PARK AND CEMETERY . 
J92 
and London. Such as these were not 
planned for effect but they have the 
beauty that rises from greatness of 
scale, massiveness of construction and 
definiteness of line. They are so ma- 
jestically useful that they become beau- 
tiful. 
From all these instances we should 
be able to draw some conclusions as to 
what is necessary to the best use and 
beauty of water-fronts. The principles 
of use are coming to be well under- 
stood. The machinery of traffic must 
be arranged to eliminate handling and 
cartage — those two items so productive 
of delay and expense — as much as pos- 
sible. There should be extensive yard- 
age for freight trains, and tracks should 
run to every pier, so that merchandise 
can be unloaded and put on cars on 
the docks with direct connections with 
the main trunk lines. Systems of ware- 
houses and factories served by track- 
age are properly a part of the commer- 
cial water-front scheme. The ideal 
city would be planned to make com- 
munications with the water fronts as 
easy as possible, and where excavation 
is cheap and easy as in Chicago, freight 
tunnels would greatly facilitate the 
handling of merchandise and relieve the 
congestion of the streets. Perhaps the 
best example of a modern water-front 
system is at Hamburg, which has been 
planned far in advance of construction. 
The city will put in such facilities as 
any incoming company may desire and 
charge for the work merely a rental 
based on a low rate of interest on cost. 
In consequence of such policy, the size 
of the harbor and the volume of its 
commerce have advanced several hun- 
dred per cent in a few years. In our 
own country the Bush Terminal in 
Brooklyn is a good example of well- 
developed water front with seven piers 
1,400 feet long and 150 feet wide, 123 
warehouses, the beginning of an exten- 
sive system of loft and factory build- 
ings and railroad connections with 
every one of them and all the trunk 
lines. 
It may be well to refer to such a 
special problem as that of West street. 
New York, of which Mr. Charles R. 
Lamb has proposed a solution, taking 
passenger traffic overhead by elevating 
boulevard and railroads, the freight 
from the docks underground, and leav- 
ing open the street for truckage and 
dock deliveries. Also the plan of Mr. 
William G. Ford for a vast system of 
docks in Jamaica Bay to take care of 
the docking difficulty which increases in 
New York City every year. This 
scheme includes extensive railroad and 
warehouse facilities and calls for 1,500 
feet piers set at an angle of 45 degrees, 
thus making the ingress of large ves- 
sels into the slips easier and keeping 
the pierhead line several hundred feet 
nearer the shore. To this the writer 
has added a plan for developing the in- 
terior flats of the bay as a great water 
park, an archipelago of green set in a 
vast circle of commerce. 
It is well to speak of a water front 
in our own boundaries with probably 
the most magnificent site and the highest 
cost of any waterside boulevard in 
the world — Riverside Drive. It is a 
remarkable work of engineering, with 
some good features. But it is much to 
be hoped that those responsible for the 
several miles of it yet to be built will 
see fit to employ one or more designers 
to consult with the engineer on what 
should be a great monument of civic 
pride. 
From all these various examples it 
should be possible to deduce some gen- 
eral principles of the aesthetic treat- 
ment of water front, recalling many that 
are good, many that are bad, and some 
both good and bad. The general way 
of approaching the problem seems to 
be that of any other— find your main 
motive, and you have the key to the 
solution. In water fronts the main mo- 
tive is the water which is incorrig- 
ably horizontal. It will be found that 
the lines of the architecture will follow 
it in all really fine water fronts of what- 
ever character. It will be found that 
the things that are most naturally put 
upon it, the massive embankments and 
the long successions of gabled piers, 
are those that can be made to look the 
best and will best respond to artistic 
treatment. That we have in our bor- 
ders unnumbered miles of sordid and 
ugly contraptions reflected in polluted 
water need not disturb our assurance 
that 'the city water front, whether it 
be composed of superb architecture and 
the delicate undulations of green sward 
with the piled-up infinity of masses of 
foliage or merely of the structures that 
serve the purpose of commerce, may be 
and should be a real work of art. 
PARKS AND STREET TREES IN CITY PLANNING 
Read before the American Society of Municipal Improvements by William 
Solotaroff, Superintendent, Shade Tree Commission, of East Orange, N. T. 
It is a well-known fact that cities are 
founded in certain particular localities 
on account of some commercial incen- 
tive. Any situation offering special ad- 
vantages as a place where business men 
may conveniently meet or commodities 
may be cheaply manufactured or easily 
exchanged is likely to be occupied by 
a town or city. Places that are near 
to sources of natural wealth, at the 
mouths of navigable rivers, at falls or 
rapids of streams or at large and deep 
harbors, are sites favorable for the lo- 
cation of large cities. 
Whatever the reason may be that in- 
duces people to settle in a certain place, 
their first desire is to build shelters and 
homes in which to live. With this 
thought in mind, every natural feature 
of the land is swept away to make room 
for the city. As it grows there is an 
addition of square block to square block 
and a plan of the resulting city looks 
like a huge checkerboard. 
Such, briefly, has been the history of 
the development of most of our cities. 
When this country was^ first settled the 
forest was regarded as an enemy to be 
vanquished rather than as a friend to be 
protected. The country seemed so vast 
and the natural resources so limitless 
that no one ever supposed there would 
come a time when we should be in dan- 
ger of losing our natural heritage. 
When cities were built there was no 
attempt in most cases to set aside cer- 
tain areas for park purposes or to con- 
serve portions of the natural forest as 
playgrounds for the people. The cities 
of to-day show the lack of foresight of 
the original builders. At a meeting for 
the discussion of tree planting held in 
Fullerton Hall, Chicago, on January 31, 
1909, Mr. Franklin MacVeagh, now 
Secretary of the Treasury, who pre- 
sided, said that when he first saw Chi- 
cago it was a tree city. The trees were 
many and fine. Splendid trees were 
cut down over large areas where the 
city now stands. This statement would 
apply equally as well not only to Chi- 
cago but a great many other cities. 
With the development of society, ac- 
quisition of wealth, and increased cul- 
ture through education and travel, there 
has come the recognition that cities 
must not only be the sites of manufac- 
ture and commerce, but attractive places 
in which one would enjoy to live. As 
a result there is now a national move- 
