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Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 100, no. 2573: Articles]: July 7, 1917

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REAL ESTATE AND (Copyright, 1917, by The Record and Guide Co.) NEW YORK, JULY 7, 1917 PRESENT STATUS OF SUBWAY CONSTRUCTION Review of Progress Accomplished During the Current Year—When New Links May be Expected to Operate *~r* HE end of 1917 will witness many *- of the important trunk lines of the Dual System of rapid transit in partial or complete operation unless conditions caused by the w^ar give rise to a situa¬ tion in the materials and labor markets tending either to halt subway and ele¬ vated railroad construction or to ham¬ per it seriously. It is the hope, how¬ ever, of the Public Service Commission that work can be sufficiently advanced within the next few months to permit the early opening of certain important lines, particularly the Lexington avenue line and the Seventh avenue line, which will afford very great relief to the pres¬ ent traffic conditions in Manhattan. The pressure of the w^ar is already be¬ ing felt to some extent with re¬ spect to deliveries of materials, par¬ ticularly steel, and steps have been taken to expedite these deliveries. The Commission has gone to con¬ siderable pains to set forth to high government officials the need which ex¬ ists for an early completion of the sub¬ way work and to urge consideration of the transit needs of New York as a mat¬ ter of the greatest public importance. It is not known to what extent the army draft will embarrass the various contractors in their very considerable task of securing a sufficient amount of labor to carry the work forward. That there will be more or less of an effect is generally expected. In what measure the men employed upon public work will be considered exempt by the Govern¬ ment, if at all, is not known. Last February the Record and Guide presented a review of the rapid transit construction under the Dual System of contracts. At the beginning of 1917 about 100 track miles of the 345 track miles of the Dual System were in use. Since that time some sixty additional track miles embraced in the Dual Sys¬ tem have been placed in operation, and there is good prospect that before the summer is oyer a considerable additional track mileage will be in use. The most recent Dual System facility to be placed in operation was the so- called West Farms Connection, an ele¬ vated structure extending from the Third avenue elevated railroad at 143d street, through private property, Willis and Ber.sren avenues to a connection with the West Farms branch of the first subway, which the Interborough Rapid Transit Company opened on July 1. The line will^ be utilized for elevated rail¬ road trains which, in morning and eve¬ ning rush hours, are now operated froin and to the Freeman street station on the West Farms branch of the subwav, respectively. The opening of this connection will give marked relief to the condition of extreme congestion, which has prevailed for a number of years at 149th street and Third avenue. In addition, the s:rade crossing connection between sub¬ wav and elevated lines at 150th street and Third avenue will be eliminated. In other words, the elevated trains which now operate for a part of the trip over the West Farms branch of the first subway, connecting with the Third ave¬ nue line at 150th street, will be diverted so that thev do not pass th ? 149th street station and do not use the i^rade cross- mg at 150th street. Another important facility will be placed in partial operation within a few weeks. This is the Broadway subway, through which the New York Consoli¬ dated Railroad Company, one of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit associated or¬ ganizations, will soon run trains from the Manhattan Bridge, through the Canal street subway to 14th street and Broad¬ way, carrying the five-cent rapid tran¬ sit fare from Brooklyn northward to the latter named point. As fast as other parts of the Broadway subway are com¬ pleted they will be placed in operation and it is hoped by the end of the year operation will have been extended at least as far north as 42d street, although this is somewhat problematical owing to the doubt existing as to general condi¬ tions in the near future. Additional Connections. The Broadway subway will connect with the Fourth avenue subway in Brooklyn by way of the Manhattan bridge; and, as was explained in the pre¬ vious article in the Record and Guide, another connection will eventually be had between the Broadway and the Fourth avenue subway by way of the Whitehall-Montague street tun¬ nels, which were "holed through" under the East River last month, ad¬ vancing the last of the tubes of the two new down-town rapid transit tunnels be¬ tween Manhattan and Brooklyn well to¬ ward completion. Within the next few weeks the Inter¬ borough Rapid Transit Company