954 Transactions of the American Institute. 



Mr. George W. Dows read the following explanation of his plan of 

 making dykes, and wet-basins in the East river. He also exhibited 

 a drawing of the plan. 



This plan, for making docks and wet-basins in the East river, which 

 has already been noticed in some of the daily papers, offers a feasible 

 and noble provision for the now great and rapidly growing wants of 

 New York and Brooklyn. Its object is to furnish superior anchorage 

 and wharfage for the shipping, large and convenient warehouses for 

 merchandise, and handsome stores for jobbing and retailing purposes ; 

 also, solid, pleasant, fi^ee^ and abundant passage way for pedestrians, 

 and all kinds of wheeled vehicles, between the two cities, doing away 

 with the ferries, and all necessity for bridges and tunnels across the 

 river. 



In their letter to the Harbor Commissioners of 29tli December, 

 ^855, Gen. Jos. G. Totten, Prof A. D. Bache, and Capt. Chas. H. 

 Davis, among other observations, said : " Among the harbors of the 

 world, none exceed New York, and but few can compare with it in 

 beauty and commodiousness ; but, immense as this harbor is, there 

 is a limit to its capacity, and to what may be called its natural 

 resources. Its business cannot much ionger be carried on as now, 

 but will require a system of wet-basins, built with materials and 

 upon a plan commensurate with the opulent resources of the State 

 and city, and the stableness of their prosperity. "Wet-basins add 

 much to method and dispatch, which are the living principles of 

 business. We are not to govern our views by the New York of to-day 

 but by the New York of fifty or a hundred years hence. Sooner or 

 later, a system of wet-basins must be adopted even here. Into 

 London is poured the wealth of the world, which, but for its docks, 

 must have found elsewhere a place of deposit. They are indeed the 

 means, as well of the symbols, of its commercial greatness." 



These gentlemen recommended several places in which to locate 

 such basins within the city limits. Those places having become filled 

 up and otherwise occupied, there is now no other way to fully supply 

 this great want than in the plan here proposed. The Harbor Commis- 

 sioners said : " It is manifest that the commerce of New York will 

 eventually become greater than that of any other city of ancient or 

 modern times ;, id that the city must become the center of trade 

 and exchanges ; the storehouse and metropolis of the commercial 

 world. The experience of the past justifies the assumption that 

 within the next thirty years,' New York will surpsss any other city 



