THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



41 



avenues east of Fifth from Bronx to Bat- 

 tery, upon which trains will run which 

 will make only three or four stops be- 

 tween the Harlem River and the financial 

 district. 



THE) BRIDGES OF MANHATTAN 



The "river ring" around Manhattan 

 Island has long forced expansion along 

 abnormal lines, resulting in a shoe-string 

 borough instead of a compact one. The 

 center of the business district is at one 

 end of the borough and not in its heart. 

 But, at last, the city is going to grow like 

 other cities, rivers or no rivers. The Har- 

 lem presented no serious obstruction to 

 the plan. Narrow and in a deep valley, it 

 was readily bridged. But East River and 

 North River were different propositions. 



It costs millions upon millions to build 

 a big bridge like the Brooklyn, the Wil- 

 liamsburg, the Oueensboro, or the Man- 

 hattan, but one by one, in the order 

 named, these great structures, towering 

 high enough above the river to avoid in- 

 terference with navigation, have been 

 thrown across, in order to permit the 

 metropolis to occupy its natural territory 

 on the west end of Long Island. 



These bridges have cost the city nearly 

 one hundred million dollars. They have 

 an aggregate length of nearly six miles 

 and are crossed by eight hundred thou- 

 sand people every day. They could carry 

 that many persons every hour if they 

 were used by the maximum number of 

 elevated, subway, and surface cars which 

 they can accommodate and if each car 

 were loaded to capacity. 



SIXTEEN TUBES UNDER THE RIVER TO 

 RELIEVE THE BRIDGES 



Although Manhattan Bridge is the 

 world's greatest suspension bridge, and 

 although its neighbor bridges in conjunc- 

 tion with it constitute the greatest aggre- 

 gation of water-spanning structures in 

 existence, they are wholly unequal to the 

 task of caring for the tide of humanity 

 that ebbs and flows during rush hours be- 

 tween Manhattan and Long Island. 



Eight tunnel tubes have been built to 

 share the burden ; but in spite of these 

 reinforcements the bridges still carry an 

 increasing number of passengers every 

 year. Eight other tubes are now eating 



their way through the silt of the river's 

 bottom, and when they are in commission 

 there probably will arise a necessity for 

 as many more. 



Bridged over and tunneled under, East 

 River has heard the verdict of the in- 

 domitable metropolis, that it can no longer 

 force the city to grow in shoe-string 

 shape. 



Not less serious than the blockade im- 

 posed by East River against the eastward 

 expansion of the city is the lack of north 

 and south streets in Manhattan. With 

 the spread of the motor-car, the city finds 

 the comparatively few-and-far-between 

 avenues that run north and south inade- 

 quate. The 'men who laid out the city 

 made the east and west thoroughfares 

 close together and those north and south 

 far apart, producing oblong blocks in- 

 stead of squares. Yet so long have the 

 north and south thoroughfares become 

 that a vast amount of travel must be con- 

 centrated in a few avenues. 



THE AVENUE PROBLEM 



Many suggestions have been made for 

 overcoming this congestion. One was to 

 raze a way through Manhattan, driving 

 a new avenue into the great breach. An- 

 other was to double-deck one of the ave- 

 nues, using the second level for light ve- 

 hicular traffic. Still another proposal is 

 a subway for heavy trucks. It is the 

 hope of the city that the bridge and tunnel 

 conquest of East River will make the day 

 a little more remote when the solution of 

 the problem of providing new facilities 

 for north and south vehicular traffic will 

 become imperative. 



The problem of getting across North 

 River is almost as acute as has been that 

 of overcoming the obstacles interposed 

 by East River. Prior to the recent order 

 of the Railway Administration, only one 

 of the many trunk lines that approach 

 New York from the West and South 

 entered the city. All the others dis- 

 charged their passengers in Jersey-side 

 stations, where water and rail meet. 



Up to the time that the present Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury and Railway Ad- 

 ministrator, William G. McAdoo, showed 

 how to cut the Gordian knot of an un- 

 bridgeable river by going under it in- 

 stead of over it, the ferry boat was the 



