272 



Expensive undertakings are constantly being, projected and ad- 

 vanced, which are sure either to result in great waste of private 

 property or to force street arrangements to be hereafter adopted 

 which will be a permanent source of unnecessary expense, and of 

 extreme public inconvenience. The uncertainty of what may be 

 determined upon hinders wholesome enterprise, favors speculation, 

 and prevents the application of capital to improvements which would 

 be of real use to the city. 



The jealousies grounded on convictions of antagonistic interests, 

 which alone prevent a general movement to the proposed end, are 

 every year increasing, and, in the nature of the case, are likely to 

 constantly grow more complicated and difficult to harmonize. 



Some new elements have been developed during the year that 

 have a bearing on the suggestions made in our several previous 

 reports on this subject, the most important being the approximate 

 location of two bridges over the East River, one within two miles 

 of the plaza, the value of which, as a point of radiation to other parts 

 of the city, is thus enhanced, and the other in a very convenient 

 position for an initial point in a northerly direction of the plan to 

 which public attention was invited in your report of 1866. It may 

 be advisable, therefore, to restate succinctly the essential features 

 of this plan. 



Certain central or focal points of improvement are proposed to 

 be fixed upon without delay. These would be selected with refer- 

 ence to the probable future demand for places of residence which 

 would be conveniently reached by people engaged in business on 

 Manhattan Island, the shores of the East River, and other places 

 offering special natural advantages for commerce. These focal 

 points would be connected by direct lines of broad streets which, it 

 is presumed, would become the trunk lines of all future improve- 

 ments in the suburbs, so that afterwards these would all progress in 

 some degree of harmonious relation one with another, as well as 

 with the completed portions of the city. 



The park should form one of the proposed focal points, and being 

 the most important of all, as it will be nearer the center of the busi- 

 ness of the port than any other center of residence either on Long 

 Island or Manhattan Island, the several trunk lines should be so 

 directed as to cause each of the other focal points to be placed in 

 the most direct practicable communication with it. One is proposed 

 to be established at Fort Hamilton, another at Bay Ridge, another 

 at some central point in the Eastern District, another at or near 

 East New York or Ridsrewood, and another in close connection with 



