New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-06-02
THE BATTERY.


improvements made in London and Paris, and
this city, during the last fifteen years, being III
the one case under the rule OF a democratic mu-
nicipaity, and in the other, under the dlrectiono OF
Parliamentary or Imperial authority. Nobody,
who, within that period, has been in either OF
the two frst.named places can forget the
magnificent works which the money expended
has begun and finished, and remembering them,
can fail to reflect how much We have squandercd
or been robbed of with either no result OF all or
results which We should DO cheaply rid OF at
donble the cost. If tie reflection produces both
shame and chagrin, we have only ourselves to
blame that we cannot manage our own affairs,
with the power completely in our own hands. as
wisely and economically as Louis Napoleon
manages those Of his subjects.
The "Battery Extension" is case in point.
The term meant originally to extend the Bat
terry, but in the lapse Of time it has come to
mean only the extension of jobbery to make of
what was once pleasant promenade into
hideous deformity. to the serious and perhaps
lasting injury Of noble harbor. 1t Is
about fifteen years since the improve
ment was first projected, and a contract was
given to somebody--whose name is now forgot
ten--to enlarge piece of ground already spa
cious enough for any purpose to which it could
| be lawfully devoted, and to encroach upon
portion of the harbor which was much better
lot alone. That contract fell into the hands Of
Il h.t 1ar hob
to do was to complete the Battery according
to the proposed enlargement and improvement;
the work he did was TO make it q dumping
ground for all sorts Of debris, outside the old
wall the city paying him fixed sum for every
cart-load so deposited and he charging the de-
positor a certain other fixed sum for the pryi-
lege of making the deposit. To this profitable
arrangement, whereby he permitted Others to do
for price the work which the city paid him for
doing, he added another not less profitable. On
o plea of the necessity for wharf wherein TO
land stone, but where no stone as big a. mans
hat was ever landed, he got possession Of slip
for one Of the lines of the Staten Island boats,
and which from that time 10 within year he
has used as landing for those boats, worth not
less than IS, 200 year, without the payment
Of a dollar to the City Treasury. When the
dumping ground gave out, work ceased on the
Battery The only farther use Mr.. Law made
of his contract was To hold possession, with the
connvancc Of tho city authorities, OF the
wharf, for the occupation Of which he ought TO
have paid the city in those ten years not less
than $4,000.
In the mean time the enlargement Of the Bat
terry had become serious damage
TO the harboE that Commissioners were
appointed TO look into the matter. The
reports made at two different periods
! by eminent engineers in the United States ser.
vice showed that q dangerous shoal had formed
off the Battery, that the force of the current Of
the Hudson had been diminished in consequence,
that the bar below Albany had therefore formed
some miles lower down, and that the navigation
of the river had already become so seriously
impeded that it is questionable how
much longer vessels of heavy draught will
will be able to reach Albany. The extension
OF the Battery at all, therefore, was mischiev-
|
cially due to the unfinished condition Of the
work. the only remedy left was to have that
work completed. The necessity for this was so
| imperative that an act was passed, at the sug-
gestion of the Chamber of Commerce, by the
last Legislature, requiring the Common Conn.
Gil TO proceed with the enlargement within
thirty days, and empowering the Harbor Com.
missioners to do so in case of the failure Of the
City Government. The subject WAS referred to
committee consisting of Mr.. John Moore,
Alderman of the First District, and Mr.. Terence
Farley, Alderman Of the Fifteenth. In a work
of such magnitude, involving the expenditure
method Of proceeding would have been
to have opened it to public competition
and given it to the lowest responsible
bidder. But that il not the way they
do things in our worshipful municipal bodies.
Messrs Moore and Farley report that they have
accepted the proposal of Mr.. stephen NJ. Drew,
contractor, and recommend it to the approval
Of the Board. Both Boards adopt the sugges.
ton, and have passed the following resolutions:
R,,olred That the Street Commissioner he and he
lis hereby authorized and directed immediately enter
into and conclude contract with stephen a. Drew,
for the work OF perfecting and completing the Battery
enlargement Ia accordance with specifications, pro-
files maps plans and surveys now on file IN the office
Of the Street Commissioner Of the city Of NewYoTk,
at and for the following rates and price, TO Wit rprap
wall three dollars and ninety cents per cubic yard;
parapet wall twenty dollars per cubic ynrd granite
coping, dollars aud eighty cents per running foot
granite posts sixty.fye dollars each filing twenty.