106





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





February 3, 1917





OPPORTUNITIES    ON    RICHMOND'S    WATERFRONTS

Natural Advantages of Staten Island Not Fully Developed
—Splendid Chance for Improvement Along Proper Lines





SOME of the reasons why Richmond
water fronts have remained practi¬
cally stationary for a generation are well
understood. The greatest drawback is
transportation. In other words, the rea¬
son commonly given for the slow growth
of the interior residential sections apply
with equal force to the residential and
commercial water fronts.

Richmond's water front is said to be
about 57 miles in length, and assuming
this to be true, not more than one-sixth
of it is fully utilized.

A trip around Staten Island by water
with one who knew and understood the
living history would mean a day profit¬
ably spent by the capitalist, investor,
speculator and modern business man.
Could this trip be followed, within a
reasonable period, by another one around
the island, "but on land, the chances are
the guide would be
swamped with ques¬
tions. No intelligent
human being, who
had traveled on the
outside and inside
rim. of Richmond
water fronts, could
ever reconcile the
present chaotic con¬
ditions without the
"who knows" help.

It is not because
Richmond water
fronts are unknown
and unappreciated
that there are so
many miles of them
vacant and unpro¬
ductive. Their pliy¬
sical features will
stand rigid compari¬
son with the water
fronts of the other
boroughs and New
Jersey.    In   variety,

they include every kind and class to be
found in the harbor.

To attempt to give a summary of the
facts relating to all the water fronts of
Richmond would require a volume. To
give prominence here to all the most im¬
portant things respecting the entire wa¬
ter front of Richmond would not add
much if anything to general information.
Starting at the Municipal Ferry, St.
George, and proceeding southerly along
the New York Bay frontage to the Nar¬
rows, and then west along the South
Shore.

Subdividing this part of the New York
Bay frontage into four parts: First from
St. George to Clifton and, to be accurate,
that point at Clifton where all steam rail¬
roads leave the shore and go to the in¬
terior. This covers a distance of about
a mile and a half, Robinson's .Atlas says
along the pier line 7513 feet. This
stretch has the double track marginal
steam railroad, a deep block of level
ground only a few feet above tide water
before reaching Bay street, running par¬
allel with the shore. And on Bay street,
the double-track trolley, this section is
also within tlie free lighterage limits of
the harbor. Here the possible pier
lengths run from 900 to 1,677 feet and a
natural depth of water without dredging
at pier line of 40 feet at low tide. It is
within five or six miles of Manhattan and,
of course, this same distance nearer the
Atlantic Ocean, thus saving the steam¬
ship ten to twelve miles and one to two
hours' time on each trip.

It is iniportant to know the owners
and occupants of this frontage and the
use that is being made of it. The United
States Government Lighthouse Depart¬
ment has 650 feet that they fully utilize
and it is really active—no doubt some
other less precious location would be just
as good in every respect for this pur¬
pose and this property could be put to
greater  and  more  profitable  uses.    The





By J. STERLING DRAKE

American Dock Stores have 950 feet, one
of tlic liveliest spots in Richmond and for
that matter in New York, and typical
in a commercial sense of the best in the
metropolis  of the  Western  Hemisphere.

The next in activity and concentration
is Brady's Dock, 100 feet frontage, a bee¬
hive of industry, a little gold mine finan¬
cially, but Brady says it doesn't pay a
cent and it's for sale. Ask the price and
you will take your hat off to Brady.
The former city dock at Stapleton repre¬
senting 300 feet, now under lease to Mar¬
tine & Co., as a steamship wharf and
warehouse, is fully used and occupied.
The Merritt & Chapman Derrick &
Wrecking Co. lease 300 feet for a tie-up
for their boats, but this nroperty ought
to be too valuable to be used in this
meagre way.

