The Washington herald., 1908-02-23

The completion Of the Hudson River
tunnel, at the opening, OF which the gov
ernors Of New York and New Jersey viii
meet Tuesday, represents the opening Of
new era in transportation Americans
have come 70 look upon the construction
of the Panama Canal as the most gigan-
tic task OF history. And such It is. in a
certain sense. But the great engineering
projects that are collectively being carried
on in New York City to-day makes the
Panama Canal look Ike a sort of irri-
cation ditch; $500. 10000 has already been
appropriated for the great projects in and
around New York. Plans that have al
ready passed the formative stage and
which are certain 70 be completed within
the decade between 1904 and 1914 call for
the expenditure Of another billion dollars
The total which conservative author
ities estimate will be spent or engineer
ing projects IN and around New York
City in the fifteen years between 1900 and
1915 win amount to enough 10 build eight
Panama Canals. or sixteen Of the Suez
kind
There are now completed OF under con-
struction, sixteen tunnels under the rivers
that make Manhattan an island. Eight
Of these tubes are under East River, six
Of them are under the Hudson. and two
OF them under the Harlem This takes no
account or the six projected from the
Brooklyn BriSgc to the Battery. nor Of
the four which are expected 10 be put
under the Harlem. nor of the two that
are expected 10 be driven under the East
River above the Williamsburg Bridge
Hemmed in by three rivers. with the
greater part of the population spending
the day IN Manhattan and the night at
their homes across these rivers. the hand
ling OF the New York morning and even
ing crowds becomes one OF the greatest
problems municipality has ever had TO
meet. II is estimated that three quarters
OF million people cross these river
boundaries twice a day The growth OF
this out-and-in travel has been something
without parallel When the Brooklyn
Bridge was opened in ISS3 some sanguine
people thought 1900 people would use il
every day More matter-Of-fsct folk
thought them dreamers. But even as far
back as 1902. and traffic has increased
vastly since then. II was estimate that
80, 0o0 people passed across that structure
0n an average every day In the year.
Nothing like the underground work n
New York has ever been accomplished.
In all the rest OF the world put together
there is not as many miles of subaqueous
tunnels as there are being driven under
the rivers Of that city Boston has its
underground railroads. so has Chicago.
50 has London. Paris, and other European
cities But the whole world stands
the New York rivers
H. iSS Frank James Sprsgue equipped
and put into operation the first trolley
line in the world. A year later a CYL
indrical tunnel shield was planned by
john Henry GTeathead. the eminent Eng
hsh engineer. II was these two inVen-
tons that made the tunneling OF rivers
4 feasible proposition Without electric
power II would be practically impossible
TO operate in long tunnels OF this nature
Steam power in the Park avenue tunnel
on the New York Central has been tried
and found wanting where there is heavy
traffic Animal power would have been
out OF the question. Without the tunnel
shield IL would have been impossible 10
drive a tunnel through the soft ground
under the Hudson. II was these two in
ventiOns that have permitted New York
20 emancipate herself from river thrall-
dom.
The city has been growing at the rate
OF about 200.oe0 every year for some time.
At this rate every two years they add
enough population TO populate city like
Washington. with enough left over to
make city like Richmond. Il Is believed
that the new tunnel and bridge facilities
OF the city viii cause II and its suburbs
10 spread out over twice as much ground
as they cover to-day. and that there viii
eventually be a compact city built up
with a population not lar from that Of
London and Paris combined.
c. Nj. Jacobs has probably contributed
more to the building Of the under-the-