The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-08-06


spend at least fifty millions of dollars
in the next ten years in the work of
metropolitan Improvement. What is more,
the people will gladly give it, if it
is not to be stolen by Tweed or wasted by
q Wickham. Every one feels that the time
has come for New York to awake out of the
sloth in which she has lain since the fall of
Tweed. II the right men will take Office oil
the money wanted could be found. They
would have vast work. Here is rapid
transit, which is held back by some juggling
lawyers and judges, and which should be
driven to completion. Here are our wharves
and piers, which should be as fine as those
of Birkenhead. Here is the Brooklyn
Bridge and five or six more if need be,
which are required to connect the two
great cities, which in time must be one.
Here is the Hudson River tunnel, needed to
bring to our wharves and markets the mill
ions of packages Of goods that are now
tumbled on the Jersey shore. There is the
opening of He'll Gate, giving us a new door
to the ocean, and the connecting of the Hud-
son and the Harlem with ship canal, which
should follow it to make the work complete.
These are the great works, the works of uni
versal necessity, which are needed in New
York, and which we should regard as build
ing the framework Of the metropolis of the
future.
All of this will require great deal of
money, but not dollar would be foolishly
spent that was honestly applied. Then we
have other things, not so utilitarian, per-
haps, but no less necessary to the comfort
and greatness of the metropolis. The boule-
ward system so well begun, should be ex-
tended. New York should rejoice in her
boulevards sweeping off in all directions--to
the ocean, to Fort Hamilton, to the Sound,
toward the Palisades-even as Paris rejoices
in the boulevards which unite her with
Neuilly, Vincennes and st. German. We
lose no money that is thus expended.
In laying out the boulevards we should
think of the future and arrange little
parks for our grandchildren. We have
Central Park and Prospect Park and q
few struggling squares, but we should
have as many more Let us suppose that
Central Park were divided up into four
parts and scattered over the island, it would
be better for the city. What an advantage it
would be to Brooklyn if the Heights, as far
back as Henry street, had been made park !
What beautiful park could be made by
taking the ridge from High Bridge as far as
Kingsbridge, fronting on the Hudson !! Or
suppose the Battery had extended as far as
Trinity. We refer to this to show what
opportunities our fathers lost in lay
ing out New York, and how we, so far
as we have the power to continue their
work, should profit by their example and
avoid their mistakes The rebuilding of
this metropolis, of making New York what
it should be-the metropolis Of the Western
Hemisphere-ls much more important than
the election Of President of the United
States. It will never be done until the
people are aroused to the necessity of doing
it--until every citizen and taxpayer sees the
folly, and, we may say, the crime of keeping
in power the dynasty of thieves, idiots and
vagabonds who have preyed upon it, and
kept it down and stifed its enterprise and
its ambition.