Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1911-07-26
TRANSPORTATION IN N. Y.
Through Modern Facilities Mil.
lions of the Metropolis are
Handled With Compar-
ative Ease.

ton of transportation is a ditficu
problem to solve. 1t is compars
lively easy to meet a normal dt
mand, but to provide for occasion
and seasons of unusual congestio
taxes the ingenuity of the mos
skilled engineers. If transports
tion be problem difficult to graz
pie with in large Southern cite
which have wide streets and ar
spread over large areas, think O
how much more difficult of solution
it is in New York, the country.
metropolis, with more than foul
and a half million people, being
considerably more than hundred
times larger than Augusta.
Most Streets are Narrow.
One very serious handicap in the
matter of providing transportation
facilities issfound in the narrow
streets. The sturdy Dutch who
first settled down where the Bat
terry is now located and began to
build northward evidently had but
little hope or faith in tie future
growth of their little town. The
short narrow main and cross streets
show that they built for the pres
ent only. 1t is indeed appropriate
that some of them should have been
called lanes, bearing such names to
this day. AS one proceeds farther
north, where later generations
builded, the streets are found to be
wider and more regular in their
course. The city is now spending
millions annually correcting the
errors and overcoming the short
sightedness of the early settlers
wherever possible. The World of
last Wednesday contained a story
of the widening portion of Fifth
Avenue that has just been under
taken, costing property owners
more than $1,500,000. But what
d djffJffF5s8sie fJf5i does that ~ 7.-=ss''=s'
nye . .sncb as < the vanderbilts, Astors, J
Hayemeyels, Fricks, Huntingdons
and others are no more than dollars
to people in Edgefeld.
compactn ess Leads to Congestion.
That which more than anything
else has made the question of trans
portation so difficult in New orS
is the compactness of the retail and
and financial district, which even
under normal conditions produces
congestion at. certain hours OF the
morning and evening.
1. is more difficult to handle an
office force of $50 from one bank
than it would be to handle forces
of a5 each from ten banks. Then
it must be remembered that there
are scores of these large banks and
banking houses almost within ra-
dius of few hundred yards.
1t is vastly greater problem to
transport clerical force of say a
thousand individuals that emerge
from one huge sky-scraper at SIX In
the afternoon than it would be TO
handle the forces of 20 office build
ines containing so clerks each.
Then there are the teeming thous-
ands of young ladies who are en-
nloved in the department stores.
It is more difficult to provide Tor
the 5000 employees of one large
department store, all let loose at the
same hour, as children from school,
than to provide transportion for 80
clerks each from hundred stores
Then, too, instead of one, there are
dozens of large department stores
all located practically along the
same car line. When the compact,
ness of the buildings, contracted
area and the large number OF per-
sons that must be provided for are
all taken into consideration some
idea of the colossal proportions OF
the transportation problem in New
York can be gained. In spite o. o.
the seeming insurmountable din
culties, fertile brains of the world Z
most skilled engineers, backed b!
prac, ,ally unlimited wealth, have
provided railway systems that ar
equal to the heavy demand.
Three Distinct Systems.
New York has a veritable ne
work of the ordinary surface trolle
lines surprising probably in etficier
CIV and actual results those of an
other city in the country.
Following the surface system
came the overhead or elevated stree
railway, which for years, as SUI
Elementary system, was sufhclel
for ordinary demand. Finally, oV
ing to the continued growth OF IL
CITY. the need for enlarged and stl
more improved transportation fac
tiles became imperative. AS evel
available street had its surface Ill
and may of the leading stree Re,
their overhead roads, necessity, tn
''mother of invention," forced t
the devising of other and bither
untried ways of moving the &C