THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



43 



only line of communication between the 

 west bank of North River and the east 

 bank. Now, however, there are six tubes 

 under the Hudson, two belonging to the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad and four to the 

 Hudson and Manhattan Subway System. 



Owing to the growth of the motor-car 

 industry, thousands of trucks and passen- 

 ger cars are demanding direct communi- 

 cation between Manhattan and New Jer- 

 sey. To meet this need it is proposed 

 that a vehicular traffic tunnel be con- 

 structed under the river, and unless New 

 York breaks all analogies of her history, 

 such a tunnel will be in operation within 

 two decades. 



the: world's largest cantilever bridge 



When the Pennsylvania Railroad was 

 halted at Jersey City by North River, 

 its one great ambition was to get into 

 New York. Finally the McAdoo tunnels 

 showed the railroad how, and it not only 

 entered the city, but through it and under 

 East River to Long Island. 



Then it conceived a new ambition — to 

 get out of New York and into New Eng- 

 land railroad territory. It attained that 

 end by utilizing its Hudson tunnels into 

 New York, its East River tunnels into 

 Long Island, and a new bridge out of 

 Long Island and into the New York-New 

 England mainland. A great cantilever 

 bridge, the largest in the world, swings 

 its graceful way across East River from 

 Long Island to the Bronx mainland, 

 where the long coveted connection with 

 New England railroads is achieved. 



Passengers from the South and West 

 to New England thus dive under the Hud- 

 son, under the city, under East River, and 

 come up on Long Island. Then they face 

 about and speed over the river under 

 which they passed only a few minutes 

 before. 



This Hell Gate structure is one of the 

 most beautiful bridges in the world. 

 Sweeping in a broad, graceful quarter- 

 circle from the Long Island shore, across 

 Ward's and Randall's islands to the main- 

 land, it has a splendid arch that matches 

 its curve and combines with the latter to 

 make the structure one of unusual sym- 

 metry. The bridge and its approaches 

 cost $27,000,000. Its arch, the longest in 



existence, carries a concrete deck on 

 which is laid a four-track railroad. 



HOW NEW YORK HANDLES ITS FREIGHT 



A congestion of population that at 

 places reaches 3,000 to the acre and at 

 others concentrates as many people as 

 live in the whole State of Nevada within 

 the limits of a single square mile, means 

 not only overtaxed passenger transporta- 

 tion facilities, but overburdened freight 

 movement as well. 



Ride from Danbury, Connecticut, to 

 Plymouth, Massachusetts, from New 

 Bedford, Massachusetts, to Bangor, 

 Maine, thence to Burlington, Vermont, 

 and down to Boston. You will naturally 

 conclude that New England is preemi- 

 nently a manufacturing region. Yet the 

 value of New York's manufactured prod- 

 ucts is nearly as great as that of the out- 

 put of all New England's factories. 



Well might the freight-handling facili- 

 ties of any city stagger under such a load, 

 especially a city whose main borough is 

 only a narrow tongue of land with a 

 broad river on each side, a sea at one end, 

 and a small river at the other. 



WHAT NEW YORK EATS 



It takes a tremendous amount of food- 

 stuffs to supply nearly six million people. 

 Every week the city eats 200 trainloads 

 of food. It must have 2,160 carloads 

 of cereals and flour, 2,000 carloads of 

 milk, 1,636 carloads of vegetables, and 

 1,168 carloads of meat, dressed and on 

 the hoof. Picture a food train 76 miles 

 long, drawn by 200 engines. That is New 

 York's weekly food supply. 



The handling of manufactured goods 

 and foodstuffs is only the beginning of 

 the city's freight-moving problem. Her 

 harbor is the gateway between New Eng- 

 land and a major portion of the remainder 

 of the country. Into the "down East" 

 manufacturing district pour raw materials 

 and coal through New York, and out of 

 that district come the finished products. 

 Billions of dollars worth of stuff must be 

 lightered back and forth through Gotham 

 waters. 



But these are merely the problems which 

 the movement of domestic freight present 

 to New York. As pointed out in the in- 



