diture of a great deal more than the sum 

 involved in the construction of the Pan- 

 ama Canal, the returns would quickly 

 pay off the debt incurred, and then would 

 commence to swell the city's money bags, 

 until New York would be the richest 

 city in the world. 



By carrying out this vast project in 

 stages, each complete in itself, the re- 

 turns would pour into the city treasury 

 even while the engineers were working, 

 and thus save much money to the tax- 

 payers. 



The first step would be to build paral- 

 lel coffer dams, about half a mile apart, 

 extending from the Battery to within 

 about one mile from Staten Island, and 

 then connect the ends of these coffer 

 dams by another coffer dam. The box- 

 like space formerly these three coft'er 

 dams and the Battery would then be 

 filled with sand up to about the low 

 water level. 



A clear, vertical space of at least fif- 

 teen feet should be left above this level, 

 and below the street level, for sets of 

 real rapid transit subways, conduits for 

 electric power service, trunk sewers and 

 all of those underground pipes which 

 are an important part of the city's wel- 

 fare, so that it will never be necessary 

 to tear up the street to get at these neces- 

 sary arteries of our city life. 



Imagine the value of this new land 

 for docks, warehouses and business 

 blocks ! The tax assessments alone 

 would make a fortune ! 



From the new Battery, I would build 

 a set of tubes and tunnels to Staten Isl- 

 and, bringing that land almost a3 close 

 to New York as Jersey City is at the 

 present time. Today the assessed value 

 of Staten Island is about $50,000,000. 

 With the completion of the land reclama- 

 tion, the property value would not fall 

 short of $500,000,000. This would help 

 pay the expenses of the project. 



The next stage would be the construc- 

 tion of a large island flanking the tip of 

 Sandy Hook. Next I would make upon 

 Old Orchard Shoal the first of two ex- 

 tensive areas which, when joined to 

 Staten Island, would form a large en- 

 closed basin, and in addition to this 

 would afford protected dock frontage on 

 several sides. The shallows just within 

 and contiguous to Sandy Hook would 



Popular Science Monthly 



be filled in, making a large new area. 



The projects I have just mentioned 

 would reclaim some forty miles of new 

 land, which would be a maritime Pitts- 

 burgh, the greatest export manufactur- 

 ing center in the world. In this new 

 harbor, protected from the ocean by the 

 new island off Sandy Hook, there would 

 be docking facilities for the world's larg- 

 est ships. There would be dock yards, 

 dry docks, ship yards, coaling stations, 

 which would make all of Staten Island 

 a great industrial beehive. 



Naval authorities agree that the East 

 River is no place for the Brooklyn Navy 

 Yard. In Newark Bay, after the comple- 

 tion of the operation, would be a great, 

 protected Navy Yard, with ship yards 

 and dry docks enough for the dread- 

 noughts of the future. A new river, 

 cut straight through to Newark Bay, 

 would form an ample entrance to the 

 new Navy Yard. 



My next step would make still greater 

 changes in the topography of New York. 

 I would construct a new East River, 

 forty feet deep and one thousand feet 

 wide, from Jamaica to Flushing Bay. 

 While this is under construction, I would 

 lay tunnels and rapid transit tubes be- 

 neath it. There would be no bridges 

 over the new river. On the same plan 

 I would cut a new Harlem River from 

 Hell Gate to the Hudson. By means of 

 these straight and wide rivers, our entire 

 fleet of battleships could proceed from 

 the new Navy Yard into Long Island 

 Sound within a short space of time. At 

 present they have to steam all the way 

 around Long Island, as they cannot go 

 through Hell Gate safely. 



I would build a dam at Hell Gate 

 and another just above the Bush Ter- 

 minals. Heavy concrete coffer dams 

 would prevent the land from slipping 

 when the water was pumped out. Where 

 rock is within a reasonable distance from 

 the surface, and the bed of the river has 

 been laid bare, I would not fill it with 

 earth, but from the basic rock of the 

 river bottom I would make concrete pil- 

 lars carry highways and business blocks 

 much after the fashion of the Grand 

 Central Terminal. 



In the space below the street level I 

 would leave ample space for subways, 

 for sewers and pipe lines. No digging 



