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February 22, 1908
RECORD AND GUTDE
319
^ ESTABUSHED ^ OfPpH 81^ 186 8.
DndifllpRf^LEsTAXE.BuiLDiife A|p^rTEeTi;i^.KousEHoiiiDEGai5ftnoW.
Bl/snft38 AffoTHEMES OfGEliER^l Il^TOl^Sl.,
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
ConunuQl cat Ions should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET
Pabllsfied EVery Saturdag
By THE RECORD AMD GUIDE CO.
President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGE
Vlce-Pres. & Genl, Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER
Nos. 11 to 15 Eaat 24tli Street. Neir York City
(Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.)
"Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.. as sicoiiil-chit:>i nuitlrr."
. Copyrighted, 1907, by The Record &, Gni le Co,
Vol. Lxxxr,
FEBRUARY 22, 190S,
No. 20S4,
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising Section.
Page Page
Ceraent .......................xiv Luinber ....................xiii
Clay Products ................xiv Metal Work ..................ix
Consulting Engineers ..........x Quick Job Directory..........vii
Contractors and Builders......iii Real Estate ...................v
Electrical Interests ...........xii Roofers & Roofing Materials, .xii
Fireprooflng ..................ii Stone .......................xv
Granite .......................xv Wood Products ..............xiii
Iron and Steel.................xi
THIS current year was long ago set down in the register
of rapid transit developments as a year for the realiza¬
tion of great hopes. The dates for completing fl) the Brook¬
lyn subway, connected hy subaqueous tubes to the Battery;
(2) the upper McAdoo tunnel to Jersey City, and (3) the Bel¬
mont tunnel to Long Island City, all fell within the bounds
of the year 1908-^and it has arrived. The Pennsylvania
Railroad's new terminal and the' Blackwell's Island Bridge
were also once on this year's list of great works to be com¬
pleted. The tunnel to Brooklyn is already in service, the
one to the Jersey shore will be opened next week, and the
Belmont undertaking has what President Patton of Prince¬
ton calls the faculty of ultimate arrival. Popular anticipa¬
tion connected these events with a grent exodus, divided into
three streams, one to Now .lersey, one to Brooklyn aud the
third to Queens, and with appalling vacancies in the apart¬
ment houses of the old city. Attending upon the migration
were to be wonderful building movements in the favored
suburbs. Objects which at a distance seem close together
spread out as one draws nearer to them; the circumstances
attending the opening of new exits from Manhattan are
doing the same. Some have run on before, and others will
lag far behind; so gradual are the changes certain to be, the
equilibriu'ia of property interests can scarcely be disturbed.
It is only a supposition that a million New Yorkers are
anxious to live either in northern New Jersey or on Long
Island, and are waiting only for quick transit to remove the
last obstacle to their going. But it affords a good working
basis for large real estate and building operations in those
sections, and these the natural annual overflow from Man¬
hattan, which leaves no voids, will reward and justify. Pro¬
viding for this overflow will keep their dwelling-house build¬
ers busy, and leave plenty for the apartment and tenement
liouse builders of the city. At present there is no unusual
movement of population in any direction. In fine, circum¬
stances are the reverse of the anticipations for the year
which should see such works of magnitude completed. There
is less activity than at any time since their construction was
commenced. While this can be accounted for by reasons
having no connection with the several tunnels, it is yet a
circumstance so peculiar as to cause remark aud to suggest
the idea that it is only the lull before the boom.
