The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-23
CITY OF UPTURNED STREETS.
VIEW YORK NEVER IN SUCH A
CHAOTIC STATE AS NOW.

Miles pom MueS Of fSNcWents 10TH W ~
Repair Gas and water Mains, Lay
Gables and Install Power-More
Miles Left by Asphalt Co.'S Neglect
Parsons Says Well Never He Tidy
New Workers. are getting used to chaos
in the streets. They now take to it as
though it were the natural order Of things.
They scale peaks and mountain ranges OF
litter, climb around isolated upheavals OF
earth and building materials, leap over
yawning chasms and look out over scoriated
wastes in an absentminded way. just as
though there were nothing unusual or out
Of the ordinary in it.
There is nothing unusual or out OF the
ordinary in it. 1t has come to be normal
condition. Furthermore, there is not
great deal in sight to encourage the hope
that in the lifetime of men now in their prime
there will be any change.
will the time ever come when the streets
of New York will not be ripped upP" was
asked of Chief Engineer Parsons yesterday
Never" replied Mr.. Parsons. in his
prompt, CHEEKY way. "They will always
he ripped up. As the city continues grow
ing the underground burrowing will go
on and on, until there are tunnels running
in every direction.
You see, the subway now under con-
sruction will afford no relief from the
congested conditions OF UP and down town
travel. It will be swampeA as soon as it
is thrown open. Other rapid transit devices
will meet the same fate as soon as they are
put in operation. The digging and tun-
nelling will have to go on. and still they
will always be in the rear Of the demand
But the subway is only an item in
the general mess in the streets. There
are only four and half miles Of the
route uncovered at present. OF course,
this by no means indicates that the streets
above the covered and completed sections
OF the underground road are in good order.
An old-fashioned corduroy road of round
logs laid down side by side would present
a smooth surface in comparison with the
pavement over a number OF completed
tunnel reaches. In the better sections
It is a case Of undulating swales, sink holes
and planking in all stages Of wear and tear.
But the subway route may be left out OF
the question. New Workers nerved them
selves for an era Of street horrors while
the work was being done. and the horrors
have been duly delivered, with even few
extra frills and touches which seemed
beyond the reach of the ordinary magma
ton.
They were not enough. On July there
we're more than twenty Ave miles Of trenches
open for the laying Of mains, and more than
seven miles open for subsidiary connec-
- foil oil Otri(
light and power service, for steam. water
and sewer connections and for repairing
pavements about railroad tracks. And
then tho tearing up disease, which seemed
to have come as by contagion from the
subway saturnalia. had only begun fairly
to take hold. It spread with astonishing
rapidity. 1t is now little less than epidemic
Wherever you may 60 streets spread OUT
before you dug deep with trenches, heaped
high with dirt and litter and the unsightly
machinery OF construction companies with
their concomitants Of heaped up paving
stones and raw material. Since July 1,
when there were over thirty miles of the
city streets thus torn up, as many or more
miles must be added to the grand total
1t seems to be spreading and growing
in virulence every day. The applications
to rip up more streets are pouring in by
the score. There is no end to it. Others
lesdes Mr.. Parsons, who have knowledge
Of existing conditions, frankly agree with
him about that.
To be sure there is hope that the street
wrecking may abate somewhat before
long. All who want permits to dig into
the streets are making haste to get their
applications in and the work done before
Tammnny, should Tammany win in this
election. has an opportunity to come down
o. II = n0lxv tinac tI Ia
That undoubtedly accounts for an appreci-
able proportion OF the street uprooting
But a great deal Of 1t is the logical result
of the vast growth OF the city, combined
with the short sighted provisions made
in the past for carrying underground the
city's nervous system-ts electric light
and power wires, its telephone and tele-
steam. 1t is a case of constantly outgrow-
ing the old arrangements and Of adding
to them to meet the overgrowth
There is ahead OF the city Of New York.
said Chief Engineer Martin Of the Depart
Fnent of Highways yesterday, an outlay
only second in magnitude to that for the
subway, and, possibly, the new East River
bridges that are yet to come. This outlay
will be for the construction of galleries for
water mains, steam heating mains. the
electric light and power cables and the
telephone and telegraphic wires. 1t will
have TO come in the end.
Such galleries must be built in the future
up and down the avenues, with crosstown
sections here and there. Every year that
this work is delayed the greater will be the
cost. We missed one great opportunity
when we failed to make provision for at
least part Of this work along the subway
route. The streets involved would then
have been torn up only once.
-We tried to get the Rapid Transit Com
mission to permit us to build an expert
mental gallery along the line Of the lower
Broadway subway now just begun. The
Rapid Transit Commission thought we'll
of it. Mr.. Parsons seemed to favor It.
But Mr. Mcdonald objected and it cannot
be done. 1t would have involved no ex-
pense to the subway contractors. Our
proposition was to pay for it by an appro-
priation of $3.50 600 from this department.
But the plan was defeated
Of the extent to which the city streets
are torn up by the corporations having wires
or piping underground. the plight OF the
city yesterday is a sufficient indication.
The Consolidated Subway Company had
these streets torn up:
i35th street north side. crossing Amsterdam
avenue: Amsterdam avenue from 153d to
t5jth street: lj3d street crossing Amsterdam
avenue. Amsterdam avenue from il1st TO
l53d street l35th street from No. 24s, West,
to Eighth avenue: I2ith street. West, from
No. 25s to Columbus avenue: Columbus ave-
avenue from 1I4th to I22d street; Amsterdam
avenue from lO7th to Hath street. 18th street
from No. gO3 West, to Broad way Second ave-
me and the west side crossing to Ninety Nth