ARCADES 
AND THEIR USEFULNESS IN THE MODERN CITY PLAN 
By Milo Roy Maltbie 
E VERY large modern city is face to face with the 
problem of traffic congestion. A rapidly in¬ 
creasing population and the piling of Pelion on 
Ossa in the erection of towering skyscrapers have 
made it physically impossible for the hosts of pe¬ 
destrians and vehicles to proceed expeditiously 
through the streets. In the lower part oi Manhat¬ 
tan Island the erection of buildings fifteen, twenty, 
and thirty stories high has multiplied the day popu¬ 
lation three, four, and even five-fold in certain dis¬ 
tricts. Yet the street plan has remained practically 
unchanged; traffic facilities have not materially been 
increased. Is it surprising, then, that the congestion 
resulting from these conditions has become not mere¬ 
ly highly disagreeable but a hindrance to the commer¬ 
cial progress of the city and a menace to its welfare ? 
The problem is not peculiar to New York, for 
similar causes have produced similar results in every 
metropolitan center. 
REMEDIES FOR CONGESTION. 
Various solutions have been suggested. Subways 
for rapid transit have been or are being con¬ 
structed in the larger cities ; but they affect 
principally only long distance travel, and 
vehicular traffic only very indirectly. Freight 
subways would effect some relief, but princi¬ 
pally for long hauls. Moving sidewalks are 
being pressed in a few instances. Aerial 
streets, at the tenth storey, say, within the 
NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK 
which it is proposed to arcade 
building line and passing from block to block 
by bridges, have been urged. 1 But neither 
of these suggestions has been widely adopted. 
The reconstruction of street plans, the widen¬ 
ing of existing thoroughfares, and the laying 
J See an article by Mr. Charles R. Lamb, in “ Municipal Affairs” 
tor March, 1898, “ Civic Architecture from its Constructional Side.” 
WINDSOR ARCADE, NEW YORK 
252 