NOW that the upper McAdoo tunnel is about to be opened
to travel, appreciation for its singularly advantageous
position is penetrating the public mind. Wonder is expressed
that capital was at first so slow in coming to its aid, and
remarks are heard that the city was more generous than it
realized when granting the right of way for the eastern
approaches. No better lines are. conceivable for the "drain¬
ing" of the middle West Side, and travel will fiow into it as
naturally as streams from a watershed. Some critics con¬
sider, the position inimical to resirential property on the
npper^ West Side, but this does not follow, since it implies
stronger attractions than New Jersey possesses, no matter
how easily accessible it may be made. There are two ways of
regarding the Hudson and New Jersey railroad: in one
aspect it appears merely as a convenient outlet for the
population of Manhattan Island, serving a purpose similar
to the East River tunnels and bridges; and in the other
aspect as an inlet lor passenger traffic from a number of
trunk-line railroads terminating on the Jersey shore. What
the city may lose in one way will be made up in another, it
is thought. On both sides of the river the tunnel has long
approaches. On the Jersey side they extend between the
Lackawanna depot on the north and the Pennsylvania depot
on the south; and on the New York side, with one arm reach¬
ing to Greeley Square and the other to Astor place, the
subway approaches half encircle the principal shopping dis¬
trict. No other railroad terminating here has a strategical
position comparable with this. But while the tunnel line
will be a fine adjunct to certain trunk roads, it is not
apparent that the vexations of street-car travel in Jersey
City aad vicinity will be lessened. For rapid-transit after
leaving the tunnel, commuters will still have to depend on
the steam lines, and these will continue to distribute their
passengers over a wide territory, so that whatever gain in
population follows in the course of time will be divided
â– among many localities. At the annual banquet of the Real
Estate Board of Brokers of Jersey City and Vicinity on last
Tuesday evening it was said that vacancies in dwellings and
apartments throughout the section were almost nil, and that
the opportunity presented to builders who could command
capital was very exceptional.
NOTICE has been taken by the Public Service Commis¬
sion of the long desire for a station on the Elevated
road on Columbus avenue at Ninety-ninth street, and a
hearing has been set for next Tuesday. As the nearest
stations to this locality are at Ninety-third street on one
hand, and One Hundred and Fourth street on the other, the
interval amounts to eleven blocks, when ordinarily stations
are not farther apart than half tbat number of city blocks.
A period of nearly twenty-five years has passed since the
Elevated was opened to travel, but not until the Subway
through Broadway was operated did this particular quarter
oijtain any better transit than the surface cars afforded.
While the sections north and south participated in the gen¬
eral improvements of the times, this quarter was passed
over until very recent years, when the Subway brought
some relief. The inequality in the surface, with the con¬
sequent unusual height of the structuTO above the ground',
has been the reason for not building stations at Ninety-ninth
street; but this defect of itself does not account for
the backwardness of the neighborhood, as would become ap¬
parent after the erection of "suitable stations. At this time
the proposal is to have escalators to convey passengers to
and from tiie platforms. Though coming late, it is believed
such an improvement would ultimately have the effect of
relieving the blight that has been almost tbe only drawback
to the upper West Side.
A COMMITTEE of the Board of Estimate is charged with
tbe serious duty of inquiring into the whole subject
of subway construction arising out of the communication
from the Public Service Board asking approval of the plans
for the construction of rapid-transit railways on the modified
Lexington avenue, Girard avenue aud Canal street routes,
and consent to the building of the roads. The Estimate Board
is the authority liaving control of the streets through which
the subway lines are to be built, and it is also the power
which must provide the financial means. At the outset the
Comptroller assures the committee, that the City has no
money for subway coustruction—rin Manhattan and the
Bronx—and if the property owners of these boroughs insist
on further extensions, they must amend tlie Elsberg law. A
legislative bill to accomplish this has very i)roperly been pre¬
pared by the Allied Real Estate Interests and has been in¬
troduced at Albany. Its purpose is to conserve the real in¬
terests of the city at large in a crisis when the greatest need
is for an equitable distribution of transit facil'ties. An im¬
portant recommendation to the committee by President Haf¬
fen of the Bronx is that, with the desire to save both lime
and expense, the Jerome avenue extension of the proposed
new East Side subway be made an elevated structure instead
of, as now- officially planned, an underground Toad. _ It is.
extremely important that the West Bronx should be well
served at this time. Thousands of home-seekers have within
recent years invested their savihgs' In" building sites there