The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-11
At the Turning of the Ways.


ditch through Broadway from Forty
second street to Union Square will not
be successful No assurance that the
digging will proceed without trouble
some interference with the surface OF the
street, by the adoption OF a plan OF eS-
cavation which is to be pursued in lower
Broadway, will avail to lessen the pro-
test against the vandalism which is to
be made to the Rapid Transit Commits
sion next month.
Whatever may be promised by this
company it is obviously an engineering
impossibility to construct subway close
TO the surface without producing detaCe-
ment and disturbance in the street
whether it be Broadway above Union
Square or Broadway below the Post
Office. II is true that the lower section
might be dug with less injury to travel
and traffic. At night lower Broadway
is deserted, and excavations along the
street made at night might be boarded
over when the active business of the
day begins; but in upper Broadway the
hustle cont inues till past midnight
Moreover, when the work of digging
up lower Broadway begins, see what
happens. The contractors instance the
section dug in Park row as an illustra
ton of what NAV be expected in Broad
way below Ann street Well look at it.
Is the prospect before the wayfarer
beautiful? If that sort of thing is to be
repeated below he Post Office for months
to come, what will happen to the vast
throngs of hurrying pedestrians which
crowd the sidewalks from 8 in the
morning till in the evening? How
will it be with the ceaseless procession
of vehicles on the pavement?
That section may be built without all
the cruel devastation with which Forty
second street has been visited for two
years past, but the consequences of the
digging will not be pretty. There will
be inevitable obstruction 10 travel and
traffic which will continue to exasperate
the public until the work is far toward
completion.
After nightfall, when this lower dis
trict ia deserted. Broadway from Forty
second street to Union Square, rs every
body familiar with the district knows,
begins TO take on an activity which even
exceeds the hustle of the busy day of
shopping. Then the restaurants begin
to fill with diners, and as 8 o'clock APP
proaches, multitude of pleasure seekers
bound for the opera and the theatres fills
the sidewalks and vehicles crowd the rel
atively narrow street from curb to curb.
Not an inch of room on sidewalk or pave
ment can be spared II lis all needed by
the public for locomotion. Day and
night gangs, we are told, will succeed
each other in the digging of the subway
through that district. The hole dug at
night, say the contractors, will be COW
cred up by the morning gang, and every
body will be made happy. Is there an
engineer, not specifically retained by the
contractors, who will venture to give
any such positive assurance? Where in
town except in the upper sections where
there is a genuine tunnel, can there be
pointed out any example of subway ex-
cavation so beautifully and harmlessly
conducted? Park row has been instanced.
Look at it to-day
After the bitter experiences of New
York since the building Of the subway
began with assurances of harmlessness
to traffic similar to those now given, the
town has made up its mind that it will
not go through them again and for many
more years to come The proposed ex-
tension of the subway below Forty-second
street is only one of many extensions in
different directions which will have to
be built as time passes; and as fast as
one is completed others will be required,
so that we may expect continuous eX-
cavatng for transit lines for at least five
years. Then, shortly, will be demon
strated the need of others.
We are now, therefore, at the turning
of the ways We know exactly what to
expect if the present method of con-
struction is continued and the citizens
of New York will have no more of it, An
entirely new policy must be introduced,
and now when a fresh start is to be
made in the digging is the time for the
Rapid Transit Commission TO settle on il.
No more digging from the surface Of the
street will be tolerated