The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1884-02-21
RAPID TRANSIT IN NEW YORK.
The Broadway Underground Railroad
the Next Candidate for Public APP

Crofut in Pioneer Press.
Rapid transit in New York still
clamors for solution. The elevated road,
with all its lodging of equitable taxa
ton, is an untold blessing to the city
so great convenience to travel, and so
striking a benefit to property. that liti-
cation against it has ceased almost al
together. But it is nsutficient-quite
insufficient. For five hours of every
day it. goes crowded, and does not begin
TO accommodate those wishing to ride
And these are the very hours that
measure the need. As the strength of
a chain is only the strength of it's weak
est link, so the requirements of up-and-
down travel in New York is measured
by the thousands that stand on plat
forms between and Z, unable to get
on the trains. Moreover, these roads
are running to their full capacity. They
can run no more than four cars to the
train, and the trains can go no nearer
together. What next? More elevated
roads are objected to, because they are
really an eyesore, are somewhat dan
gerous, and use up valuable ground
that is needed for the wagon-way.
The next candidate for public APP
proval is the Broadway Underground
Railroad company. This has charter
to construct tunnel road of two tracks
from the Battery to the Harlem river,
forking at Madison square and passing
northward via Madison avenue and
Broadway. 1t has given bond to the
city to finish this road as far as Central
park by January /, 1887. and the money
is promised to complete the big job by
that time. But the company is going
before the legislature this winter to ask
for an extension of its powers-the
right, namely, 10 lay four tracks instead
of two. the middle pair to be for express
trains, going at the rate of forty miles
an hour, including stoppages. In order
to do this the whole of Broadway must
be dug out twenty feet deep and arcaded
the whole width between the buildings,
the upper roadway, at the present level,
being devoted to its present uses. The
company claims that it can daily carry
a quarter of million passengers, or as
many rs all the public vehicles put to-
gether now carry, and this is probable
enough.
The chief objection hitherto made to
this plan is that it would iniure build
ings on Broadway, that the jar might
shake them down. M. c. Smith, the
president, ex-Secretary Window,
Jerome Fassler, of Ohio, and William
J. McAlpine, and the Baron Blanc, civil
engineers, have been to London this
summer, examining the underground
road there in its bearing on this diff
Guilty. The road passes under all sorts
of great buildings, including hotels
churches, and large hospital, goes
under the great thirty-six-ton monu-
ment of George ~, within six inches
of the masonary, under hundreds OF
tottering old walls: and yet Mr.. Meal.
pine tells me that it has never cracked
a bit of masonry. or had cent of dam
age to pay, and that the trains of road
under Broadway will cause less vibra-
ton to the buildings than is now made
by passing omnibus. The reports OF
the engineers will be laid before the
legislature, with maps illustrating and
substantiating them.