New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-06-19
THE VIdDUCT ROAD.

Some of the gentlemen who discussed the
Viaduct Railroad question on Friday at the
Chamber of Commerce seem to have con-
founded two problems that ought to be kept
distinct. 1t was urged that the road should
have its southern terminus at the Battery, and
the Custom House and Government warehouses
ought to be transferred to the same locality.
" In order to save in freight" said one speaker,
" this road will, in the end, have to be taken
" to the Battery" and another showed how COM
merce was driven away from the port by the
great cost of hauling freight through our
streets
But the Viaduct Road, to serve its real pur-
pose, must be exclusively passenger road. 1t
is designed 10 furnish "quick transit through
the City of New-York and parts of Westches-
ter County, which, of course, it can never do
if it is to be incumbered with freight. In
order to extend it to the transportation of
merchandise there would have to be two
extra tracks. That would involve the appropria-
ton of an additional twenty feet of land all
along the route, enormously increasing the ex-
pense; and after all we should have our
freight road in a part of the city where it
would be most costly and least needed. The
plans adopted by the Department of Docks
for the improvement of the river front con-
template the building of a freight railway on
the broad new avenue facing the water, and
that il just where such road is wanted II
would be close to the shipping, it would be in
nObOdy's way and as nothing would have to
be paid for the land it would be compare
lively cheap. 1t might, perhaps, be advisa-
bic to locate the Government warehouses
near the Battery-nOt on it, for the Bat
terry ought to be kept as a Park-but their
situation should be chosen with reference
to this riverside railway, which sooner or
later we are certain to have. Before we decide,
however. that the warehouses and the Custom
House must stand at the extreme end of the
city, we should reflect that the center of the
commercial quarter is moving steadily up town,
and that most of our importers are already
nearer to Canal-st. than they are to Wall.
The warehouses ought to be near the water;
the Custom-House ought to be as near the
commercial center as possible; but we do
not see what would be gained by moving
either of them to the South Ferry.
The depot of the Viaduct Railway will have
to be chosen with respect only to passenger
traffic. Whether branch might not profta-
bly, be extended to the Battery is a question
which may be settled hereafter, but there can
be no doubt that in the neighborhood of the
City Hall, the new Post Office, the Courts, and
the Brooklyn bridge, the railway will meet the
great converging lines of travel which it is
intended to accommodate. Here, probably for
generations yet the tides must come together;
while the throng in the lower wards is grow
ing smaller every year. 1t seems to us i'm
portant that the building of the road should
not be delayed by demands for an extension
which will be immensely expensive and per-
haps not profitable. Let us first have the road
as it is already planned. 1t will be easy to
prOong it afterwards.