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December 22, 1906
RECORD AND GUIDE
1033
ESTABLISHED^ m^liSl^ 1358-
De^t^ 10 RfA,L Estate . Bui LoiKo A,R,&Kitectjf;e .HouseHou) DEGGf^AHoiJ.
Bi/sit/Ess AfloThemes of GeiJer&I Ii/terjsi.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Published eVery Saturday
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET
Downtown Oflice: 14-16 Vesey Street. New York
Telephoue, Cortlandt 31.'57
Uptown Office: 11-13 East 24th Street, New York
Telephono, 4430 Madison Square
''Entered at the Tost Office at New York, N. Y.,as sfcond-clans matter."
Vol. LXXVHI.
DECEMBER 22, 1906.
No. 2023
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Advertismg Section.
Page Page
Ceinent .....................xvii Lumber .......................xx
Consulting Engineers .........xv Machinery .....................v
Clay Products ...............viii Metal Work ...,...............xvi
Contractors and Builders......iii Quick Job Directory........xxiii
Electrical Interests ...........vi Real Estate ....................x
Fireproofing ..................ii Roofers & Roofing Mater'Is. .xxU'
Granite ....................xviii Stone.....................xviii
Iron and Steel.................ix Wood Products ..............xx
Law...........................X
THERE has been little actual change in the Wall Street
situation this week, notwithstanding some spectacular
action, the result of which was not important. The money
situation is not only complex but serious. Speculation in
stoclis on the Stock Exchange is carried on, as everyone
knows, on borrowed money. Not oue operation in a hun¬
dred is made by the operator paying outright for his pur¬
chase. It will readily be seen therefore, when the means for
carrying on the operation can only be obtained at 25 or 30
per cent., that business must practically cease. Such trans¬
actions as have taken place this week have been largely
made up of those of speculators forced to sel! either through
the fearful grind of the interest charge or the exhaustion
of margins caused by the decline which, in turn, was pro¬
duced by the very liquidation described above. To put it
more forcibly, the operators trampled each other to financial
death in an effort to escape from the trap in which they
found themselves. Tlie money situation is so unusual,
caused, undoubtedly, by the masses having plethoric pocket-
boohs, that it is hard, if not impossible, to predict when and
how it will end. To many keen observers it seems that it
may grow worse and culminate in the cessation of the con¬
struction and huiiding of great, important and necessary
public works by reason of the inability to finance them. A
striking illustration of this is shown in the fact that the
projected Hotel Woodruff in Montague street, Brooklyn, is
not to be built. The company formed for the purpose of
construction has been dissolved. It numbered among Its
directors Brooklyn capitalists of prominence and the hotel
was to he of the highest class. It will be recalled that the
flrst full particulars of this enterprise were given iu the col¬
umns of the Record and Guide a few months ago.
THE middle West Side has loomed very important in the
real estate transactions of the past few weeks. Not
only is there a great deal of activity in the whole area af¬
fected by the Pennsylvania termtual, but there have been
many sales of property which must have been quite indepen¬
dent of any changes effected by that great improvement.
Thus the purchase of sites for loft buildings on the side
streets south of 23d street and west of Sixth avenue has heen
very noticeable. Such buildings have been frequently erected
during the past few years in this district; but now they are
being undertaken on a larger scale. Four and five lots are
being bought for the purpose of erecting ten-story buildings
thereon instead of the old six-story buildings on two or three
lots. It looks now as if tbe whole district as far west as
Ninth avenue would be gradually improved with business
buildings. Ninth avenue itself, after many years of quies¬
cence, has been aroused from its sleep and is showing signs
of a more prosperous future. It looks as if eventually it
might become an active and prosperous business thorough¬
fare. The new docks that are being built south of 23d
street will doubtless tend to increase the availability of these
streets for warehouses and other similar improvements. What
this district needs, however, more than anything else, is bet¬
ter connection with the thriving business area to the south¬
east. Both Sixth and Seventh avenues terminate in a wilder¬
ness of little streets which afford no southerly outlet, and
tiiis fact has diminished enormously the business availability
of these important thoroughfares. They could be extended
south at.a comparatively small expense and to the immense
advantage of the real estate of that part of the city and of
the business prosperity of the whole of the West Side, But
although such extensions have frequently been laid out, they
have never really been seriously considered. It is a palpable
illustration of the way in which property-owners sometimes
neglect their interests tiiat no united effort has ever been
made to bring about the southerly extensions of Sixth and
Seventh avenues.
IT is good news for Lexington avenue and for the East Side
generally that a four-tracked double-decked tunnel is
proposed for that avenue. Hitherto it has been supposed
that the width of Lexington avenue forbade a subway con¬
taining more than three tracks, and so it practically would;
provided all tiie tracks were run on tbe same level. But a
three-tracked subway would constitute a very poor substitute
for one which contains four tracks. The popular success of
the existing subway has been due to its express service; and
three tracks do not afford an opportunity for the operation
of a really efficient express service. The adoption of a struc¬
ture with two decks will enhance the value of the Lexington
avenue subway to its patrons by a very large percentage, and
it will permit the digging of the ditch with much less disturb¬
ance of traffic than would otherwise take place. The people
of New York will, however, not be content with any of the
new subways unless arrangements are made for the quicker
operation of the express trains. These, trains have, as we
have said, been the great success of the existing subway,
but they have not been as complete a success as they should
have been. They do not make as fast time between the
City Hall and Harlem as was promised; and the actual sched¬
ule is, during the r'ush hours, almost always broken. It
takes longer to load and unload the crowds at the stations
than was anticipated, and one train which is held back de¬
lays a whole string of trains behind it by forcing them to
slow up. The use of entrances in the middle of the cars
wil! do something to relieve the congestion at the express
stations, by enabling the trains to load and unload more
quickly. But that in itself will not be enough. The express
stations themselves must be more spacious and better ar¬
ranged. The ideal arrangement would be a four-track road¬
bed, with nothing but express stations, access to which could
be obtained by transfers from the surface cars. Each pair
of tracks could have stations about a mile apart, which would
mean tbat a passenger could take an express train within at
least five blocks from the point at which he reached the line
of the subway, and could reach his destination without be--
ing obliged to stop more than once iu every mile. While an
arrangement of this kind would mean certain inconveniences,
it would probably afford a better service to more people than
any other one type of subway. But it also means free and
general transfers between the longitudinal surface cars and
the subway system, which is something that the Interborough
Company has not yet proposed to give us.
THE plan advocated by Senator McCarren of relieving the
pressure on the Brooklyn Bridge by building another
bridge parallel to that structure can hardly commend itself
to the city authorities. Very many more reasons can be
urged against it than can possibly be urged in Its favor. It
would, iu the flfst place, require ten years for the construc¬
tion, which does not make it a very desirable expedient to
meet a critical condition. In the second place, the cost of
its approaches, particularly on the Manhattan side, would
make it enormously expensive. In all probability it would
require an outlay of not less than ?20,000,000, and we be¬
lieve that If as much money as this needs to be spent in
order to improve transit from Manhattan and Brooklyn, It
can be used to better purpose in huiiding tunnels than in
building another bridge. The only advantage which a bridge
has over a tunnel Is that It affords means of transit for pe¬
destrians and wagons as well as for cars; but the four bridges
already completed or well under way, will afford every facil¬
ity necessary for wagon and carriage traffic. For the same
money several tunnels could be built, which could be con¬
nected with subways on both sides of the river, and which
would thereby become much more serviceable than any
bridge would be. There would be precisely the same diffi¬
culty in arranging connections for a new bridge as there is