The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-11-10
disgrace brought upon them. He will be
arraigned in court today.
STEEL ROADS FOR NEW YORK.
Save Wear and Tear on the Pavement
and Are inexpensive in the End.

New York wants steel roads. 1t needs
them more than any other place in this
country, and it is in big cities that they
are most required" General Roy Stone,
government expert in roads, made this
declaration the other day, and added:
THE wear ard tear on paving is an
enormous expense in cities. Steel roads
would save most of it, New York ought
to have them on at least two of its av-
enues running north and south. Tnere
should be similar roads on Vesey street,
West Broadway and other down town
streets, which could mention.
"A steel road means simply single or
double track of rails designed for car
riages, wagons and other vehicles. The
rails are not made like ordinary rails,
but are wide and fiat. with rims to pre-
vent the wheels. from running Off. 10
accommodate vehicles of all gauges they
are ten inches or foot in width. On
city street they would be laid fraction
of an inch below the level of the road
way so that wheels would not catch on
them. You can easily imagine the saw
ing in the work and cost of traction over
roads of this kind.
Such roads are most needed in streets
where the traffic Is heavy. No paving
save granite blocks will stand the traffic
of the nations metropolis and even this
sort of pavement is destroyed in four or
five years on busy streets. If the same
streets were laid with proper rails.
smooth enough for wheels, but suffic-
iently rough for horses feet the wear
and tear would be infinitesimal. The
cost of repairs, consequently, would be
almost nothing. The additional expense
of construction would be only about $4,000
per mile and this would be small mat
ter when added to the 100000 or 100000
per mile which is the cost OF city streets.
For the extra $4,000 per mile you
would have a double track, on which
vehicles of all kinds of gauges could run
both ways. The advantages of which l
have spoken are small compared with
the reduction in the traction power re-
quired for the traffic. All this would be
pure gain. OF course street cars could
not run on the STREETS provided with this
improvement. though light omiribuses
might do so to great advantage. The
best sort of rail thus far devised for this
purpose is covered with little CORFU
cations which are smooth to wheels but
rough to horses hoofs. OF necessity the
rails laid down in cities would be thick
err and heavier than those used in the
country.
steel roads ought to be laid between
Brooklyn, Jamaica, between Jersey City
ard Newark and between Jersey City
and Paterson. The adoption of this i'm
provement would diminish road repairs
by rs per cent. Add rs per cent to the
cost Of an ordinary macadamized road
and you have the maximum of expense
of building a steel road, with double
track, in the country anywhere. Coun-
try roads, of course are cheap, COM
pared with city streets, coming to only
$4,000 per mile for macadam. and $4,000
per mile would be the limit for the ma
cadam plus the double steel track. 1t
is necessary to have the macadam as
a foundation on which to lay the rails.
From the point of view of cost for
traction and wear and tear, it would not
be considered desirable to run railway
trains over rough surfaces of earth or
stone. The same agument applies to the
drawing of wagons and other vehicles.
1t is said that on a steel track horse
will draw twenty times as much as on
dirt road and five times as much as on
macadam.
THE steel road will save as much as
so to 80 per cent of the cost of hauling.
Such a road ought to be double line