Vol. LXXXVIII





SEPTEMBER g, igii





No. 2269





HOW THE HARBOR WILL LOOK FIFTY YEARS HENCE.

Commissioner Tomkins Disinclined to Prophesy, But Talks of His Plans for Freight
Terminals   and   Tunnels—Chief   Engineer   Staniford's   Studies   in   Foreign   Ports.





NEW YORK BAY with the rivers en¬
tering into it and the facilities it pos¬
sessed for handling commerce is tlie basis
of the real estate development on its
shores. New York is first of all a port
and pre-eminent in this country because
of its position at the mouth of the Hud¬
son River, which witb canals to the Great
Lakes and the north brought here hefore
the era of railroads the commerce of the
larger part of tbe country. The import¬
ance of the harbor to real estate interests
being conceded, it is natural that much
has been said of late in regard lo the
failure of the city to modernize tbe facili¬
ties of the port for greater efflciency and
economy. There should be adequate
wharves suitable for steamers of the
largest size and means for the convenient
handling of freight between ships, sheds,
warehouses and cars. As the State has
recently given authority for the city to
organize the port, the time has arrived for
putting inlo effect plans which will put
the harbor facilities in the same category
With those of the principal European
ports. What will the harbor be like fifty
years hence'? The question was put to
Commissioner Calvin Tomkins of the De¬
partment of Docks and Ferries this week,
and he answered  by saying;

"I have been frequently solicited to pro¬
vide a description of New York's com¬
mercial development and the physical ap¬
pearance of the city at the waterfront
after the lapse of flfty years or more. I
have invariably declined to do this, since
I do not think any rational imaginative
opinion can he formed of the immense
growth of the city and its consequences
for any such period of time,

"One of the difTiculties I have to con¬
tend with in the Dock Department is the
limited outlook of so many people in the
city that even a commonplace statement
of the needs of the immediate future ap¬
pears to them to be chimerical. The
cosmopolitan character of public opinion
in New York City is against long range
views for local improvements. Smaller
communities are much more interested in
such matters, and a broader public opinion
is to be found in Boston. Baltimore, Phil¬
adelphia and elsewhere regarding water¬
front improvements and terminal facili¬
ties. Here in New York questions like
those relating to the conduct of the Police
Department, the Health Department and
local passenger transportation, all of
which touch so much more closely the in¬
dividual convenience of citizens, receive a
degree of consideration which is not ac¬
corded to factors which have a more re¬
mote connection with their daily life, al¬
though fundamentaly more important.

"The fact that commodities can be
handled in and out of New Y'ork cheaper
than at any other Atlantic seaport city
constitutes the basis for the city's past
growth and prosperity. The level road
through the Mohawk and Mississippi val¬
leys to the interior of tlie continent, and
the unexampled natural opportunities of
the harbor as a port have afforded the
fqundation on which the greatness of the
city rests.

BOOMING  TIMES   AHEAD.

"The time has now arrived when these
great natural opportunities must be sup¬
plemented by artificial improvements as
at other seaports, to adapt them to their
best uses. New York must promptly pro¬
vide a comprehensive development plan
for the port, including the districts in both
States. The approaching completion of
the Panama Canal, the new Erie Canal
and subsequently the Inter-coastal Canal
between Chesapeake Bay and Long
Island Sound will greatly add to the com¬
merce of the port.

"The Interstate Commerce Commission
now has the power to fix freight rates,
and since under the Constitution no city
can be discriminated against in favor of
others,   it   is   probable   that   in   the   near





future the differential of three cents per
hundred weight, which has been imposed
by the railroads upon New York to the
advantage of Baltimore, Philadelphia and
Boston, will soon be terminated. With
this handicap removed, a great stimulus
wiil be given to local commerce and in¬
dustrial development.

