The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-07-18
Hurry Up the elevated Roads.

Hurry Up the Elevated ROADS.
The managers Of the two elevated roads are
not keeping their engagements with the
public What New York needed was not
more roads down town. but more and
quicker facilities for getting to the upper
end of the island. The charters were given
that our people might have the advantages
of rapid transit to the upper and, under the
horse car regime almost uninhabitable part
of the city. But the gentlemen who have
got control of the rapid transit lines seem
to think that they are doing their whole
duty when they complete such part OF their
lines as run in profitable competition with
the horse cars.
They are very much mistaken ; and we
advise them to take care that their mistake
does not 60 so far as to cost them dear On
the eastern side of the city the line is to be
completed and in operation from Whitehall
street to the Grand Central Depot shortly
after the LIST OF August, and to Sixty-iifth
street the track is reported to be COM
pleted. SO far we'll but beyond Sixty
fifth street the work seems to lag
it goes on in spots, and in periunctory
way which the public will not stand.
principal recommendation OF the elevated
system was, we were always told, that line
of this kind could be very rapidly COM
pleted because workmen could be put on
the whole extent of it. There are people
enough ready to go to work; why, then, do
the managers not hurry up the work be-
tween Sixty-fift and One Hundredth streets
and to the Harlem River? They hold out
hope that the whole line may be completed
by midwinter-which means by next June,
we suppose, because when cold weather
comes they will draw off their hands.
On the west side matters are even worse.
The New York Elevated road now runs to
Sixtieth street. and the line is under con-
tract to Eighty fifth street, the promise
being that it shall be opened by the 18th Of
October but beyond that point nothing is
doing. There is q talk Of engineers going
over the ground to make estimates, and OF
difficulties which have been discovered, as
though every inch of the way had not been
thoroughly known to all concerned before
they accepted the charter They will by
and by, we suppose, try to persuade the
public that they are surveying an utterly
unknown country.
The managers of these enterprises must
understand that the public expects and re-
quires them to complete their entire lines
in the shortest time possible. Rapid transit
means steam from one end Of the island to
the other, not the building Of new roads
within theealready overcrowded parts OF
the city. The object which the people had
i'll view in demanding the construction OF
these roads was to make the whole city
quickly and cheaply accessible; to bring
its extreme ends together by steam COM
munication; to enable the mechanics,
clerks and laboring people who are en-
ployed in the more crowded parts OF the
town to live with their families in the
roomier parts on the upper end of the
island, and reach their homes cheaply and
quickly. To stop at Forty-ifth or Sixty
fifth, or even Eighty-first street, or to
delay the building of the roads beyond, is
to break their promise to the publc; and if
they are not more prompt they will find
storm gathering about their ears which will
burst very unpleasantly to them when the
Legislature meets