New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1866-11-16
TIE RRoADEAY RAMROADS.

The BhOADOht l
There are streets as famous as cities or great men,
The wonder Of the walls Of Babylon, on which SIX
charos could be driven side by sde has outasted tho
names of most Assyrisn kings. The Appian way
will endure az long as Rome. With English htera-
ture how many London streets have pleasant assoca-
ton and arc commemorated in comedies, poems, and
essays from the Strand with its coeehouses to OK
ford.st., "stony.heared step-mother," which the
Young De Quincy nightly paced for miserable
months. The Grand Canal of Venice, watery way
where the stages are gondolas; the gay BouleVards
of Paris; the Hgh-street Of Edinburg. through
which half the heroues and heroes Of Sir Walter
Scott have passed. the Under Linden of Berlin are his
torical. The streets of American cities have less
traditional value, but the curious names oil many
New.York streets suggest interesting "reminiscences
which need not now be noted. The Bowery is great
avenue, dazzling of Saturday evenings Wall street
is part of the financial history of the countryi and
Eassau.st, with its out Of the way haunts aud old
bookstores, we hold TO be one Of the most charm
ing streets of the world, and the moro delightful
being 80 uncomfortsbly narrow. But Broadway IS
the representative street of Americas there the old
has been torn down and the new built up; between
its mighty walls millions of people annually pour; 1t
ia the great gate through which Europe enters America
and every year the crowd the bustle and the bust
ness are increased. The countryman who stood in
Broadway for hours waiting till the procession went
BY, might still be standing and waiting in vain
But Broadway is wretehedly paved. On its slip
perry and muddy stones the very stage horses have
acquired an unnatural gait, and slide along like
skaters upon ice. The new Nicholson pavement on
Nassau-st, near Wall, has already been proven Tar
superior In Broadway the endless train OF stages,
ascending and descending, from the Bowling Green
10 Union.square, make travel actually unsafe, and
there ia not an hour in the day that does not see some
hairbreadth escape from their wheels. In time the
excess OF business Broadway threatens TO lnlure
the prosperity Of the horoughare and not only it's
own needs but these Of the entire City, have persuaded
our legislators to If better use cannot be made OF
the finest street in America The fact that it requires
two hours TO travel from one end of the island to the
other. and that persons dwelling twenty miles up
the Hudson can reach the business center of the city
as speedily and more conveniently than persons dwell
ing at Harlem, have convinced tho Yankee mind of
the necessity of providing new forms of travel. To
the Senate Committee which met yesterday Hpm
Der of plans were submitted mOstof them proposing
Broadway as the great central road OF the island.
The ordinary street will be, OF course rejected
1t is presumed they would add to the confusion of the
street. though we think that they could scarcely be
worse than the stages. There four other classes
Of plans offered to the Committee; an elevated rail-
way, q tunnel, basement road, and parallel road
on one side OF Broadway. Some Of these plans SEEM
at the first glance, very odd; for instance,
Mr. Nicholson's American Pneumatic Way, an
olliptical tube through which the cars are
10 be carried by confined column of air,
forming continuous circuit, and set in motion by
rotary pump. We believe a similar plan was pro-
posed in London in which the cars were to be drawn
by suction, on the principle that nature sbhors
vacuum. We are to travel on the wings OF the wind,
and the hurricane is to be tanned like the lightning.
Ariel is to become, like Caban slave. Another
plan presents what is really suspension bridge, to
rest on iron columns 20 feet above the curb
stones, the cars to be pulled by dummy
engines The Basement road has merits
which entitle il to serious consideration and so with
the elevated track. Tunnelng has been successfully
tried in London. Still another plan is offered for an
endless belt road; the to run in one direction on
the belt and in the other to DO suspended under it.
An engine of 5000 horse power at Central Park, is
required to work this original arrangement. We
should prefer TO other people riding on this road
TO trying the experiment ourselves.
From the forty plans included in these classes wise
and foolish, the Legislature may find several worthy
of a trial But We trust it will not rashly adopt any
theory without satisfactory experiment. As in the
case of the Nicholson pavement, the tunnel road or
the elevated road might be tested for short distance
and the expense of dozen experiments would be
nothing compared to the loss BY the failure of any
plan.