AND







NEW YORK,  SEPTEMBER 9, 1916





NEED    OF   NEW   YORK    HARBOR    IMPROVEMENTS
ONE    OF    NATIONAL    IMPORTANCE





By HON. MURRAY HULBERT*





APPROXIMATELY one-half of the
exports and imports of the United
States pass through New York Harbor,
and 100,000,000 tons of commerce, if ap¬
portioned per capita, making one ton for
each man, woman, and child in the
United States, accommodates every sec¬
tion of this country; and from the mer¬
chandise imported through the port of
New York more than double the amount
of duties is collected and turned into the
Federal Treasury than from all other
ports of the United States together. New
York State contributed in addition there¬
to $17,417,537.60, nearly one-half of the
individual income tax, and $10,221,206.65,
or more than one-fourth of the corpora¬
tion income tax collected during the year
1915.

The magnitude of New York City's in¬
dustrial and commercial possessions, its
wealth and population, can be compre¬
hended only by comparison. In every
decade since 1840, New York has shown
a greater numerical increase in popula¬
tion than any other American city. One-
thirteenth of the entire population of
the United States now lives in the New
York metropolitan district. New York
City produces one-tenth of the entire
manufactured product of the United
States, more than any other State, except
Pennsylvania.

The value of New York's taxable prop¬
erty exceeds that of Chicago, Philadel¬
phia, Boston, and St. Louis combined.
New York City banks handle sixty per
cent, of the clearings of the United
States. New York is the terminus of all
but one of the great eastern railroad
systems.

Thirty per cent, of the entire popu¬
lation of the United States, and forty-
two per cent, of all the taxable property
lie within 350 miles of New York City.
The population in New York City in¬
creased since 1900, forty-seven and one-
half per cent. New York manufactures
increased between 1900 and 1910, seventy
per cent. The foreign commerce of New
York increased from 1898 to 1913, one
hundred and thirty-one per cent. And
yet in the improvement of this great
harbor the Federal Government has not
only failed to keep abreast of the needs
of the times, but has fallen far in the
rear.

I would like to put the New York
Harbor situation before you in concrete
form:





In addition to the foregoing evidence,
that the improvement of New York Har¬
bor is not a "pork-barrel" proposition,
let it be noted that the Ambrose Channel
was constructed at a saving of about
$1,500,000; that the balance to be ex¬
pended, under the old project for the
improvement of the East River-—$2,-
551,939—can be turned over to, and
credited upon the new project, and will
suffice to do the work required in the
next five years; that the Coney Island
Channel improvement was authorized
upon an estimate of $168,300, and work
to date costing only $114,300, meets
present-day needs, and no further ap¬
propriations have been asked for.

In 1868 the first project was adopted
for the improvement of New York Har¬
bor, to wit. East River, a tidal strait, of
which the world-renowned Hell Gate is





battleship. With its subsequent modifi¬
cations, this project had for its object
extending the depth of the channel over
projecting rocks at an estimated cost of
$8,757,183. Below is given a table show¬
ing what work is called for under exist¬
ing project. About 10 per cent, of the
work has been completed.

On March 2, 1912, Col. W. M. Black,
LInited States District Engineer at New
York, under acts of Congress approved
March 2, 1907, and March 3, 1909, sub¬
mitted a report of the survey of the
East River and Hell Gate (H. Doc. 188,
63d Congress, 1st Session), in which he
reported favorably upon an amendment
of the project for further improvement
at an expense of $32,533,501, providing for
a through channel thirty-five feet deep,
with access to the wharves to a depth
of thirty  feet,  and the  improvement oi





WORK CALLED   FOR  UNDER  EXISTING  PROJECT.
Distance

by water             Least        Least         Pro-
Locality                                                  from the          original     present      jected

Battery.              depth.        depth.       depth.

Miles.               Feet.          Feet.         Feet.

Battery  Reef   ...............................                12.8            12.8            26

South Ferry Reef  ...........................                17               19               2(j

Diamond Reef   .......................                h               15.7            26               26

Reef oft Diamond Reef  ...............                i               19               26     '         2C

Coenties Reef........................                i               H.3            2.5.5            26

Third  Street  Reef   ...................              3                 15.9            26               26

Shell  Reef   ...........................       2J- 4                   7.5            13               18

Pilgrim Rock   ........................              3J               12               24               26

Twenty-sixth  Street Reef   ............              4                 16.1            26               26

Charlotte  Rock   ......................              4J               14.7            26               26

Ferry   Reef   ..........................              4i                 7               24               26

Man-of-War Rock  ....................              43             -)-0.8            26               26

Middle   Reef    (includes   Negro   Head,

Flood   Rock,   Hen   and   Chickens,

and  Gridiron)!...................              7h             -i-6               14.9            26

