THE ATLANTIC SEASHORE DEVELOPMENT 
ARTICLE IIIi.—Long Island—A General Survey. 
Long Island is a twentieth cen- 
tury discovery. Explored by Hud- 
son in 1609, cireumnavigated by 
Block in 1614 who ealled the Long 
Island Sound the ‘‘Mediterranean 
of America,’’ settled by the Duteh 
at one end and by the English at the 
other end in 1625, it still lay undis- 
covered until the late A. J. Cassett, 
president of the Pennsylvania rail- 
road in 1900 saw its illimitable ad- 
vantages as the suburb of the me- 
tropohs, the playground of the na- 
tion, and the prospective Eden spot 
of the world,—Long Island. 
_ It seems strange that more do not 
know this garden spot; that.it has 
lain so long generally unnoticed and 
that only of late years there should 
have .arisen such an_ enthusiasm 
about Long Island. _But it is not 
strange to those that wended their 
way through city tenement and fac- 
tory lanes and over elumsy ferry 
boats through a dirty river to travel 
on a railroad of inferior equipment 
and indifferent schedules. Logieal- 
ly what could le beyond such an in- 
troduction? And _ still multitudes 
have been. so charmed with the 
beauty of this suburban and _ sea- 
shore territory that a transformation 
has been wrought all unnoticed save 
by the shrewd investors and finan- 
ciers now spending more than a 
quarter of a billion dollars to ex- 
ploit it. - 
In 1900 the Pennsylvania railroad 
secured control of the Long Island 
railroad. Since then a rejuvenation 
has gone on in new equipment, new 
depots, grading, ballasting, electrifi- 
cation, better schedules and running 
time. Traffic has doubled im ten 
years from twelve to twenty-four 
million annually. Today Long 
Island has a population of two mil- 
lion. 
Where one bridge and a fleet of 
ferry boats linked Manhattan and 
Long Islands yesterday there are 
four bridges and eight tunnels to- 
day. Five more bridges will be add- 
ed soon and seventeen tunnels will 
lead into the metropolis, The great- 
est railroad terminal in the world, 
vast and almost unbelievable, is fin- 
ished. At Jamaica-a depot and yards 
costing three million are building. A 
further program of subway systems 
costing one hundred million are un- 
der way. Six track electric express 
lines for the western half of Long 
Island and double tracking its en- 
tire length is the plan to be rushed 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
to completion, while high speed trol- 
lies will link its most remote see- 
tions. Five hundred new all-steel 
vestibuled cars are to be added at 
the opening of the Penn-L. I. R. R. 
tunnels in June. Six hundred trains 
daily will wing the multitude in 
mile-a-minute flights over magnifi- 
cent reaches of suburban and _ sea- 
shore territory. Places today, over 
two hours away will be within ‘a 
secant hour of Herald Square. 
Long Island is in the throes of an 
evolution that has no parallel. ‘The 
day is kere when a man may enter ¢ 
subway station in Manhattan, day or 
night, and be whirled in luxurious ex- 
press trains under previous disagree- 
able features to his suburban home, 
country club or landed estate in less 
time and discomfort than it took to 
cross the ferry formerly. Rivers and 
cities as obstructions to travel have 
been obliterated. From all parts of 
the continent travellers will be car- 
ried. in unbroken vestibuled trains 
to Montauk Point and from the new 
port projected there will be carried 
in-the finest and’ fastest steamers 
afloat to Europe saving a day and a 
half to two days In ocean travel. 
Municipal, state and national in- 
terests are under way in-a new 
world harbor in Jamaica Bay, in the 
Great South Bay dredging projects 
and canal construction to link this 
harbor by deep inland seas to. Bos- 
ton via the Cape Cod Canal. This 
with the vast railroad and industrial 
developments culminating and fur- 
~ 
ther contemplated runs into figures — 
beyond computation, until there is no 
precedent for the possibilities in 
metropolitan and suburban growth 
and values, and until*the unfolding 
of this beautiful island staggers the 
imagination. Experts even predict 
that the possibilities are simply il- 
limitable. 
There is no reason why London 
and her contiguous territory should 
exceed in‘values, as they do, New 
York City values five times, especial- 
ly as the prestige of population and 
finance-is now turned toward New 
York City as the world’s metropolis 
and the world’s imperial city of all 
history. What must be the logical 
inference of even the most conserva- 
tive? . 
There is a notion that Long Island 
is sandy and flat. It is literally 
founded upon a rock and it is large- 
ly rugged and rolling to three hun- 
dred Feet.®: in height and of unsur- 
-York’s natural pier one hundred and — 
over the country and abroad.. 
passed picturesque formation. 
Long Island has been termed New 
A adel 
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od 
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os 
twenty miles long by twenty miles— 
wide extending into the ocean. Its 
southern sand keys are swept by the — 
Atlantie and yet its coast line of four — 
hundred miles is guarded by great ~ 
inland tidal seas, a situation both ~ 
unique and imparalleled in the-~ 
world. B 
Long island is the nation’s natur- 3 
al recreation pier of forests of tu- 
pelo, “oak, pine, cedar, red maple, — 
holly, birch, willow, sycamore, 
beech and many others; of dreamy il a 
yales and rolling hills, of fields and — % 
moors and sand dunes; this natural — : 
pier that runs east and ‘west the only | 
coast line of its kind that gets the ¢ 
full sweep of the prevailing south = 
winds coming cool in summer and — by 
mild in winter. over vast reaches of — 
sea, laden with the ozonic breezes ~ 
that. blow with the steadiness of © 
trade winds. 
tfere lying between the heat of. b 
eoast lines further south and the re 
chill of coast lines further north is a ~ 
territory that vies with Italy and 
Califgrnia in climate and beauty. . 
No sunnier skies are mirrored in the — 
Bay of Naples than in the azure blue ~ 
of the Peconic Bays. Its eastern = 
half has annually three hundred sun- © 
H 
- 
shiny days, but twelve less than 
Denver and thirty less than Los ~ 
Angeles. 4 
Nassau and Suffolk Counties are — 
the most healthful in the United 
States, as they contain the lowest 
death rate. Long Island is a glacial ~ 
moraine that makes the finest drain- 
age in the world. The air filled with — 
ozone released by the Gulf stream 
that strikes its southern shores, min- — 
gles with the balsam breath of the & 
pine forests forming a very elixir of 
life... The water supply is filtered 
through beds of sand and gravel 
free from all organic matter and inor- 
game salts. An analysis classes the 
Long Island artesian wells and — 
water sources with that of the water 
of the Berkshire Hills, and superior ; 
even to the springs of Davoz Platz, — 
Switzerland, impregnated with mag-— 
nesia and lithia and famous for their — 
curative powers. Long Island ~ 
waters are bottled and shipped all — 
Aside from the great motor park- 
way and its tributaries two thous- 
and miles of fine roads reach out ’ 
everywhere, some of them beautiful — 
