The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-12-23
RAPID TRANSIT FOR BIG CITIES.

Supt. Hahn Says that Electricity Will
Obvlate All the Noise and Smoke of
Elevated Roads.
NEW YORK, Dec. 22.-Supt Hahn, of the
Elevated railway system, talked cautiously.
but in most interesting manner yesterday
of the rapid transit problem in this and
other cities.
ut seems beyond question:" said he,
that the whole rapid transit problem in
New York is to be solved by the elevated
system; Indeed it as in lar. ge measure bsen
solved, and the elevated roads have not yet
reached the limit Of tueir carrying capac-
ity. The express train system, Is emf
nently successful, and it can beexUended."
"What of the problem in other citiesl'
philadelphia will soon Lave an eievat d
railway. Chicago already has it. Kansas
City has a short line that works satlsfac-
torily. A company was organized to build
such syste n in st. Louis and | was elected
i director. Nothing was done, however,
and / withd ew from the directory. |
don't know whether the project is still con-
templated. | have not utied the question
of the adaptabillty of the elevated railway
to the leeds of Boston, Cincinnati, New
. leans, Baltimore and the other large
cities Of this country. IL is in use in Berlin.
however, and a committee of engineers
have been examining the system here in
view of proposition to intr Jduce it in
Paris. Generally speaking, if city In need
of rapid transit has stree OF su ncient width
the elevated system is the best solution Of
the problem. The undergrou dsystem would
not be eAdured by a community accustomed
10 the open-air travel of the elevated Dads.
London's underground railway IS stuffy
id uncomfortable to the last degree. 1t is
unpleasantly like long tunnel"
"Can the e,evated railway structure be
lightened as the system is DEVELOPER
Hardly. If you are TO draw heavy
trains you must have weight enough in
your motor to insure the necessary friction,
and a light structure would not be safe
und sucn weight"
What of the smoke and noisep
Electricity will obviate tnat, at least in
part. There is no room for doubt that we
snail see before many years as wide an
application Of electricity as a motive
power as there now Is of steam.
Electricity is the steam of the ex-
future. The Four b avenue road finds =
experiment wi electricity successful, and
our experiments with electric motors have
lot been discouraging. With electricity
you obtain a smokeless and almost noiseless
m tor that would remove many of o
alleged objections TO the elevated railroad
system"
If you could obtain the right to connect
the elevated roads with all ferries would it
not be pos ib.e to give rapid transit to the
whole population within ten miles Of
he city hall so as to weld New
York and Brooklyn and the neighboring
big towns Of New Jersey into one great
cityp
Col. Hahn smiled somewhat suspiciously
at this picture and said. "That IL looking
too r into the future. Brooklyn, OF
course, has its elevated system working
satisfactorily. In time, the East river will
be tunneed. That is a necessity of the net
distant future. Observe, | dou't say that
such tunnel would bs controlled by the
elevated roads, or even that it would carry
them TO Long Iland. IL would be sepa
ate enterprise. As to esark, jersey City.
Hoboken and their suburban villages, il
they want an elevated system, l fancy
they'll get it for themselves. Tns board Of
aldermen has thought it wise 10 cut US off
from the ferries and it is useless tospeculate
on what doesn't exist and isn't Ia sight. IL
we eau give Manhattan Island and West
chester county all the rapid transit they
need, we shall be satisfied for sometime to
come. That is our field, and it is a pretty
big one, for the city is growing along the
line of our roads. OF course there is the
Harlem river, but why should the Harlem
DO retained as navigable streamp
DAVID WECHsLER.