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FEBRUARY 3, 1912
A $20,000,000 INDUSTRIAL COLONY FOR THE BRONX.
Planned by the Ryawa Realty Co. at the Mouth of the Bronx River—Piers for
Deep Sea Craft and Warehouses and Factories to Be Built^—^ Dredges at Work.
NOT long ago the Record and Guide
printed a news item to the effect
that a freight terminal and industrial col¬
ony was about to be built in the Hunts
Point section of the Bronx. Details of
the project Tvere not obtainable at the
time. It is learned now from an authen¬
tic source that the preliminary work has
already been started and that the proj-
.ect, which will involve a heavy invest¬
ment of capital, is backed by some of the
shrewdest and wealthiest men of affairs
in this town.
The project, as a matter- of fact, was
decided upon at least three years ago. It
is an undertaking of the Ryawa Realty
Company which was incorporated in 190!.).
-The corporation directories are anything
but voluble concerning the compajiy.
One of them, for example, has this to say:
"Ryawa Realty Co., inc., 2-4-0; cap.
$1,000; Frederick Johnson, treasurer;
â– owns property in the Bronx." The prop-
-erty, it turns out, is a great tract of
•waterfront at the mouth of the Bronx
River and on the development of this
land, it is said, Mr. Johnson and his asso¬
ciates propose to spend from fifteen to
-twenty millions of dollars.
The project involves the straightening
out of the entrances to the Bronx River
and the construction ot giant piers for
vessels of the largest sine. Behind the
piers will rise groups of warehouses and
factory buildings of fireproof construc¬
tion, equipped with every fiacility for eco¬
nomic production and distribution. The
steam dredges of the company have for
some time been at w'ork testing the river
bottom with a view to its deepening.
Any one who read the article in the
Record and Guide for Jan. 20 describing
the contemplated Federal, State and mu¬
nicipal waterway improvements in the
Bronx will understand the advantages in¬
herent in the site chosen by the Ryawa
Reaity Company for its industrial colony.
The United States engineers, after an ex¬
haustive examination have just reported
to Congress in favor of the proposed At¬
lantic Deeper "Waterway, aji inside route
from Boston to Florida, which includes
the Bronx Kills and the Harlem River.
The Atlantic Deeper Waterway, which
avoids the dangerous navigation of Hell
Gate and the traffic congestion at the
Battery, will be the natural route for a
numerous fleet ot coastwise craft.
With respect to railway facilities the
site will be equally well provided. The
New Tork Connecting Railway will pres¬
ently make the Bronx accessib'.e to most
of the railways of the continent without
the use of lighterage and, besides, the
New York, N'^w Haven and Hartford
Railroad is planiiiing to run a belt line
freight road along the margin of the
'Hunts Point peninsula.
It has always been a difficult matter
to keep track of tlie industrial develop¬
ment of the Bronx, as until the Federal
industrial census of 1909 was published
no statistics .of manufactures separate
from those of Manhattan were available,
'the Bronx and Manhattan forming one
county. However, the industrial growth
of the Bronx appears to have been slow,
compared with its growth in population.
.The waterfront of the Bronx is much
farther away from the business section
'of Manhattan than is that of Brooklyn.
The cost of cartage has militated against
the Bronx as a site for most forms of
light manufacturing, but the co-operative
distribution -of goods which has proved
so successful at the Bush Terminal in
.South Brooklyn shows how the difficul-
.-ties connected with cartage may be over¬
come. The waterfront adjacent to lower
Manhattan is now fully occupied and the
time has come when that of the Bronx
must come into use- With modern ar¬
rangements for cartage to the Manhattan
wholesale and retail stores and with the
neiv railway and waterway facilities that
are being provided the Bronx should make
rapid 'progress as an industrial centre.
- With a view to learning what the ex¬
pectations of weIl-inJorui,ed' men are in
this respect, the Record and Guide has
invited an expression of opinion from
such authorities as L. S. Miller, of the
New York, Westchester and Boston Rail¬
way Company; W. R. Messenger, of the
Bronx Industrial Bureau; Robert B. Si¬
mon, of the Henry Morgenthau Company,
and Austin L. Babcock, of the American
Rea! Estate Company.
Mr. Simon's very interesting statement
reads: "'The Bronx, as a manufacturing
centre, is destined to become the most
important of the four outlying boroughs
of the greater city. One need but study
the map and couple its unusual water¬
front and tributary rivers and its rail¬
road facilities with the fact that the
Bronx is the only one of the five bor¬
oughs which is connected with the main¬
land to .fully realize its strategic advan¬
tages commercially.
"Taking the waterfront facilities first
and beginning on .the west, there is tlie
valuable Hudson River frontage, con¬
necting through the Harlem Ship Canal
with the Harlem River. The Ship Canal
is to be straightened at this point and
-plans are now being discussed with a
view to removing the Johnson Iron Works
and straightening and deepening the can¬
al, so that the larger vessels can get
through. The Harlem River frontage will
be materially increased in value by its
better connection with the Hudson River
and by the removal of two of the piers
in the High Bridge which plan is also
before the Government, and the general
deepening of the river.
