982 Transactions of the American Institute. 



to make tlie passage safe and easy. So far tlien from being" a 

 hindrance to East river navigation, this arrangement will perfect it, 

 seriously reducing all its dangers and expenses, and losses of time. 

 The objection that the sound steamers will be detained is not of 

 much conset|uence, since the limit to their use of Xorth river piers 

 cm be very certainly predicted. Beside this, it is so evidently for 

 the benefit of the harbor and the sound, that the coasting trade 

 should not be carried around the Battery, and there is so important 

 a range for it along the East river, north of this pier and the upper 

 part of New York city, that whether this plan is carried out or not, 

 the time is not far distant when port regulations will themselves 

 restrict this business to these limits. 



To explain more clearly the precise effect of these guard locks on the 

 Tlellgate commerce, the following statement may be made : 



It appears from statistics reported by Thomas F. Kowland, Esq., to 

 the East River Improvement Association, that during the four 

 months ending ISTovember 30, 1868, the total pasages of steamers 

 w^ere 2,43^, of ships only eight, of barks twenty-two, and of brigs, 

 schooners, and sloops, 16,994 in all. Kejecting the steamer account, 

 the average number of passages each day is 140, on an average of 

 thirty-five both ways at each tide. ISTow if these thirty-five vessels 

 approached the guard locks under the same laws as to time of transit 

 they now accept, and, as it will be their interest to do, or four times 

 each day of twenty-four or twenty-five hours, they could sail through 

 on slack water without lockage ; but if locked, the whole lockage time, 

 working them in fleets, need not exceed eighty minutes per day. 

 Suppose, however, there were an occasional detention of two or three 

 hours, of what moment could it be in comparison with the present losses 

 of time at the Battery and Throg's Neck ; the occasional detention 

 for days and weeks from ice and fogs in the winter; the relief of dan- 

 ger, marine insurance, and steam tov\'age at Ilellgate and other 

 points ; the reduced liabilities of collision with ferry boats and other 

 vessels ; and the greater ease, safet3'and economy of new wharf berths. 

 So far from l)eing in any practical sense an obstruction to East river 

 navigation, this plan redeems it from its chief objection, and creates 

 a navigation now impossible. 



The second objection M'hich will be made is of a scientific character. 

 It will be said that the Flushing bay, west of Throg's Neck, now 

 forms an important tidal reservoir, for the benefit of the ebb flow, and 

 this action will be lost by this pier. 



