80 [Assembly 



Some portions of the pavement in Broadway has been an error, 

 and the author of that work is responsible for it — that is, as re- 

 gards the superstructure, the base cannot be improved upon. 

 Many complaints are made respecting the slipping of horses in 

 Broadway. During every day there are many thousands of horses 

 travel over the surface of that street ; the proportion of those 

 that fall to those that pass safely along, with heavy burdens, 

 slack traces, and apparent ease, in an average of one week, will 

 not be more than one in fifty thousand. Careless drivers will 

 make any road dangerous, as a bad carpenter with good tools will 

 spoil the finest material ; therefore, the falling of a few poor om- 

 nibus horses, incapable, almost, from their infirmities, to stand 

 alone, should not be admitted as evidence against a work, the sta- 

 bility and convenience of which has been satisfactory to the pub- 

 lic in every other particular. 



A pavement being thus completed, and proved by a long em- 

 ployment of it in a crowded thoroughfare such as Broadway, to 

 be durable, required much more than its construction in a proper 

 manner, to make it successful. It should be watched carefully 

 after it is given for public use, to see that no imperfections pre- 

 sent themselves, such as an imperfect block, fractured by the 

 blasting in the quarries. This occurs often. The stone so in- 

 jured discovers to the closest examination no flaw or indication 

 of being divided; for that which is called a powder shake opens 

 into a seam through the constant vibration of the travel upon its 

 surface ; and finally, if the fracture be horizontal, the upper part 

 of the block is dislodged, leaving a hole in the street. This has 

 happened frequently in Broadway. Immediate repairs in such 

 cases are economical. 



The removal of the pavement for access beneath it for the re- 

 pairing of pipes, or the connecting of lateral drains for sewers, 

 should be done with great care ; it is easily taken up, but much 

 more difficult to replace than it is to construct it in the first 

 place ; therefore the duty of inspection upon such repairs should 

 be assigned to a person whose experience alone has rendered him 



