The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-03-29
THE 1871 STREET TI4D UCT.
Completion OF the Assessment list on the
Finished Work.

Tho Commissioners of Public Works has
asked for an appropriation Of $4,000 under
chapter 576, Laws OF 1887, to meet the ex-
pense of making changes In the lo5th street
yiaduct assessment. Since the preparation Of
the original assessment list of the property
affected by the improvement the block sys'
tenn has been introduced, giving new block
numbers and, in certain instances, new ward
numbers. The Board of Assessors has for
warded to the Department of Public Works
the assessment list, with the request that its
surveyors change the ward and block numbers
on the assessment list and maps so as to con-
form to the present enumeration as 1t appears
upon the books of the Tax Department. For
this purpose the appropriation OF $1,000 is
asked by ne Commissioner.
The portion of the assessment for the 155th
street yiaduct which, when in legal shape, will
be imposed upon the property owners OF the
neighborhood amounts to S"72,s4S. the city
paying two-thirds of the expense for the i'm
provement and the property owners benefited,
as the expression is. the remaining one-third.
The III ca Of assessment Of the 155th street via
duct extends south to 125th street and north to
Dyckman street. The improvement includes
a metal and stone structure running vertically
from the high bluff at l55th street, or Fort
WASHINGTON, to the ~juncture of the new Cen
trail bridge hich crosses the Harlem River at
the end Of Central avenue, and which las re-
placed the old Macomb's dam bridge, KIN OWE
for many years to New York horsemen and
drivers. Persons who have travelled to the
north terminus of the Sixth and Ninth avenue
elevated roads recall the primitive stairways
in use for many years for reaching the high
Harlem bluff. The almost interminable series
of rlckety wooden stairs were afterward re-
placed in part by a broad board walk. recalling
to some imaginative minds the Ashury Park
board walk, though of a much les picturesque
and far less durable character:
The new Viaduct structure Is eiXty feet wide
and 1902 feet long, with a driveway and two
sidewalks. At the Washington Heights bluff
the tOpmOst part the structure Is s!zty-five
feet above the ground. Crossing above the ele:
waited railroad station and the New York and
Northern Railroad terminus it gradually slopes
toard the new bridge leading to the annexed
district. The bridge proper is 40 feet long,
and is thirty-two feet above high water. 1t con-
tains a Graw 400 feet long. resting upon a pivot
pier In the river. and there are four fixed spans
and to the eastern end of TIC work there are two
approaches fifty feet wide. One Is :,50 feet long
the other 1850 feet. The work has been under
the jurisdiction OF the Department of Public
Works, and for che eX Expense OF so much of 1t
as is separate from the bridge proper, and the
structure-there is. as before stated, "a division
of the burden of the cost between the city and
the property owners, the city. OF course. pay.
ing the larger share. The entire expense of
the work has fallen little short Of $1,000, 900,
but II has been of vast public benefit to the
venience for those residing on the Fort Wash
ington bluff. Prior to the erection of this via
duct they were literally cut off from connection
with the lower territory north of l45th street.