284 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
poles had been in some instances erected without permis- 
sion or a shadow of authority. The special attention of the 
Park Board was also called to this fact. The poles still 
remain. 
COSTLY NEGLIGENCE. 
On June 2, 1903, about the time of the transfer of Park 
avenue by the freeholders to the commission, a delegation 
from the citizens’ committee of Roseville was given a 
hearing. ‘The committee protested against the execution of 
the plans for the proposed Park avenue bridge over the 
Lackawanna tracks at Thirteenth street, which, it was de- 
celared, would “disfigure an approach to Branch Brook Park 
and would prove dangerous to drivers and pedestrians.” 
The bridge as then planned was to narrow the roadway 
down to a width of only forty feet. A conference with the 
railroad officials was, by the commission, requested. The 
compaay at once took the ground that as the specifications 
with the freeholders and the Newark and East Orange 
authorities had been agreed upon, the charge in widening 
the bridge to the requisite width must be borne by the 
commission. 
In the seventh annual report of the Park Department, 
reference is made to the “negotiations with the railroad 
authorities in the endeavor to have the bridge, which is to 
cross the tracks, as much in conformity with park design 
as possible,” but, as the railroad had “secured the proper 
consents, whatever is done toward altering them (the 
plans) must be at the expense of the county.” 
As early as February 24, 1902, the Newark Board of 
Works had asked for a conference with the East Orange 
authorities regarding this bridge. At the time, in 1903, 
the specifications were agreed to, it was well known to those 
interested that the traction company had capitulated as to 
surrendering Park avenue—as evidenced by the expressed 
willingness of the freeholders to transfer that avenue to the 
Park Commission—and that it was to be a parkway. 
Why, therefore, no attention was given to the requisite 
