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NOVEMBER 2, 1912
THE NEW YORK CONNECTING RAILROAD.
It Will Have a Strong Influence in Building Up a Great Commercial
and Industrial Colony Around Queensboro Bridge and Sunnyside Yards.
THE importance of the Hell Gate
Bridge undertaking cannot be
overestimated. Both in the Astoria sec¬
tion and in Long Island City, about the
neighborhood of the Sunnyside yards,
and about the plaza of the New
Queensboro Bridge, there is a large
amount of vacant land or land so in¬
adequately improved that its reim-
provement along modern lines is only
a question of time.
The New York Connecting Rail¬
road's effect as a medium for attracting
and distributing new population will
not be important. Its function, both as
regards freight and passenger business,
will be to serve the long-haul traffic.
For a considerable area south and east
of Hell Gate Bridge it will not en¬
courage factory construction on ac¬
count of its advantages as a freight
carrier, as the distance above grade
makes connection impracticable. Nor
will it encourage housing construction
in the same area.
On the other hand, its influence in
the building up of a great commercial
and industrial colony for an appre¬
ciable distance in all directions from
the Queensboro Bridge Plaza and the
Sunnyside yards should be at once
plain. It will furnish remarkable
shipping facilities for freight to and
from New England over the New
York, New Haven and Hartford; to all
parts of Long Island and Brooklyn by
the Long Island Railroad, and through
New Jersey and the South and West
by way of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Mapping the Sunnyside Section.
As an example of what is taking
shape in this neighborhood may be
cited the fact that the Topographical
Bureau of Queens, in recognition of
the great influence that the New York
Connecting Railroad is expected lo
have in the commercial development
of Queens, began some time ago to
map out the territory about the Sunny¬
side yards. A large part of the area
is owned by the Stuyvesant Realty
Company, a holding corporation for
the Pennsylvania Railroad. The map
was completed this summer.
The section covered by the map ex¬
tends from Laurel Hill avenue east to
Woodside avenue, and from the Sunny¬
side yards of the Pennsylvania-Long
Island Railroad to Jackson avenue,
and takes in an area of about twenty
city blocks. A longitudinal street one
hundred feet wide and paralleling
Jackson avenue is extended through
this tract. Gosman avenue, one of two
new bisecting streets, will make a
sharp decline from grade and will be
carried by subway under the Sunnyside
yards.
It is the intention of the Stuyvesant
company to develop this entire tract
for factory purposes, providing excep¬
tional freight facilities to the Long Isl¬
and and Pennsylvania railroads and the
New York Connecting Railroad. In
this connection a representative of the
Queensboro Corporation says of the
railroad's influence in this neighbor¬
hood:
"The prospect of the early operation
of this connecting link between the
great railway systems of the East and
West has already been a deciding
factor in the location of several large
industries in Long Island City. The
operation of this road, together with
the excellent freight service of the
Pennsylvania-Long Island Railroad,
where the Hell Gate Bridge crosses
from Ward's Island, are evidences of
the fine old estates that existed there
a generation ago. The Barclay man¬
sion, more than 100 years old, is still
in excellent condition. The old Wool¬
sey Manor House, erected in 1776, was
in a fine state of preservation up to
five years ago, when it was taken down.
The surrounding country, except that
streets have been laid out, is pretty
much as it was a generation or two
ago. As has been said, much of it is
still under cultivation.
This is, of course, entirely the result
of lack of transportation facilities.
However, the new subway routes in-
PIERS FOR THE NE'W HELL GATE BRIDGE, AT POTTER AND ' STEIN-WAY AVE.XUES,
and the exceptional facilities for water
transportation, will give to Long Isl¬
and City shipping advantages such as
few other localities enjoy. This fact,
coupled with the advantages of close
proximity to the markets of the met¬
ropolis, an abundant labor supply, and
the present comparatively low price of
sites admirably adapted to manufactur¬
ing purposes, is destined to give to
Long Island City a commanding posi¬
tion among the great industrial centers
of the country."
Old Estates.
Let us look now at another phase of
the great changes that are taking place
in Long Island City, of which this
Bronx-Queens bridge and connecting
railroad form so important a part.
Both east and west from Steinway ave¬
nue and north virtually from Broadway,
there is a great deal of vacant prop¬
erty. Towards the Astoria shore,
elude one to Astoria and one to
Corona, so that presently all this area
north and east of Queensboro Bridge
Plaza will be embraced between two
subway lines. Thus, while the New York
Connecting Railroad will be building
up a great commercial area near the
Queensboro Bridge and the Pennsyl¬
vania and Belmont Tunnels, the new
subways will be opening up a large and
comparatively cheap area available for
improvement with tenements, flats and
moderate priced one and two family
houses.
The Hell Gate Bridge and connec¬
tions will be completed about the
Spring of 1914. The subways may be
two or three years in building. It is
plain that in the interval two distinct
but more or less related constructional
movements will be gathering headway
—one to provide factories and business
housing and the other to furnish resi¬
dential accommodations for a growing
industrial population.