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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 88, no. 2269: September 9, 1911

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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