The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-05-26
Tho New Plan or City Piers and Bulk
heads.

heads.
The Dock Commissioners have advertised
for proposals for large quantities of materials
for the construction of the proposed new piers
and bulkheads. The latter are to be Of
massive granite, and the piers will be COM
posed, some of wood and others of iron or
stone. The avenue along the water front
will be widened to about two hundred feet,
and will completely environ the city, giving
ample space for the movement of freight and
the transaction Of all river business, while it
will also be the route of belt railroad.
These improvements are Of the very highest
importance to the city. Our present docks
and piers are not only unpleasant to the sight
and smell, and calculated to impress stran-
gers coming here for the first time with an
exaggerated contempt for the metropolis itself,
but they are Instructions in the way of bust
ness and are generally dangerous to indi-
vidual safety, not only from their rickety con-
dition, but from the dangerous classes of city
Arabs that infest them at night. Our river
fronts, with their immense wealth piled at all
times upon them, should be kept as brilliantly
lighted at night as Broadway, and the places
of i'll ropute that have made Water street
and other tboroughfares in the vicinity of the
rivers public disgrace should be rooted out.
The pier improvements contemplated by the
Dock Commissioners will secure all these
ness community will soon move away the
sailors dens and dance houses Of Water
street, and the broad Riverside avenue, when
completed, will be found as inviting to the
honest denizens of the Fourth and Sixth and
other lowly wards of the city, as the Battery,
under the new identifying influence of the
Park Commissioners, has already become to
our First warders, In fact, the remodellnp
of the piers and river fronts will prove to be
letting of light into the dark passages of
Baxter, Roosevelt, West and other streets
similarly situated-a sort Of Haussmannic
cleansing of our Faubourg st. Antoine.
While our Commissioners are showing highly
commmendable zeal in their prosecution of
this work, they must remember that the OPEN
ing Of He'll Gate is possible next year, and
LnaJ great dCuleVcLHcuG may 10 some extent
upset their plans. There is no doubt that the
shortening of the route from Europe will trans
fer great portion of the shipping to the upper
part of the island and compel sudden indus
try in the matter Of pier building about Har-
lem, while the necessity for 80 complete pier
system on the southern portions of the island
may no longer be so absolute. We do not hold
that Fifth avenue will be transferred to the
Battery because of the He'll Gate opening, nor
that Central Park will have to be built up with
warehouses, as some croaking philosophers
suggest, because our Southern coast trade will
always line our southern river fronts, and az
many Of our great European steamers already
have their docks in Jersey City their removal
to Harlem would not be likely to create dis.
astrous revolution, except for Jersey but
there can be no question that granite docks
will soon be required in the neighborhood o
Harlem. While the coast Is comparatively
clear. therefore, we would advise our Com.
missioners to commence building there.