AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE





Vol. X.





■NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1872.





No. 230.





Published Weekly by

THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION.

TERMS,

One year, in advance......................§(5 00

Al! communiciitions should he addressed to

7 AND S WARllKN' STIIKHT.





No receipt for money due tlic BhaTj Estate Bkcorm
will be acknowledged unless signed by one oE our regular
collectors. Hknrv D. Smith or TrrojiAS P. Cujmi.ngs.
All bills for collection will be sent from the office on a regu¬
larly printed form.





Speclvl Notices.

Messes. Saegeant, . Geeent.eae & Cole, of 300 Broad¬
way, have a new patent adju.stable elbow for stoves, etc.,
which can be adjusted to any angle, is made of the best
material, improves' the driiffc and, whilst being incompara¬
bly more Convenient, is. at the same time, no more expen¬
sive than an ordinary elbow.

For Sale.—A 22 ft. wrought iron beam of superior con¬
struction, weighing 2,100 .lb~s. AVill support with safety
a distributed load from 40 to 50 tons. Apply, 5 Dey St.,
Boom 13.





EEAL ESTATE ASB CITY IMPROVEMENTS.

While almost every class of business is re¬
ported to be in an extremely active and prosper¬
ous state, the present mouth of September
surpassing any of its predecessors, since 1865 in
activitj' among legitimate business circles, Ave
find that real estate .scarcely holds its OAvn,
and seems unable to shalce off the chronic dul¬
ness Avhich settled upon it during the heated
term of July, and still holds the market Avithin
its grasp. It is not improbable that this state
of thing-s may continue until after the Presi¬
dential election, although Ave see no reason
•why this should be so, except the old saw
which everybody repeats that years of Presi¬
dential elections are always dull ones for busi¬
ness, but this year has certainly failed to shoAv
the truth of the assertion. There can be no
great speculation carried on without the help
of the outside public, and as it has not yet
•waked up to,the fact, as yet appreciated only
by a few far-seeing speculators, that New York
within the past four.years has made gigan-tic
strides in wealth, population, manufactures,
and other industries which tend to malce her
the first city of the world.

Within the next three years.the prize of
rapid transit,;for which, she has so long strug¬
gled, about Avhich spmuch has been said and .so
little done, -wOl be an accomplished fact, and
trains Avill be running from City Hall to West¬
chester county inside of fourteen minutes time,
stopping immediately the immense .drain which
for , years New York has suffered from her
..population being: drawn to. BrooHyiiwd New





Jersey. In addition to the success of the
Vanderbilt transit road, A\'e shall witness with¬
in the next year the blowing up and re-
moA'^al of all obstiractions to the free j)assage,of
steamers of the largest draught through Hell
G-ate, an undertaking of itself Avhich, if success¬
ful,—and of that there is scarcely a doubt,—Avill
double and treble the value of all real estate in
the vicinity of the East River from Corlears
Hook to Harlem Bridge. Another gigantic
enterprise, involving an outlay of over $2,000,-
000, now actively being carried out, is the sink¬
ing of the Croton Aqueduct, reducing it to the
level of the adjoining property, and conduct¬
ing the Croton Avater beloAv One Hundred and
Thirteenth street, through iron pipes sunk be¬
low the grade of Tenth avenue. More than
500 men are now employed upon this work,
laying pipes and building sewers, which Avill be
completed at an early date, after which the
Avork of demolishing the aqueduct will be
begun.

In 18G9, when an acti^-e movement began in
real estate in this vicinity, certain gentlemen
who OAvned property invaded by the aqueduct,
petitioned the Legislature to remove the " ob¬
struction," stating that the aqueduct diA-ided
the city, separating the inhabitants of one sec¬
tion from those of another; interfering with
the grading of the streets, and injuring greatly
the value of property. In 1870 the Legislature
passed a law enacting that the aqueduct be re¬
moved, and that the Croton water be conveyed
in iron pipes, from One Hundred and Thirteenth
to Ninety-second street, and that the pipes be
laid below the grade of Tenth avenue. Tenth
avenue, at this point, has not been graded, and
vjhen the work was begun was several feet
above the line laid doAvn on the maps; and as
the pipes are to be laid five feet below the
grade of the avenue, and are four feet in
diameter, and as the seAvers require thirteen
feet in many places, excavations have been
made to the depth of twenty-five feet. Most
of this AVork has been done through solid rock.

ProAosion has been made for the future re¬
quirements of the city, and six rows of iron
pipes, each four feet in diameter, have been
laid. The old aqueduct is only eight feet in
diameter, and consists only of a single tunnel,
so that the ncAv pipes vidll have a capacity
nearly three times as great as the aqueduct,
and be ample for the needs of 2,000,000 people.

Still another important and valuable im
provement, is the tunnel under the Har¬
lem Biver, to connect this city at the north¬
erly end of Seventh avenue Avith the Central
avenue, Morrisania.. . The„ tunnel proper is
to be of solid masonry, -with an approach of
1,663 feet on. the Ncav York side, commencing
at One Hundred and Fiftieth street and grad¬
ually sloping to the mouth of the tunnel, at





One Hundred and Fifty-fifth street, with a
descent of one in twenty-two, less grade than
that of many of the roads on Central Park.
On the Westchester side the approach AviU
commence 1,078 feet from the arch of the tun¬
nel. After the approaches have reached a
sufficient depth on either side, the balance of
the distance AviU be covered—hght and air be¬
ing admitted to the viaduct by means of grat¬
ings, etc., similar to those now in existence on
Park avenue. This tunnel Avill pass under the
water-bed near Avhere McComb's Dam Bridge
noAV stands, and, when completed, Avill be a
structure of great solidity and strength, Avhere-
as the old wooden bridge is constantly getting
out of repair. The estiiaated cost of the con¬
struction is about $1,500,000, including the
purchase of the lands. This tunnel and the
Avide avenue leading to it will connect Melrose,
Fordham, and Morrisania Avith this city, and as
the grade Aviil be of such a nature as to enable
heavily-laden teams to pass along without seri¬
ous difficulty, it Avill form the most direct and
convenient highway for travel between the two
counties.

In addition to the tunnel, a suspension bridge
is to be built over the Harlem river at a point
about a quarter of a mile above the High
Bridge. The part of the river at Avhich the
bridge wiU cross is at the foot of luAvood
street, or what avUI be known as One Hundred
and Eighty-first street, a short distance from
Tenth avenue, which crosses the street almost
at right angles. The river runs northerly at
this place, and nearly parallel with the ave¬
nues, thus preventing the bridge from being
directly connected with one of these main
arteries, bitt it is sufficiently near to the ave¬
nue as to be made of great ayailability. The
bridge and approaches -will be about 1,750 feet
in length, of Avhich over 1,000 feetWill be in
the jurisdiction of Westchester County, the
balance belonging to New York. The roadway
of the bridge is to be 152,feet above high water
mark, and consequently 22 feet above the level
of the present High Bridge. It Avill connect
the high lands of the upper part of this Island
with the heights of Westchester County west
of the Croton Aqueduct. 'It had-first been
proposed to construct the bridge for ordinary
travel above, the present High Bridge and on
the same foundations, but a survey clearly ,
showed the impracticability of this plan, from
the fact that it would not only endanger the
main structure but also prevent any future im¬
provements in the Croton Avorks, for Avhich the
bridge had been esxjecially constructed. Mr,
Grant is the engineer of the suspension bridge,
and the designs and plans have been draAvn by
him. The bridge -will be of such a Avidth as to
permit of the passage of vehicles, the High
Bridge not being adiipted for that purpose.