The Breckenridge news., 1906-04-18
Excavation for
Tunnel on
Ne7O Jersey
Side.

but the morning and evening crowd
that makes the lively hours on the
elevated aud surface roads had In
creased by so per cent, or from $1,000
to over 100000, before the subway had
been In operation nine months.
For all hours Of the day between 3
IN the morning and in the afternoon,
the city's rapid transit system Is more
than adequate, though the average
daily traffic amounts to about 100000
north and south, and about 100000
east and west. The trouble comes be-
tween 1880 a. N. and 800 a. m. when
thousands from all directions within a
radius Of 35 miles of the borough OF
Manhattan are rushing toward the
downtown section of the city (below
Twenty-third street,, and again be-
tween 90 p. N. and 600 p. NJ, when
the same thousands are struggling back
70 their homes.
BY far the greater portion Of New
York's business is transacted below
rwenty-third street, on an area having
q maximum length of three miles and a
maximum width of two miles. Where
there is so little ground to build upon,
naturally real estate and skyscrapers
rise together, the former to millions OF
dollars, the latter to tens Of stories. On
that triangle having Twenty-third
street fo7 its base and the Battery for
Its very pointed apex, there are hun
dreds Of buildings housing over 5000
people each during the working hours.
Standing on the roof OF one OF these
towers Of industry, one rising twenty
nine stories, for instance, with the aid
Of a glass, a man may count four ele-
vated roads running from the upper
sections of New York City down TO the
triangle; surface line after surface line
running under or paralleling the al"
roads, but converging and becoming
consolidated at Twenty-third street
into only six roads, there being room
for no more below that thoroughfare:
crosstown surface lines still served by
about 400 horse cars; the innumerable
little glass and iron entrance and exit
structures that dot the route Of the
subway from the Bronx to City Hall;
the twenty or more tireless ferries pad
ding back and forth across the Hud.
son and East rivers; every car and
boat crowded to the last inch of stand
ing room, all unloading into that roar
ing triangle. The problem is to carry
into and distribute through this trl.
enele, within q given time, constant
y Increasing horde Of workers.
Torty-flve Hundred a Minute.
The traffic returns for the year end
.cg June 80, 1904, show that during a
single rush hour, the elevated and sur.
face lines running north and south
carried $1,000; the ferries crossing
fzom Brooklyn, other Long Island
points and Staten Island, $1,000; cars
over the Brooklyn Bridge, $4,000; the
New Jersey and Hudson river ferries,
$4,000; crosstown lines, 10000, a total
Of 175,000 landed and distributed be-
tween Twenty-third street and the Bat
terry In 60 minutes. BY June 80, 1905.
the rush hour crowd had increased to
270,000.
The strain of carrying the increase
falls most heavily on the elevated
roads, the surface lines and the sub
way, which have to take care OF net
only the business people from Man
haitian and the Bronx. but the thou
sande OF Hudson river commuters
landed by the New York Central at
ForE-second street, and on the Brook
lyn Bridge. The new Williamsburg
bridge Is unpopular because only one
Brooklyn elevated line connects with
II, and also because its New York term
inRl Is q mile and q half from City
Hall.
a Host of New Subways.
To relieve the elevated roads. sur
face lines and subway Of New York
City itself, nineteen new subways have
been proposed. Greater speed OF q
larger number OF trains on the LIS"
and subway is impossible withont dan-