulous chemistry of the buying and selling formula. In most moderna cities one or another particular auxiliary of trade has acquired greatnes da in its own right, usurping or overshadowing its progenitor. In the case o: New York, however, all the auxiliaries of trade-shipping, transporta tion, industrial production, and banking-have acquired greatness in thei: own right, but with the exception of banking alone they remain in subordi nate positions. Because of Wall Street's national and international ramifi cations, New York as a financial center outranks New York as a commodi ties market. From an appendage of New York trade, Wall Street ha:

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eveloped into an appendage of world trade. In this respect Wall Street ay be said to have independence, greatness in its own right. Within the pounds of metropolitan economy, however, trade retains its basic and his- ric function. New York is more a city of merchants than of bankers, of opkeepers than of stockbrokers, of clerks than of industrial workers. It ay not be World Market Place No. I, but it is indisputably and demon- rably United States Market Place No. I.

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New York panorama : a comprehensive view of the metropolis, Part 37

Author: Publication date: 1938 Publisher: New York : Random House Number of Pages: 630

Author:
Publication date: 1938
Publisher: New York : Random House
Number of Pages: 630