The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-27
The Object Lesson" in Lower
Broadway.

DTOduWaS.
People all over town are waiting
with much curiosity to see the object
lesson" which, it has been said, is to be
furnished them in lower Broadway, of
the possibility of ditching a crowded
street without inconvenience 20 either
trade and business or to pedestrians.
In front of st. Paul Church a struct-
ure over the street has been built for
the purpose of accomplishing the feat.
1t is substantial rather than beautiful,
but, as yet, the interference of the dig
ging underneath it with the travel and
traffic of the thoroughfare is not sufti-
Gent to provoke any considerable pro-
test. Somewhere about Trinity Church,
in the near neighborhood of Wall Street,
another structure of the same kind for
the same purpose is to be built.
Only. however, when the work Of
digging is fully under way will the COB
ject lesson" become impressive. Broad
way from the Post Office to the Battery
is the most congested district in the
world. 1t is peculiarly region of sky
scrapers.' Where once there were, per-
haps, score of occupants of a business
building on an ordinary lot of land, there
are now hundreds. AT morning when
these men and women 20 to their occu-
pations in those populous structures and
at evening when they depart from Them
there pour into the street many thou
sands of people, and their numbers are
multiplied by the occupants of the many
"skyscrapers by which that whole
neighborhood is distinguished.
At best. even with Broadway wholly
unobstructed by either private or public
excavation and building, the street is
congested TO an extent which raises a
serious problem as to the chances of To-
comotion when the number of great bust
ness structures along it and in it's neigh
borhood has been doubled and even quad
rupled, for that is a result which may be
looked forward to as inevitable in the
near future.
Practically, the method Of building
the subway has involved the removal Of
the existing pavement. During the proc
ess the street is INSTRUCTED not merely
by the excavation, but also by wagons
carrying off the excavated earth If
that work of transformation can go on
in the most congested part of Broadway
without causing wel-nigh intolerable
disturbance to traffic, it will be an en-
cheering feat which will approach the
marvellous nothing like it has yet been
seen in such constructions.
The town, therefore, waits curiousy
TO see how it is going to be done, if it il
done. The object lesson" will be before
the people for long time. They will
have it before them during the whole Of
the next two years, in all probability,
and they will have abundant opportunity
to satisfy their curiosity.
All the same the tone of the New York
public concerning the matter is uni
versally sceptical. Marvellous as the
feats of modern engineering have been,
the faith that the ditching of lower
Broadway will be so harmless as to pro-
woke desire for a repetition of that
sort of subway digging in the streets
generally does not extend beyond the
president of the Rapid Transit Commits
sion. SO far, that gentleman, Mr.. ALEX
AMBER r. ORR, seems to be alone among
the citizens of New York in liking the
method