Heel Tap Rock   ......................              73               12.1            20.5            26

Hallets   Point   Reef   ..................              7J             -)-4               26               26

Frying Fan  Reef   ....................              71                 9               23.8            26

Pot Rock  ............................              8                  8               26               26

Shell Drake Rock ....................              8                   8               26               26

Ways  Reef   ..........................              8J                 5               26               26

Rock oft Negro Point ................              9                 ___            ____            26

Scaly  Rock   ..........................              9J                ___            ___

Middle Ground 2  .....................            10                 11               17.8            26

Keef off North Brother Island........                10%             16               ____

Channel    between    North    and    South

Brother   Islands. ^   ................    103-lli               19               19               26

Baretto   Reef   ........................            Ill               17               26               26

! Under contract for completing removal.

2  Under contract for part removal.

3 Under contract for deepening for a width of about 300  feet.





Remarks





Completed.
Do.

Do.

Do.
Do.
Do.

Do.





95 P.O. completed.

Completed.

Do.
Do.
Do.
Reported completed.





Completed.





a part, about sixteen miles long, extend¬
ing from the Battery to Throgs Neck,
separating Long Island from the Bor¬
oughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, and
connecting up New York Bay with the
sheltered waters of Long Island Sound,
providing a double entrance and exit to
New York Harbor, and establishing a
marine  trench,  which  will  be  more  ef-





Improvement                           Adopted

East River....................    ISfiS

Harlem River   ...................1879

Hudson River  .................     187,"i

Newtown   Creek    ..............    18S0

Sheepshead  Bay................    1880

Bay    Ridge   and    Red    Hook

Channel    ..................    1881

Bronx   River   ..................    1896

Ambrose   Channel    ............    18!X)

Coney  Island  Channel..........    1907

Jamaica   Bay   .................    1910

Harlem or Bronx Kills, recom¬
mended    ..................    1902

Totals.....................

' Maintenance only.
- 22,436,151 passengers.
' 106,253,639 passengers.





Appropriated

$6,505,203

2,068.000

641,479

525,900

44,000

4,421,100
.326..-.flO

7,600,010
114.300
700,500

Nothing





Required to

complete

$ 13,400.000

1..520,0.56

99.5.000

1 10,000





384,000
703,931
'40,000

6,V30,666

1,900,000





Total

$19,005,203
3,588.6.50

i,e:w,479

5,35.900
44,000

4,80.5.100
l,030.4:;i
7,640,(110
114,300
7,430,500

1,900,000





Commerce

=$1..5.37,239,286

582,383,757

»2,,559,1.S5,809

147,739,825

144,777

408,459,300

< 1,947,786

2,0.56,847,222

= 5,250.300

5,171,668

^ None.





$22,947,592        $25,683,587





$48,631,179         $7,304,375,730

* Only 14 per cent,  completed.
■51,178,168 passengers.
° State Barge Canal not  yet  open.





* Congressman Murray is a member of the
Committee on Rivers and Harbors, and has been
'endeavoring to benefit local and national shipping
by advocating the improvement of the waters
around New York City, so that warships and the
mercantile marine trade may derive better re¬
sults from our natural advantages.





ficient in the defense of that portion of
the United States, which nearly all mili¬
tary and naval experts agree would be
the first objective point of attack, than
a dozen battleships, under present con¬
ditions, and at the cost of less than one





the Harlem or Bronx Kills, to provide
a short cut for boats passing from the
Harlem river, which will be the natural
outlet for the State barge canal into the
East river; and Little Hell Gate, as a
means of reducing the tidal velocities and
diminishing, if not avoiding, the con¬
sequent dangers at Hell Gate. The Chief
of Engineers modified the recommenda¬
tions of Col. Black, by reducing the es¬
timate "for the present" to $13,400,000,
which, largely through the efforts of my
late lamented colleague. Col. Joseph A.
Goulden, was included in the bill re¬
ported by the Rivers and Harbors Com¬
mittee, and passed the House in the 63rd
Congress, first session, but failed in the
Senate. Meanwhile no further appropri¬
ations have been made for the improve¬
ment of the East river; and while there
is an unexpended balance of $2,551,939
now of the amount originally authorized,
the Chief of Engineers reported in 1914,
and again in  1915:

"It is believed that the present twenty-six-
foot project has been outgrown by the com¬
mercial interests involved, and that further
work on this project is now economically
inadvisable. No estimate is therefore sub¬
mitted for operations in connection with
said project during the fiscal year 1917."

I may add that nothing has been ex¬
pended since 1912 upon this great water¬
way,    .^nd if the immediate decisive ac-