â– 'Moving southward along the river, one
comes to the Port Morris Section of the
Bronx. This has long been recognized as
one of great importance for manufactur¬
ing purposes. The railroads have their
terminals and yards there and the prop¬
erty is especially adapted to manufactur¬
ing purposes. In fact, all of the property
south of llJid street, from the Bast River
to the Harlem River, will eventually be
turned over to manufacturing enterprises.
By way of the Bronx Kills, the Harlem
River connects with the East River and
Long Island Sound, giving the Bronx
hundreds of miles of waterfront on the
East River, Long Island Sound, East
Chester Bay, the Bronx and Hutchison
Rivers and Westchester Creek.
"Many plans are at present on foot
for the development of these waterways.
Two points especially adapted for im¬
provement are Hunts Point and Clason
Point.
"By the New Tork Connecting Railway
Bridge, the Bronx will be accessible, with¬
out the use of lighter, to practically all
the railroads of the continent. The New
York Central, the New York, New Haven
and Hartford and the New York, West¬
chester and Boston have direct entrances
into the Bronx and have large freight
terminals with a Port Morris Branch con¬
necting them. It is planned by the New
York, Westchester and Boston Railroad
to run a marginal railroad through and
around Clason Point, and the New Plaven
Railroad plans to run around Hunts
Point. This will give these large areas.
of approximately 1.500 acres, waterfront
and river facilities and the added advan¬
tage of being within reasonable distance
nf Interborough transit facilities and
sniendid residential sections.
""It is one of the un-que features of the
Bronx that without much planning it can
be developed according to the most mod¬
ern and approved zone method, the wa¬
terfront with its railroads making the
manufacturing section. The interior resi¬
dential section is accessible to the finest
parks and schools and to the leadmg
amusement and shopping centres in the
city,
''The Ivelii^h Valley Railroad, the Cen¬
tral Railroad of New Jersey and other
railroads have waterfront terminals in
the Port Morris Section. There is no
reason whv .«nme day there should not
he a marginal railroad connecting the
various freight terminals in the Bronx.
"There are also many .parts..pf; the
Bronx which are adniirably adaptejl for
improvement with commercial enterprises
that do not need either railroad or water¬
front facilities. Land can be had at very
moderate prices in neighborhoods easily
accessible to the heart of the city and to
the other boroughs where an exceptional¬
ly good class of labor and plenty of it
can be found."
The opinion of a student of transporta¬
tion should be of special value. Mr. Mil¬
ler writes; "There is a large section of
the Bronx adjacent to the Bronx River
and along the Hutchinson River and East-
chester Creek that is admirably adapted
for factory, purposes, requiring rail and
water transit, and it seems to me that if
the development of these sections for
manufacturing purposes is taken hold of
.at this time and the problem worked out
in a broad-minded way on a comprehen-
.sive plan these sections can be made the
premier, manufacturing districts of Great¬
er New York, outpointing and outdis¬
tancing Brooklyn, Staten Island and the
Jersey Sliore in securing the location of
large manufacturing plants that will im¬
measurably increase the wealth and pop¬
ulation of the whole Borough in the near
future.
"It would seem wise, and in every way
for the best interest of the Borough, for
a liberal franchise to be granted to build
a track, or tracks, from the New York,
Westchester and Boston and the New
Haven tracks along these waterways,
with the requisite permission for neces¬
sary crossings and connections to reach
industries that may locate thereon.
"The advantages that would accrue to
manufacturing plants located on the
Bronx and Hutchison Rivers, with the
railway tracks reaching them as sug¬
gested, would be that:
"Freight in carloads from lines operat¬
ing via the Harlem River, or via the
Poughlieepsie.Bridge, would command the
New York rate basis to West Farms and
Kingsbridge Station, plus only a nominal
switching charge for delivery from there
to the sidetrack points indicated, which
switching charge would undoubtedly he
absorbed in the through rate, thus plac¬
ing such plants in that particular on a
parity with plants located directly on the
sidings of trunk lines in the most con¬
gested and expensive districts.
"Fuel would be available by water at
such locations at rates that would at
least put the industries on an equal basis
with their competitors in other districts.
"The cost of the locations would be
very much less than in sections already
developed and controlled for manufactur¬
ing purposes, and the taxes would be ma¬
terially less for a number of years to
come.
"Operatives and employes would be able
to live near the place of their employ¬
ment, amid better and more healthful sur¬
roundings, at greatly reduced rent and
eost of living. . .
"The conclusions recently arrived at
relative to the extension of the North
River Steamship Piers, and the indis¬
putable present and ever-growing con¬
gestion of traffic on the City stree^ts
makes the question of a remedy for those
troubles also one of vital interest and it
occurs to me to suggest that probably
the best and most perfect remedy might
lie in still further and more complete de¬
velopment of this same idea through a
â– great distributing and reshipping termi¬
nal and warehouse scheme somewhat on
the same plan, but of wider scope than
the present Bush- Terininal plant, that
would enable wholesale and jobbing
houses and warehouse agencies to elimi¬
nate enth-ely & costly and cumbersome
system of cartage through our streets
'and centralize their warehousmg and re-
shipping at greatly reduced cost to them¬
selves, on-the sidetracks along the water¬
front of the eastern Bronx."
Mr. Babcock speaks more particularly
of the industrial development that is tak¬
ing place on and adjacent to the exten-