will place in operation an extension of its Second avenue elevated line over the Queensboro bridge to a connection with the_ Astoria and Corona lines in Queens. This \vill offer the first through rapid transit connection with lower Manhat¬ tan, it now being necessary for passen¬ gers who use the Queens lines to trans¬ fer to and from the Queensboro subway at the Grand Central subway station. Details of service have not yet been worked out but it will furnish new and quick transportation to the northern and northeastern sections of Queens from the business sections of lower Manhat¬ tan. Opening Main Portions. The Commission hopes that it will be possible to open the main portions of the Lexington avenue subway and the Sev¬ enth avenue subway during the coming autumn, so that both of these lines will be in complete operation during the heaviest rush of winter traffic. Every possible effort is being put forth to that end in order to permit the handling of tlie Interborough subway traffic, which last winter prrcw to excessive and pre¬ viously unheard of proportions. It is believed the normal annual expected in¬ crease, amounting to several hundred thousands of passengers daily will bring this traffic total to a new high figure during the winter pf 1917-1918. The existing or first subway is con¬ sidered as having reached the point of traffic saturation during rush hours and at times last winter it became necessary to restrict the entrance of passengers to the Grand Central subway station dur¬ ing the evening rush hour. That sta¬ tion is the controllincr point in Inter¬ borough subway operation and in point of the number of passengers passing through it daily is the largest under¬ ground railroad station in the world. On several occasions the subway traffic ex¬ ceeded 1,350,000 passengers daily. A portion of the Seventh avenue sub¬ way from Times Square south to the Pennsylvania station is already in serv¬ ice, operation having been begun on Sunday, June 3, when shuttle trains were run between the two points named, giving for the first time a subway service to the Pennsylvania station and inciden¬ tally for the first time a subway con¬ nection between the two great railroad terminals in Manhattan, namely, the Pennsylvania station and the Grand Cen¬ tral terminal. More than 3.000 persons daily are being transported by this shut¬ tle service and the number is increasing constantly. A portion of the Jerome avenue branch of the Lexington avenue subway is also in operation from the 149th street (Mott avenue) station to Kingsbridge Road. The line is a three-track subway from 149th street to 157th street, and extends thence over River and Jerome avenues as a three-track elevated railroad. The first trains over the portion of the line placed in service were run on June 2, and already the trains are carrying sev¬ eral thousand persons daily. The service now given, however, is nec¬ essarily limited, as the only downtown connection of this line at the present time is by way of the West Farms branch of the first subway, which is reached at the 149th street station of the Lexington avenue line, where stairways and mezzanines give direct access to the Mott avenue station of the first subway, directly beneath and at right angles to the Lexington avenue line station. Even the partial operation now had, has ma¬ terially reduced the running time be¬ tween the Kingsbridge Road station and downtown points, to residents along and in the vicinity of Jerome avenue from five to ten minutes. Lender conditions of operation such as are proposed for the future it will be i-ecessary to place both the Seventh avenue and Lexington avenue lines in service concurrently, inasmuch as in connection with the existing subway, two through subway trunk lines will be created in place of the one now existing. In other words, the Seventh avenue line will be connected up at 43d street and Seventh avenue with the first subway to the north of that point to constitute a new west trunk line while the Lexing¬ ton avenue line will be connected near Grand Central station with the first sub¬ way south of 42d street and form the new east subway trunk line. Through operation will be had on both lines. At the 149th street station on the Jerome avenue line and the Mott ave¬ nue station of the West Farms branch of the first subway a physical connec¬ tion now being completed" will make it possible to operate a great many of the W^est Farms branch trains by'way of the Lexington avenue line. Great relief to conditions as they now exist in the first subway, where approximately two West Farms branch trains are operated to every Broadway branch train, will be afforded and nearlv a one hundred per cent, increase in Broadway line service will be possible. Practically all of the excavation neces¬ sary for the Lexington avenue and the Seventh avenue lines has been com- RECORD ATSD GUIDE IS IN ITS FIFTIETH VE.UI OP CONTINUOUS PUBLICATIOxN. ^