Three ownerships south and adjoining
Martine & Co. have a total of 200 feet,







\\ AIEKKKO.N I Al,E    OF    IHE    Ai\lEHlt:„-\.N    liuiK    L 0.\1I'.\.N i

but since it is divided in this way it is
neither useful or Drofitable. Frontage
thus far accounted for is 2,710 feet, and
the balance, 4,803, belongs to two own¬
ers, viz., I. T. Williams & Sons and the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The Wil¬
liams interests have 2,000 feet, of which
they and their lessees use 500 or 600 feet,
but even this 500 or 600 feet is not used
10 per cent, of its possible capacity.
However, the biggest owner, the Balti¬
more & Ohio Railroad, operating under
the names of the New York Transit and
Terminal Co., Ltd., and the Staten Island
Rapid Transit Railroad Co., has more
than 2,800 feet that is as dead as a ceme¬
tery and has been for over twenty years.
In the writer's opinion there is no better
water front in New York City, but you
couldn't prove it by sales (transfers of
titles),  or  superficial  indications.

The second stretch begins at the point
at Clifton where the railroad turns to
the interior of the island and runs from
there south 2,000 feet, the physical land
remains the same and the accessibility,
barring steam railroad, is just as good as
the hrst section, the water depth at pier
hue fully forty feet, the possible length
of piers varies from 1,500 to 1,100 feet,
trolley service and free lighterage have
been in vogue many years. Bay street
however, at this point skirts the shore,
but as a thoroughfare it is negligible and
it IS only a question of a few years when
It  will  be  at  least partially  used  for a





marginal freight railroad. Barring a pri¬
vate coal dock, a small marine railway
and .a boat club house, the waters of New
York Bay lap the shore with no more
interference than they met with thirty
years ago.

The third stretch of about 4,500 feet
immediately south of the second stretch
is not natural commercial water front,
that is to say, while it could be used for
that purpose and may have to be ulti¬
mately, it is for the present and ought
to be for a long time to come, residential
and carefully restricted as at Bay Ridge,
Brooklyn. This property is beyond the
free lighterage limits. It has no reason¬
ably possible steam railroad connection
and is several blocks from trolley trans¬
portation and a mile from a railroad sta¬
tion. The water depth is too great, the
possible pier lengths are only 400 feet to
600 feet, and the shore itself is bluff,
some of it rising to
a height of fifty feet.
• The fourth stretch
is the wonderful
United States gov-
ernment grounds
commonly called
Fort \Vadsworth,
having a frontage on
New York Bay, the
Narrows and Rari¬
tan Bay (South
.^^hore) of about 4,-
nno feet. No de-
>iription of this
property ought to be
iiicessary for a citi¬
zen of New York.

Commencing at the
Government grounds
and     running     west
along       the       south
shore   of   Richmond
for about four m.iles
we  have the follow¬
ing    well     known
beaches  in  this  order:    South,  Midland,
Woodland,   Vanderbilt,   New   Dorp   and
Cedar  Grove.      All    very    much    alike,
lieaches,   nothing   else,   physically   equal
in every respect and differing principally
in the personality of their summer occu¬
pants   or  patrons.       The   channel   com¬
mencing with the easterly line of South
Beach is a mile from the shore and grad¬
ually recedes until it is more than three
miles from the shore at New Dorp Beach.
South Beach is more generally known
because it is easier and quicker to reach
and it is the only beach that has steam
railroad service.    It is made up of num¬
erous independent ownerships and enter¬
prises.

Midland Beach is the second most pop¬
ular and widely known beach and is
owned by a corporation, who lease the
concessions, but hold themselves to a
great e.xtent responsible for the charac¬
ter and reputation of the resort.

Both South and Midland beaches have
direct trolley service and generally direct
steamboat service. There is also an in¬
dependent trolley service between the
beaches, which serves the camps and
bungalows along the line. Between
South and Midland beaches is the "Tent
City" and bungalow colony.







To Jersey By Tunnel.

Property owners on Staten Island
have for a long time been agitating the
need of connection to New Jersey by
tunnel, so that a marginal freight rail¬
road might serve the industrial area on
the west bank of Staten Island. If con¬
nection were also made by way of Rich¬
mond with Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long
Island and the Eastern states, it is con¬
tended that all the terminals within the
y Port of New York would be connected,
and would be available to shippers on an
equal basis. This development, in .the
opinion of many familiar with conditions
would be a most desirable one.