New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-01-29
RPJDGF TILT rs NO BRIDGE.

Some hundreds of thousands of people in
New York and Brooklyn agree upon the urgent
need of n bridge to connect the two cities.
Bnt this popular unanimity will be no warrant
for hasty Legislative authority OF any private
Job The daily reports of the dangers of transit
between the metropolis and its great lodging
place across the water have prepared
the way for a favorable reception at
Albany of any scheme promising permanent
relief. The presentation of such scheme
was not long delayed. On Friday, Mr.. Senator
II. C. Murphy-not wholly unknown as one of
the Legislative partners in the three monopolies
controlled by the Union Ferry Ring-intro-
duced bill to authorize the construction OF
bridge across the East River, naming as incOr-
porators sundry rich men of the two cities,
number of whom we recognize as among the
leading owners of stock in these monopolies,
viz: the Union Ferry Company, the Brooklyn
City Railroad Company, and the Brooklyn Gas
light Company. Convenient additions are made
to these names, but it is safe to call this
scheme one of the branches of the same
Ferry Company whose utter disregard of public
safety and convenience has aroused the public
to the necessity of bridge
The coincidence of names. however, is not
the only evidence we have of the coincidence
of interests, the provisions of the bill itself
furnishing proof. The first section allows the
incorporators five years in which to commence
the work. This is a fraud at the start. The
bridge should be begun before six months
more have passed by, and opened to travel
within two years time Brooklyn real estate
interests will suffer immensely from the late
ice-blOckade, even although bridge should be
energetically carried forward TO completion /;
how much more if five years are allowed to
pass before stone is laid in the buttresses 7
Then, as to the completion of the bridge there
is absolutely no limit in the entire bill. Once
begun the work of construction may proceed
so slowly that
g. Generations yet unborn
May point IL 10 their sons"
and speculate upon its probable completion.
No explanation of the five years of grace has
been made public by Senator Murphy, but we
note an addition to the condolences already re-
ferred to, in the fact that the lease held by
the Union Ferry Company runs to May, 1871,
nearly five years from this date. With q
bridge a renewal might be impracticable or
Improbable; without one, and with the time
of building one completely in the hands of its
friends, the Ferry Company could afford to
pay literally for further tenure of life.
We believe it is customary, in legislative
grants for transportation purposes, to limit the
tariff of prices, beyond which the company shall
not go. But the Bridge bill under considera-
ton provides only that the profits after de-
Quoting all expenses, shall not be more than
10 per cent per annum, the tolls being so re-
duced from time TO time as to comply with this
limitation. The unthinking reader may suppose
the public is protected by this clause. BY no
means. Let each incorporation be made Di-
rector at a salary anywhere from one thousand
to twenty thousand dollars per year, and let
these salaries be included in the current ex-
"penses,n and the annual statement to the Secre-
tary of State may easily be kept down to the
desired point. Meanwhile such tolls may be
| imposed as will make the bridge luxury, and
the boats necessity, to the great mass of
those who must patronize one or the other.
We do not say that these things would all be
done, but they all might be done, under the
bill as introduced. A bridge is needed, and
many plans will be discussed; but, if possible,
| let il w built ". t9e interest Of Wv people,