Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-17

will represent when completed an invest
ment of fifteen million dollars. and various
more or less extended sections on the East
river, where the demands of commerce re-
quired it, have also been improved.
Hundreds More Building.
Hundreds of piers have been built by the
city in this time. but there are hundreds
more to be constructed, and the depart
ment of docks and ferries does not contem-
plate quitting in the beginning, as it were,
of its task In fact, it plans eventually to
surround the entire island of Manhattan
with a concrete bulkhead wall and to have
running out from it the finest lot of piers
that can possibly be built under the linlita-
tons of the various plerhead lines set Dy
the War Department in Washington
AT present no pier longer than 500 feet
can be built in the North river from the
island. The borough, as owner of nearly
all of its water front, desired to have the
pier-head line set at a thousand feet, ar
guing that it would not be long before the
ocean liners would be of such length that
1,000-foot piers would be imperative if the
commerce of the port, which is synonymous
with the international trade of the country,
was to be taken care of properly. The de-
partment feared that the river channels
would be narrowed too much, and the re-
quest was refused.
But the city intends to get around the
difficulty. Instead of going out into the
river, it means to destroy square block
after square block of the upland by dredg-
ing, and, by putting the bUlkhead wall
where rows of business houses now stand,
thus securing 1,000-foot piers for the $40
and 90O-foot ocean liners that will I'M
doubleday come in the near future.
Following System.
This. however, will be no new move on
the part of the city along its water front.
Since it began the work of providing ample
dockage for the ships that make the port,
it has bought scores of blocks of property
by condemnation proceedings, torn down
hundreds of business houses, and dredged
away the land for piers and ships, or added
portions of it to the great marginal street,
ITS feet in width that is gradually en-
circling the island. Sixteen square blocks,
every square foot covered with substantial
brick and stone buildings, were destroyed
to make room for the half dozen latest
piers, to be completed at cost of $lo,o00-
COO which lie just south of the eight piers
now being built on the North river, for
which seventeen blocks, the whole or in
part were condemned and purchased at
cost of several millions of dollars. One
million dollars was required to purchase
gas plant that stood where one of those
piers begins, and it will not be long now
before the great ocean liners will be berthed
where three years ago great manufactures
were humming and giving employment 20
thousands.
In like manner the improvement will be
carried clear around the island, causing
thousands of buildings to be RACED and de-
creasing the land area of this already con-
gested spot by acres; thirteen million dol
lars are to be spent to this end this year
Over a mile of the water front from above
the Brooklyn bridge down to the Battery
along the East river is shortly to be i'm
proved, a section at a time, SO as to inter
fere with the shipping as little as possible
special legislation having been secured from
the state to permit of condemnation pro-
ceedings for the necessary land. Hundreds
of blocks will be required, for in some
stretches there Is practically no marginal
street, which will De from 10 to 10 feet
wide In order to relieve congestion caused
by trucking; and it is also planned to con-
vert much of the upland into pier and slip
room. About thirty piers in all will be
constructed.
For the Small Ship.
Heretofore the city has devoted nearly
all of it's efforts in behalf of the big ships
such as the liners, but so great has been
the demand for better pierage accommoda-
ton on the part Of the smaller ships that
the authorities have turned to the section
of the East river where the minor steam
ship lines dock. What will be the cost of
this piece of the work no man can say. I
Even they hesitate to calculate who have
1t in charge and are engaged on the de-
tails preparatory to the actual construction
Of the piers, All they will say is: Millions
so many tndt we Oui SELVES uon INV
vet. and can't tell until We've condemned all
the property that we shall need. They
feel certain. however, that it will add an
enormous sum to the already respectable
one of two hundred millions. So Will the
bulkhead wall of concrete when 1t is COM
Melted. Its cost so far has been about
$500 per running foot. The island has a
water front of about two hundred thou
sand linear feet The wall will cost some
where in the neighborhood of sixty million
dollars. or twenty millions more than the
subway system as it stands today. The
latest section of the wall to be finished