SolvingNewYork's Freight Problem 



Bv Herbert Francis Slierwood 



A typical scene along the -water-front of New York and Brooklyn. Freight cars, lighters, 

 steamers unload their freight, regardless of system, regardless of expense. Every ton of 

 miscellaneous freight carries as much of a charge for terminal handling as it does for rail 

 or water transportation, an average of about seventy cents per ton. New York has by 

 far tlie crudest and least economical means of freight handling of any great modern city 



N.Xri'RE has made in New York 

 Harbor the [jroMi'in of a cheap 

 manner of transterring goods be- 

 tween hind and water and the transporta- 

 tion lines and factories, warehouses and 

 stores difficult of solution. This year 

 the complex method evolved for hanfl- 

 ling freight has been further comiilicaled 

 through the scarcity of ships and the 

 (ongestion of the railroad terminals in 

 (■()nsc(|uencc'. 



It is<lirticult to iH'alize that il tile shore- 

 line of the waters included within the 

 limits of the port of New York was un- 

 tangled and connected so that it ran 

 more or less directly toward one point 

 of the compass, and a railroad were laid 

 U|)on it, it woulil take the Twcntielh 

 Century Limited, Iraxeling .it ,in a\<r- 

 age s])ei'd of fifty miles an hour, fiflciii 

 and one-half hours to traverse it. The 



number of miles ol wati'rfront is 771. 

 Of this total, 578 niiU's are in New York 

 city, the remainder being the N\-w 

 Jersey shore extending alf)ng the Hudson 

 River from the upper end of the city 

 around the Lower Bay to the lighthouse 

 and artillery proving grounds on the 

 extremit>' of Sandy Hook. Lnfortu- 

 nateh', thiTe is no railroad along the 

 busit'st part of this grt-al shori- front. 

 This is what distinguishes the problem 

 of handling freight in \i'W \'ork H.irbor 

 from that of other ports. One conmiis- 

 .sion after another has lookeil at the 

 problem and found it like a moimlain 

 front. They ha\-e tried to scale it, but 

 this ha> proxed more dillicull than the 

 ascent of Ml. McKinley. 



In the old <l,i>s, when tnasters of ships 

 h.id an opportunity to slmw how to 

 (jock a \es>el with every sail flying, and 



'iU\ 



