BUILDERS





AND







NEW YORK, APRIL 5, 1913





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THE RAILROAD GRAB OF HEIGHTS FRONTAGE   |





I





An Enormous Freight Yard to Fringe Riverside Drive—Realty Interests Pro¬
testing, Fearing the Destruction of Values—^An Alternative Plan Proposed.





U^lDER the terms of the convention
that has been arranged between a
committee of the Board ol Estimate and
the New York Central & Hudson River
Railroad Company an enormous freight
yard will be built to extend from 13/th
street northward to 153d, and from the
present right-of-way westward to the
river. Already there is a storage yard
in the locality, but it has only a traction
of the dimensions of the terminal which
the committee agrees the railroad com¬
pany may build there.

Nearly a mile in length and with a
width sufficient for forty tracks, all un¬
covered and filled with shrieking locomo¬
tives and rumbling, creaking and bump¬
ing cars, emitting siiwke, gas.fis and
smells, this freight yard will not only
interpose itself between the residents
of Riverside Drive and their view of
the river, but it will attract to the place
teamsters and freight handlers in large
numbers. In the opinion of real estate
owners of Washington Heights there is
no uncertainty about what the conse¬
quence will be to adjacent property in¬
terests.

Taxpayers Wronged.

One million two hundred thousand
dollars the property owners of Wash¬
ington Heights paid for the extension
of Riverside Drive northward from
Claremont, The assessment ran into
thousands of dollars in individual cases,
but the people willingly paid the price
because of the pledge the city was giv¬
ing, to forever hold and protect the
grand parkway for public use. Large
investments of capital have been made
for real estate improvements of a high
character under the belief that both the
scenic outlook and the refinements of
the neighborhood would be sacredly
guarded. Mass meetings of realty in-
■ terests have been held during the pres¬
ent week at which protests were voiced
and committees appointed to see what
can be done.

As an instance of an attempted betray¬
al of the people in the negotiations with
the railroad company the West End As¬
sociation refers to the bill now pending
in the Legislature to destroy the trus¬
teeship for the lands under water acquir¬
ed in 1894 for the extension of Riverside
Drive, in order that those lands may be
commercialized and given in part to the
New York Central Railroad Company,

The subject of the West Side terminal
improvements proposed by the commit¬
tee of the Board of Estimate in the
final report just made is a very large
one and. except for a brief explanation
of the general purport of the report,
the present narrative will be confined
to one particular phase of the improve¬
ments which the committee will ask the
people to approve on next Tuesday at
the public hearing at the City Hall which





the Board of Estimate will then give.
For three years the city has been con¬
sidering plans for the abolition of
"Death avenue" and the necessary re¬
organization of the harbor facilities in¬
tertwined with that proposition. This
is the problem: H you take the railroad
tracks ofif the surface of the West Side
avenues, where will you place them?
Tomkins' Plan Rejected.

Four plans were proposed, one by
the Dock Commissioner, Hon, Calvin
Tomkins, one by the New York Cen¬
tral, a third by the Engineering Ad¬
visory Committee of the Board of Esti¬
mate, and the fourth by the Consulting
Engineer of the Borough of the Bronx.
The plan of the Dock Commissioner
is rejected by the committee for the
stated reason that it is predicated upon
the assumption that all the Jersey roads
will consent to bring all their freight
by car-float to the 30th street float-
bridges and then lead it down by rail
over the tracks of a marginal railway
to the southern part of Manhattan
Island. This the committee believes
to be uneconomical, impracticable and
impossible of realization. The Jersey
roads, one and all, unequivocally de¬
cline to join in the operation of an
elevated  terminal  railway.

Other Plans Laid Aside.

The reasons urged against the plan
of the Dock Commissioner apply with
equal force against the plan first sub¬
mitted by the New York Central. The
plan for unit water terminals submitted
by the Engineering Advisory Commit¬
tee is laid aside because the committee
does not consider that the city should
take a definite position at the present
time in regard to the matter of unit
water terminals, as proposed in this
plan.

While the committee considers the
plan of the Consulting Engineer of the
Borough of the Bronx as the most
promising of the three plans for a mar¬
ginal railroad on or above the surface,
two serious objections have been urged
against it. Every pound of freight car¬
ried to and from the waterfront would
have to be lifted over the elevated road,
so to speak, and moreover the cost of
the improvement would be prohibitive.
President Miller's Plan Approved.

The committee has found, however,
that it can approve a plan submitted by
the President of the Borough of the
Bronx for a portion of the region north
of 30th street and it makes acknowledg¬
ment of the value of the suggestion for
this district.

Since the submission of the plans in¬
dicated above the Legislature passed
a law (Chapter 777 of the Laws of 1911)
providing that the New York Central
might   prepare   and   file   with   the   city





plans for the development of its system
from the city line southward, to include
the elimination of surface operation
south of 59th street, and that the city
might prepare counter plans; and the
act further provides that the Board of
Estimate and the railroad company
may come to an agreement upon the
basis of either set of plans or a com¬
promise.

Pursuant to the statute, the New York
Central prepared elaborate plans for the
expansion of its system to a six-track
trunk line from the city line southward
to 72d street, and for the elimination
of surface operation south of 59th street.
The Board of Estimate, on its part, ap¬
pointed a committee, which has been ne¬
gotiating with the railroad company with
the following objects  in view:

(.1) The discontinuance of the occupa¬
tion of public streets by the railroad
tracks at grade.

(2) Such municipal improvements as
can be effected as part of or incident to
the proposed change of location or grade
for the railroad tracks.

(.3)   Enlarged   and   improved   railroad
facilities for the shippers of the city.
Points in the Agreement.

Having all these objects in view the
committee found it necessary and desir¬
able to suggest various changes in the
railroad company's plans, and certain
agreements have been reached, which are
the subject of the final report upon which
a hearing will be held next Tuesday, The
railroad company is now making new
plans in accordance with the agreement.

The starting point for the improve¬
ments is necessarily at Spuyten Duyvil,
where the railroad crosses the ship canal
by a bridge only six feet above high wa¬
ter. The first thing the committee sug¬
gested was to raise this bridge up to 24
feet above high-water mark, and this in¬
troduced a long chain of other improve¬
ments.

It has been decided to deflect the
tracks at Inwood Hill, to the east, in¬
land under the brow of the hill, cover
them over and tunnel to some extent
without changing the contour of the hill
except at one point. A big freight yard
will be established immediately south of
Dyckman street. Part of the land need¬
ed will be leased from the city f.,r a ten-
year term. Dyckman street will be car¬
ried over the tracks on a higher grade,
and the higher grade will extend practi¬
cally nearly all the way back to Broad¬
way.

Through Fort Washington Park, the
plans of the railroad company show a
four-track main line, instead of the pres¬
ent two tracks, and these are to be car¬
ried in a tunnel, as originally suggested
by Reginald Pelham Bolton, C. E., on
behalf of the citizens, and later by an
advisory subcommittee consisting of .\r-