The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-26

considering the magnitude of the
work and the long stretches of COM
paratiVely unprotected open eXcava-
ton, has also been remarkable. There
are some who attribute this more to
the care taken of themselves by the
people on the street than to any
watchfulness on the part of the con-
tractors, and there is some reason for
this view. In scores of places, when
the larger part of the subway was
open, the rough wooden ratings put
up to prevent the people from falling
through were of the frailest possible
description, and there We're many
places where there was no railing at
all to prevent the unwary from step
ping off piece of smooth firm pave
ment into a hole from fifteen to thirty
five feet deep or more.
These places have now almost all
disappeared. A good deal more than
half the subway has been rooted over
with steel girders and concrete arches,
the earth has been filled in and the
pavement relaid. At the corner of
Forty-second street and Broadway
there is still a hole more than sixty
feet deep-part of it being the exca-
walton for the new Times building-and
at the corner of Eighth street and
Fourth avenue there is a larger hole,
though not so deep a one, much of
which is the excavation for the addi-
ton to one of the big department
stores. Aside from these two great
pits there are no open places of con-
sequence between Sixty-sixth street
and the City Hall, distance of more
than four miles. though Forty second
street is still badly blocked. North of
SiXty-siXth street there is still much
roofing and filing in to be accomplish
ed, but on the whole the progress since
the work was begun, rather more than
two years ago, has been remarkable.
At the same time it must be admit
ted that the subway contractors are
responsible for many sins, both of
omission and commission, which have
justified good deal of the general i'll
feeling toward them. The occupants
of the property on both sides of Elm
street have the greatest legitimate
cause for complaint
Far enough back to be termed years
ago it was decided to widen this thor
oughfare at a cost of two or three mil
lions. The improvement had been
urged for nearly decade in order that
the congestion of Broadway, between
Eighth street and the City Hall, might
be relieved. The widening was COM
pleted just before the subway digging
/ was begun and the repaving of the
| until after the excavation should be
accomplished. Everybody agreed that,
inasmuch as the street had already
! been no thoroughfare for a long time
the subway, though its length, ought
to be rushed as rapidly as possible.
Yet to-day, though almost every
foot of the excavation has been closed
in Elm street, which begins within
| stones throw of the City Hall and
| mil
| one of the busiest parts of the metrop-
oils, the street is literally impossible;
| so far as traffic is concerned there
might as well be no street there at
i all.
In fact, its present condition is quite
| past bekef. On either side, along
much of it's length, stand handsome
modern business buildings, splendidly
| placed in normal conditions, close to
| Broadway on one side and the Bow
cry on the other, and facing an I'M
| usually wide street unencumbered by
street car tracks, and therefore espe-
cially adapted to great truckage traf-
fic. But few of these buildings have
been available for at least three years,
perhaps four. Instead of the broad
smooth pavement, crowded with
trucks, to which the owners of the
millions of dollars worth of property
fronting on Elm street are entitled,
there is a succession of dirt piles, mud
holes, pools of stagnant water, heaps
of junk and all the indescribable mass
of debris which has been left by the
contractors after hastily filling in over
the subway roof.
In one place the buildings on one
side of the street have been left in
tottering condition, and the whole
street is blocked by great timber props
which reach from the leaning walls,
nearly to the opposite curb. Occasion
+ ally there is wagon path winding its
way for a few hundred feet, between
the mountainous accumulations of
rubbish on the one hand and the slough
holes of mire on the other. Thus the
delivery wagons of occasional delica-
lessen shops and bakeries find their
way to the outer world, but otherwise
the street is of no value to the property
owners whatever. Their loss must
have been enormous, and the wonder
is that they have put up with it so
long.
It would surely seem that they are
entitled to legal damages, either from
the city or the subway contractors,
and possibly a big batch of law suits
will be begun later on, but so far there
has been no great outcry on their part,
nor have the local newspapers devoted
brief-paragraph to the shocking state
of affairs.
The whole business, in fact, affords
only another instance of the stupen-
dous patience and long suffering of the
people who live in the new worlds
| biggest town. Duane.