New-York tribune., 1867-09-21
UNITING NEV- YORK AND BROOKLYN

Mr. Engineer Roebling has shown, in an elapo-
rate report, that this question OF cost Is hoV 10
he nuarrccd over in view OF the vast returns
which. it is easy to calculate, Will be derived
from the construction of such bridge. III
ouebt to be the largest. handsomest in the
world if surely will be the most profitable
ever built, if its company of projectors are to
tax lis according to their charter we
have to imagine bridge more thah
mile long, and more than one hun
dred feet high, capable of accommodating
the travel of 40,000,000 of people annually
This is the number carried annually by the
fe1Tv-boats, and whoever doubts that 1t includes
a paying business of the largest and steadlest
character has not studied our local mOnopolles.
These 4O0O0,0O0 are our least reckoning; lor'
rating the actual travel over the bridge Ill
promotion to its capacity, 1t would no. oc
| hard TO compute twice that number While IL
| is fact of the cOmmonest experience Vh''
! travel and population increase in proportion 10
| the advantages offered them. we need hot go
far. therefore. to show that bridge over the
East River will readily pay its cost, ana more.
The estimated cost of the proposed bridge Is
from s6.OOO.OOO TO S7,0OO000. Compare this to
tbe ratio of increase in the population OF New
York. which was in 1920, 123,O0O; in 1880, 262,-
600: in 1910, $4,000; in 1850, $4,000; i'll 1860,
$4,000 Brooklyn had but $1,000 people Iii
1850, while in 1865 it had no less than 31oOOo.
Accordingly, the population of New-fork has
increased more than fifty per cent In every
decade, while that of Brooklyn has almost
ouadrupled in fifteen years. The engineer OF
the Bridge Company, therefore, reasonably
reckons that in 1876 the population of New
York will he 100000, and that OF Brooklyn
534 900, making total of nearly two
millions in these cities alone, exclusive
of Newark, Hoboken, and the environs of the
two cities. All these communities go to make
ND what we know "a the world OF Newly ork,
and have their center OF interest and business
in the metropolis. Now, reckoning from the
one hundred millions, which is the present an
nnal aggregate Of travel by horse-cars IN New
York, and bearing in mind the forty millions
transported by the Brooklyn companies, II IA
not too much we think, 10 estimate So,OOo,VO
as the annual travel across the East River ten
years hence Much less than this number viii
do for all practical purposes at hand, for 1t has
been demonstrated that in five years we shall
have population which will yield us nearly
as much travel, and abundantly able 10 pay for
the cost of as many bridges as their labors,
interests, wealth. and numbers may require.
In the five or six years ahead we doubt not
there will be ample employment for all the
bridges and ferries we can manage, while the
very erection of great and Indispensable high
way across the water must somehow quad
rllple its necessity. We perceive how long 1t
is to compute highly handsome profit, even
on the basis of the present forty millions OF
passengers At n charge of one cent per head,
this would amount to 100000 at two cents,
SS00000 at three cents, 81 ,2OO0OO AT the
same rate, on basis of seventy or eighty
millions of travellers, who will be ready for the
bridge when it is done, the profit would
be about twice as great but this would be
fair reason for the company to make its
charge cheap in the first instance. revenue
of SS00,0O0 would pay ten per cent upon
capital of eight millions, and one million of
revenue would pay ten per cent on S1O,OOO,OO0
This estimate is made with caution, and takes
no account whatever of the profit to be earned
by the rental or sale of large properties be-
longing to the bridge. The builders thereof
would not fail to economic and profit by the
erection under it of large warehouses, and it is
safest character. BY this means alone the
company owning the bridge would surely gain
an extraordinary income, though the revenue
from such source is only limited.
The taxable property of Brooklyn in 1884 was
S119,OOOOOO, and in 1866 it increased to Sl23000-
900, at the rate of 81 per cent We can accel-
crate and greatly enlarge this increase by the
construction of such ali inter communication
as Will soon double the population of our neigh
Dor city Supposng that the added convenience
and facility of bridge would enhance the
value of property in Brooklyn but two or three
millions OF dollars annually, it wOuld nobly re-
pay the cost of such work. But we expect
more than this, and do not deem ourselves
sanguine. The bridge project is a first
class feasibility, and we trust that the
people generally will not lose sight of
it. All the arguments that Mr.. Roebng
presents to his chartered employers for build
ing bridge which will easily pay them ten
fold, and in time hundred-fold, are so many
reasons why the people should have the bridge
free. 1t is easier and better, upon the whole,
to do this, if we can, than support another
monopoly, owning and dominating all under
the stretch of its arch, from City Hall Park to
Fulton-ave., over the water AT all events, it
is a bad thing to pay for what 1t is possible TO
have free. Who doubts that if all the lots in
Brooklyn were assessed to build the required
bridge, and work it free, the advance in
their value would trebly ovcrbear the cost