New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-08-23
THE HAKBOR or NBW-YORK.


New-York may or may not be destined to
become the commercial metropolis OF the world,
but the current speculations and predictions
as to its future will undoubtedly result In
great practical good if they impress upon our
City Fathers and State Legislatures the prime
importance of doing nothing to destroy It's
fine, natural advantages as seaport
This City and State possess one OF the
grandest harbOrs in the world, and instead
of deyoting as an intelligent community
might be expected to do, constant care
to the preservation and Improvement OF TINS
rich endowment of nature, they have been en-
gagged for wears in impaiTing 1t. The State
Unexpectedly authorized encroachments which
competent engineers warn US will have
serious effect upon the channels. The city has
been in the habit of obstructing navigation by
the dumping of ashes and other refuse, and
has couuterbalanced the advantages OF
fine water front by levyng enor-
nous exactions upon shipping and giving
In return q disgraceful system of rotten
and incOnvenient wharves. An extraordinary
bill to inture the harbOr still more by giving
to private persons authority for the cOnstruc-
ton of an artificial island on Robbins Reef, fell
short of final enactment at Albany by merely
hairs breath. The very day this job
was under discussion committee OF the
Assembly presented disquieting report upon
the damage likely to be inflicted upon the
port by the Brooklyn Bridge. 1t Is plain that
the vital interests concerned In the preserva-
ton of the harbor are trusted to utterly in
competent guardianship. Rustic Legislators
| IL yvb
associate the idea of navigation with canal
boat, are allowed to NEEDLE with maritime
affairs which demand scientific carej and the
merchants and ship-Owners of the metropolis
have nothing to say about matters which in
volye the very existence of our commerce.
We are foOling with our most valuable pos
session; spelling it, as a mischievous child
destroys a costly and complicated toy.
The history of the Brooklyn Bridge is a good
illustration of the ignorance and presumption
which have characterized our interference with
the harbOr. For many years the General Gov
eminent had been laboriOusly improving the
means of access to the port at one end of the
East River, when our local authorities resolved
10 Obstruct the entrance at the other. The
blasting of q channel to admit large ships by
way of He'll Gate went on simultaneously with
the erection of a bridge which many cOmpe-
tent engineers believe will keep them out.
Whether it was worth while to spend fifteen
millions or so in learning the difference be-
tween removing an obstruction to navigation
and merely moving one is perhaps an open
question. The inquiries which the AS
sembly Committee undertook to answer
in their late report ought to have
been made before the bridge was begun.
The height of the structure and the height
of ships spars were known In advance,
and the consequences to the shipping bust
ness of the adoption of the present plan could
have been easily calculated That we should
begin, when the mischief-if upon the whole
there is to be any serious mischief-was nearly
done, TO ask ourselves whether we could
afford to permit it, is only specimen folly.
The stupidity of the average New-York legis-
latOr in the Encouragement OF harbor affairs
goes far to justify the demand of many en-
gineers that Congress should step in and as
sumo the right TO save our great natural
blessing from destruction.
With regard TO the bridge, however, the
case may not be so bad as the Committee
seemed TO think. The result of its completion
will undoubtedly be a change in the location
OF great many branches of business
change not taken into consideration when the
plans were adopted. The dry-dOcks, and a
large part of the foreign trade now above the
bridge, will have to move. Some of it WILL of
course, 90 to Brooklyn, and to that extent
BrookIyn will be benefited at the expense of
New York But the interests of the two
cities are practically identical, and at no dis
tant day they will be united under the same
.municipal administration. They can no more
remain Independent and rivals than the
Thames could divide London into two distinct
cities or the Seine Paris. Moreover those who
already see in imagination the bulk Of our
foreign trade moving over to the Atlantic Basin
forget that Brooklyn has railway commu-
nication with the rest of the world, and con-
sequently that ali the cargoes unloaded or
shipped on that side of the river must be
ferried to or from Aew-YOrk or jersey CITY,
at a heavy expense Sooner or later the
principal part of the foreign shipping trade
will concentrate itself on the Hudson River
front. where cars can be run upon the
wharves. An enormous space is now Occu-
pied on the North River piers by vessels
which would BE quite as well suited on the
other side Of the city-many Of them above
the bridge-and they will gradually De driven
over there to make Dom for the transatlantic
commerce. There is no reason, for example,
why the oyster business should root itself ia