New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-02-15
PLANS GIANT TERMINAL
HARTMAN BUYS SITE.
Jamaica Bay to Shelter Worlds
Shipping-TunaeLs to Tap 1t.

E. H. Hartman is to establish great terminal
stations at Jamaica Bay. where steamers may
load and unload. thus obviating the tortuous trip
10 the piers of Manhattan.
FOR the present these plans contemplate only
freight service. To develop this great scheme
will require an expenditure of approxiuately
S2o.Oo0,oo. and will involve the building of
system Of piers. a breakwater, the dredging of
channel and the maintenance of the channel
Mr. Hartman now owns at the western end of
Rockaway Point, at the entrance to jamaica Bay,
a tract of some four hundred acres On the bay
front of this tract offering sheltered harbor,
well protected from the storms that sweep the
Atlantic coast, there is a depth of water varying
from twenty to sixty feet. With a compara-
lively small amount of work for clearing up the
bottom and deepening it in some places water
way would be provided for the largest ocean
steamers
The approach to Jamaica Bay is outside the
bars and shoals that make the channels that
meander through the Lower Bay TO the Narrows
Moreover this approach is to the eastward of
the shoals that are encroaching on the present
channels at the rate of a foot year. There is
narrow bar at the entrance to Jamaica Bay. how
ever. and through this a channel would have to
bS dredged and maintained. 1t is part of the
engineering plan to build a breakwater about a
mile and one-quarter long from the point out to
sea. This would prevent the shifting of the bar
by the action of wind and tides filling up the
channel. In addition to this, there would be a
fleet of dredges which would keep the channel
clear.
The scheme Of fleet of dredges is not Chi
merical as it may seem, for it would be not
only help to navigation. but paying PROPOSE
tion in itself. The sand taken from the entrance
TO Jamaica Bay is the finest white sand used for
building purposes and in foundries. and there
is constant market for it at the rate of dollar
a cubic yard. The dredges. therefore, would
make the channel self-sustaining and money
maker outside of it's uses for the Hartman
terminals
NEED ROOM FOR MODERN LINERS.
Railroads and steamship lines have long been
dsgusted with the facilities offered them by
New-York and the charges which they are
obliged to pay. They have been compelled to
limit themselves in the size of the ocean car
riers they have built because the city would
give them docks that would accommodate
the vessels they wanted to build. 1t has been
an open secret that they have been searching for
another place where they might have their ter
minals, and there has been talk Of Newark Bay.
Staten Island and the dream of Austin Corbin of
great ocean terminals at Montauk Point. All
these plans seem now TO have centred in the
Hartman idea of Jamaica Bay station, and 1t
is known that for some time various companies
shores of the bay.
OF course, such a terminal as Mr. Hartman
plans could not be built on four hundred acres,
which is the size OF the tract that he n1v osSizs
He is, accordingly, seeking control Of another
large tract adjoining his property. This COM
prises something like seven hundred acres and
would with his present property. give him be-
tween two and three miles OF harbor front.
ample room for developing Il great terminal.
This property. adjoining the Hartman tract on
one side on the other runs down to the present
development of Rockaway Beach. 1t was offered
to the city some time ago for public park at
a price approximating S1,5OO.0OO. but 1t is
derstood that the Hartman brokers have ap-
preached the owners with offer Of nearly
twice that sum. Options also being acquired
on land on the other side OF the bay. Much of
the shore on that side is owned by the city,
and 1t is expected that the city will join in The
development of jamaica Bay ocean ter
minal In fact, this was part Of the plan ad-
vCcated by Mr. GrOut when he was Controller.
The new terminals will have their connection
with the NewYork Central and New-England
by the Long Island Railroad and the connecting
railroad over which the PENNSYLVANIA Company
and the Rapid Transit Commission have lately
been dckering, across Brooklyn. and the pro-
posed Wards Island bridge for a connection
with the mainland. All this has been explained
in detail as part of the Pennsylvania's plan TO
run through trains to New England. But the
knowledge of the plan for the ocean terminals
at Jamaica Bay makes plain the reason for the
Pennsylvania's desire for such large terminals
and such extensive trackage and CrOsstown ia
cilities in Brooklyn and Long Island City.
The Pennsylvania has also been acquiring i'm
rnense tracts of land in New-Jersey opposite
Staten Island, and that island. and spending
great sums in improving this property. The
Staten Island property has received special at
tention and lately has been largely added to.
It Is the intention TO build tunnel under the
Narrows and connect the Pennsylvania's
southern and western lines with the new Har-
riman terminals. This development is necessary
because the tunnels now being built under the
North River and to Long Island City cannot be
used for freight service.