Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-05-11
DOCKS IN NEW YORK.
Wharfs Along North River Being
Built at Cost Of $5,O00000.

The largest wharfage construction ever
undertaken in New York is nearing COM
pletlon. The structures alone of the nine
great piers that stretch out into the
North river between Little West Twelfth
street and Twenty-third represent mu-
nicipal expenditure of over $5.000,OO0. So
upon the great water highway the very
shore line has been changed, and the
water is now 40 feet deep over land which
was 500 feet from the river before the
projected.
The west front of Manhattan for years
has been in need of more extended dock
ing facilities for the great ships that bring
the products of the world to this port
This began to be thoroughly realized so
far back as ten years ago, and the
Chelsea Improvement was projected by
the Dock Department to meet the situa-
ton. Then followed a long period which
was occupied in Strengthening out legal
tangles. getting the money appropriated
condemning and purchasing the land that
was necessary for the great changes that
had been planned. To construct piers
suitable for large vessels the shore line
mad to be moved in several hundred
Ieet. rms meant the ohliteration of the
Fourteenth street ferry terminal a large
number of factories, dwellings and a part
OF gas works. all of which cost a good
many millions; Then the entire land and
water area to be covered had to be dredg-
ed to depth of nearly six fathoms at
low tide and nearly three-quarters of a
mile of bulkhead wall had to be built
Alter than came the erection of the nine
piers SIX OF these are 125 feet wide and
from 800 to S25 feet long. Then followed
the clearing, filling and paving with gran
tie OF the space behind the bulkhead wall
to form a marginal street from IFS to go
feet wide and more than half mile long.
rms open space is two and a half times
the width of Broadway above Fifty ninth
street All this is finished now and the
last part of the wOrk--the erection of the
great pier SDpdS-iS nearly rOnnIpfpd
Without these huge docks the great
ocean liners-the Lusitania and Maure-
tania, eac-l nearly 500 feet long-could not
nave found docking facilities at this port
TWO OF these piers, however, were finished
shortly before these transatlantic
leviathans went into commission, and
nave been used by them regularly ever
ID All this vast work that has been going
on Tor the last SIX years has been sac-
compished so quietly that the average
be daily passenger on the up-river fer
ries to Jersey City, has taken little cog
nizance of it. New York's foreign COM
merce has increased % per cent in the last
ten years. and this tremendous improve
ment In the North River docks will mean
a continuance of this great augmenting
of the trade from overseas.
These great piers rest on piles-tens of
feet apart lengthwise Of the piers ana
six feet apart in the crosswise rows, ex-
cept under the columns. where they are
clustered toPether to hold up the tremen-
dous load. The floors Of the piers are
built to carry safely a minimum load of
$50 pounds to the square foot. The aver
age warehouse on land is capable of be-
ing burdened with a load of less than half
that weight. The piers are two stories
high. and at the river ends the second
story terminates forty feet from the end
of the lower story Of the pier. and the
projecting shelf thus formed is utilized
as promenade for the accommoda ton
of friends of departing and arriving pas
sengers. The outsides of the piers are of
sheet iron. but the street fronts are Of
concrete finished in ornamental archi-
tectural designs.
Everything about these new piers has
been devised so as to make them the
most convenient possible for handling the