"If modern steamships of great and in¬
creasing lengths are to continue to come
to the cenier of the port, at the Island
of Manhattan, it will be necessary
promptly to provide longer piers for them
under , some comprehensive plan of de¬
velopment which will progressively meet
their needs. This involves a rearrange¬
ment of water uses along the west side of
the island hy railroad and steamship lines
and is in itself a great problem. In ad¬
dition,   provision  must  be  made  for   ter-





congestion except in one section, the west
side of Manhattan, where the competition
for space between the railroads, steam¬
ships and the local commerce of the river
and Sound has caused not a little in¬
justice to the small lines.

The local commerce by water was the
flrst foundation on which the port was
built, but the transportation lines still en¬
gaged in this trade have had great diffi¬
culty in keeping their historic landing
places against the ability of the great
railroads to pay higher rentals. The cost
of living in the city would be very much
increased if the river, canal and sound
boats were seriously interfered with in
their business of bringing farm products,
building materials and other supplies
from the surrounding country. The pros¬
pective  commerce from  the enlarged Erie









THE   DOCK  FACILITIES  AT  ANTWERP.
(Tbe   lo-n'er    drawing    shows    Ibe    ornamental   fronts of  tbe transfer sheds.)





minating the surface track nuisance- of
the New York Central Railroad, and mod¬
ernizing tbe terminals of that road and
the New Jersey roads in Manhattan,

"All of the foregoing factors are potent
causes why the city must, without delay,
adapt the port to contemporary uses. If
this shall be done and adequate terminals
provided which shall open up all sections
of the city to thgir best industrial and
commercial uses, I believe the community
will continue to grow at the same rate
or even possibly a greater rate in the
future than in the past.

"Tax values, upon which all desirable
public improvements are based, will ex¬
pand with the increasing population. "W^hat
the precise character of the city will be
like in future years, I do not venture to
say. My only ambition now is to provide
the fundamental opportunities for the de¬
velopment of the port which shall be suffi¬
ciently elastic to permit of continual re-
adaptation to new needs as the years go
by, and which shall at the outset malte it
easy to organize the port under the public
control of the community in the general
interest. Aside from waterfront lands oc¬
cupied and used by railroads and by fac¬
tories or warehouses for industrial uses,
I believe that gradually the entire water¬
front will be municipalized in order that
the maximum use may be obtained from
it at the minimum cost."

New York harbor is so spacious and so
much room has been found for manufac¬
turing and commercial enterprises ahout
its shores that unlil recently no great in¬
convenience has resulted either from
crowding or bad organization, and the
necessity for planning harbor facilities
has not been so apparent here as else¬
where.    Even now there ia no pronounced





Canal and the new Panama Canal are
further reasons which have made neces¬
sary the adoption of a comprehensive
port plan and policy.

LOOKING   TO   EUROPE   FOR
EXAMPLES.

The State has by recent legislation grant¬
ed the city the power to organize its wa¬
terfront, and the courts will soon author¬
ize the setting aside of a definite "Dock
Fund" to be used for harbor improve¬
ments in conformity with the practice of
other ports. It ia expected that the Board
of Estimate will adopt a definite plan and
pohcy for the development of tbe port
substantially along lines already pro¬
posed by Dock Commissioner Tomkins,
but with further elaborations to be pro¬
posed by him. the nature of which is in
some degree intimated by a report from his
chief engineer, Charles W. Staniford, for¬
warded to Mayor Gaynor last week. This
report is on the physical characteristics
of European seaports and embodies the
results of studies made by the engineer,
who was sent abroad for the purpose by
the Commissioner. As the principal
American ports have been wonderfully
favored with long stretches of natural
waterfrontage, they have never until now
felt the need of looking abroad for ex¬
amples for modernizing harbor facilities.

TWO SETS OP IMPROVEMENTS.
The magnitude of the work to be under¬
taken by the State of New York on barge
canal terminals, in addition to the im¬
provements to be made by the City of
New Tork, constitute another set of de¬
veloping works. The State will build ter¬
minals at a number of places around the
harbor.   As the success of the barge canal