The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-04
DITCH OR NOTHING DOESN'T GO
NEW YOKkERS WILL DEMAND
REAL TUNNELS IN FUTURE.

NEW YOKkERS WILL DEMAND
REAL TUNNELS IN FUTURE.
Broadway Merchants Ready to Swat tho
Bankruptcy Method or City Railroad
Building II Belmont Revives 1t. - They
Think He Will-DitchinS Downtown.
just to insure that the Belmont project
Of converting upper Broadway into ditch
and its business prosperity into bankruptcy
Is really dead and not sleeping till the an
tagonism 1t has aroused has quoted down,
a subcommittee Of the merchants anti
!, ditching Committee Is taking counsel
with eminent lawyers who have reputa-
tiors a. fool killers.
As has been made very plain, the bust
ness men Of upper Broadway have no
more intention Of pulling Mr.. Belmont's
chestnuts out Of the fire by responding
to his invitation to build the Broadway
tunnel, than they have Of sitting quietly
while his subway construction company
dynamites their shop fronts, piles mount
aims OF dirt in front Of their doors, and
generally in public-be-damned spirit, sets
about enriching itself at the cost Of their
ruin.
THE SUN asserted when it took up the
merchants fight that there will be no ditch
ing of UPPER Broadway now or at any other
time while that thoroughfare continues
to be the citys chief highway. one Of the
merchants said yesterday. There wont
be; and think that, thanks to The Suns
championship. the open cut method Of
converting prosperous business men into
bankrupts has been killed for any other
district in the city"
Nobody In Broadway between Fourteenth
and Forty-second streets believes for
minute, though. that the Belmont syndicate
has yet really abandoned its ditciing plan.
Ditch or nothing" is what Mr.. Belmont
in effect said to the protesting merchants
last summer. Now his company with
draws its bid for the Broadway extension
and intimates that unless the mercl ants
do the building there wont be any under
ground road along Broadway. At the same
time Mr.. Belmont says:
Broadway Is the most important Of the in
terseoting thoroughfares running from losth
street to Union square on the Island OF Man
uRoa has f
company believes that no rapid transit system
will be complete without broadway being
u
which will afford to the citizens OF Manhattan.
The Bronx and Brooklyn, without change OF
cars, access to the shopping and theatre dis
tricts OF Greater New YORK.
1t is hardly to be expected, SO the mer-
chants think, that Mr. Belmont will let the
chance to complete so profitable an in
vestment as the subway slip away from
him, and the merchants confidently expect
a revival Of tho ditching project, perhaps
when little bit more Of the mess caused
by the present ditching operations has
been cleared away
So a legal e1ecutioner is to be hired for
the ditch plan should 1t be revived. The
upper Broadway folks wi not DO caught
mapping like those In lower Broadway and
the Brooklyn business men. who had q
ditch in operation before they were properly
organized to oppose it. Counsel will be
instructed and the courts appealed to be-
fore the thing Is got under way, and the
notion of clogging a great artery OF trade
and travel, whether folks like II or not, VIII
be disposed OF for good.
What ditch means to the citys traffic
and comfort is likely to be an object lesson
for everybody for q long time. The BEL
mont-Mt Donald sub-contractors, with their
contracts signed and delivered. don't
seem to care a button for the future plans plans
t u ire time iu about Clearing up the wreck
along the route OF the main subway:
Forty second street isn't visibly In any
better plight than 1t was q month ago.
Union square on Its eastern SIDE ID q waste
of dirt piles and heaped-up timber and
paving stones. Park row is horror.
In front Of the Post Office, where the ex-
cayating for the spur to the Brooklyn
extension was completed long ago. no
attempt has yet been made to NIL IN the
hole.
same story. Traffic is clogged in day
time, and horses and pedestrians stumble
over distractions and into holes and wade
through pudd.es at night.
Down in lower Broadway, where the ditch
digging wasn't SO very troublesome 80 long
as the contractors were content with no
prceress, one hole and plank covering,
the Inconvenience to merchants and to
traffic ID being steadily increased. A new
platform barricade Ia being erected in front
Of Trinity Church and the sub-contractors
have outlined a new series Of holes to be
dug at intervals all along the street.
But the worst Ia seen in Battery Park. 1t
was the city's downtown Breathing place,
a green pleasure ground for all sorts and
conditions Of folks. II isn't that any more.
II one elevated railroad structure were not
enough to deface the park, the rapid transit
contractors have built another and more
unsightly one, shutting out tho Wow of the
beautiful harbor scenes beyond.
A ditch twenty feet wide has been cut
through the park. Where trees and shrub
berry we're In it's way they have been de-
stroyed. The shrieking Of iron buckets
grating over the wires on which they travel
overhead the din Of compressed air pile.
drivers putting down timber sheathing, and
the rumbling Of earth laden handcars
being pushed along to dumping scows
moored of the Battery wall, replace the
peace and quiet the park enjoyed.
Instead Of the tall elm trees are derricks
and smokestacks. The historic flagstaff
on which the Stars and Stripes was hoisted
every year on the anniversary Of the eyacu-
elton of New York lies felled across the
lawn It had to 60 to make way for the
unsightly green tTestle overhead, but II
anybody but subway contractor had pro-
posed TO cut II down the city couldn't have
been made too hot for nm.
A narrow gauge railroad along the edge
of the trench cut for the big loop Of the tun-
mel replaces more sh,ubbery and lawn. The
park walks along the South Ferry side
are hidden between high board fences.
An earthquake couldn't have made half
the mes, and 1t will last for two years,
anyway II wouldn't have been much
~ 49, ar hssr thn t,,u al