The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-08

to stand upon an equality in that re-
ispect with Boston. Philadelphia and
Baltimore.
Furthermore, the chief steamship
builders of Great Britain and Ger
many have now demonstrated that
there is commercial advantage in con-
4 structing and operating ocean steam
ers of size which a few years ago
would have been regarded as imprac-
ticable. The marine engineers have
said that it is no longer a question
of the size of ocean steamships which
1.-THE managers of the larger steamship
companies must consider. but instead
the problem of dockage facilities. I'm
less New York City improves its docks
and unless there be further improN ,
ment of the channels which lead from
the open ocean to the inner harbor of
New York there is grave do ot
whether some of the great steamships
which Germany and Great Britain are
to construct in the course of the next
four or five years will find it con
venient to make New York their
western terminal.
The Panama Canal.
Then, again, another reason which
explains the recent agitation in favor
of the high development of Jamaica
J bay is the certainty that the Panama
canal will be open to navigation in
the course of the next two years
Some of the changes in domestic and,
in fact, world commerce which will
be occasioned by the opening of the
Panama canal to navigation seem to
I be beyond the ability of our ablest
business men fairly well to outline.
They do say that the changes in COM
mercial development due to the canal
will be very great. It is with this
City authorities are now beginning an
earnest agitation for the improve
ment of Jamaica bay so that it may
become a great. practically land
n xnd a r-f0 III 81
one time many of the commerce bear
ers of the world.
Were Jamaica bay to be developed
as some of the enthusiasts hope it Will
be, that would probably put an end
to the project whereby the bay at
Montauk point was to become practi-
cally the American terminal for Eu-
ropean steamship lines, at least for
the landing of passengers and mail
whose destination was to New York
Undoubtedly were the Jamaica bay
project adopted then the country in
the vicinity of those vast stretches of
flat lands reaching northerly from
the south shore of Long Island, con-
tanned within the boundaries of New
ork City, would be utilized for some
OF the larger manufacturing plants
and also for homes for wages earn
erS. The artisans who formerly lived
in the lower parts of the city have
been to a considerable extent driven
out by the advances of trade. And
the time is not far distant when a
majority of the tenement jewellers Of
New York below Fourteenth street
will have as completely abandoned
sections of the city which formerly
were densely populated as that part
of the city below Fulton street has
been abandoned completely to the
uses Of trade and commerce.
The Place for Manufacturing.
1t has become a serious question with
many OF the manufacturers Of New York
whether they ought not to abandon To-
cations they have occupied for many
years, seeking more adequate facilities in
the suburbs of the city. Were the state
the city and the United States govern
ment to cooperate in perfecting Jamaica
bay, the national government doing no
more than improving the channels and
removing distractions, then the increase
IN rapid transit between Brooklyn and
Manhattan and the Jamaica district
would inevitably cause very great de-
velopment of the region both as a manu-
featuring center and as convenient
home for artisans who would no longer
be cooped up in dingy, dismal tenements
much to stimulate the project for creating
a great port OF entry at Jamaica bay
The pennsylvania company is the owner
of the Long Island railroad system.
When plans which are at present under
contemplation are perfected much of the
western half of Long Island and all of
that part of the island which is within
the boundaries of New York city will be
almost literally cobwebbed with electric
railways. The Long Island railroad sys-
tenn itself is to be completely electrified.
By the reorganfzed surface railway sys-
TENS of Manhattan greatly increased and
unbroken communication between Man
haitian and that part of the city which is
on Long Island, by means of the East
river bridges, is speedily to be perfected.
And in addition to the Pennsylvania rail-
roads own tubes under the East river,
whereby Brooklyn and other parts of
Long Island are ligatured to Manhattan.
New Jersey and the west the expanded
subway system is to be perfected by the
construction of new tubes under the East
river and by the utilization of a tube
which was completed some years ago IN
der Forty-secOnd street and thence under
the East river, but which has not yet
Deen utilized for transportation purposes.
Some of the executive officers OF the
city of New York who have been care
fully studying the problem of maintain
ing and increasing the transportation
facilities of New York and protecting this
port from the competition of other At
lanttc ports are now firmly convinced
that the great constructive changes
which are under way, and of which the
Improvement to Jamaica bay is one feat
ure, will make inevitable the construction
the Hudson river so built that it may be
utilized for freight and truckage traffic.
But the physical pecuHarities of the land
on the west bank of the Hudson make it
almost impossible. from an engineering
point of view, to construct a tunnel
which would be serviceable for the trans
portation of freight cars or for trucks.
There remains therefore, only one other
way of solving the problem and that is
by the construction of great traffic
bridge connecting New Jersey with some
island. In the winter of 1880 the legis-
lature at Albany was asked to charter a
corporation to be organized for the pur-
pose of constructing a bridge over the
Hudson river. The smallest estimate
which the engineers made of the cost OF
a bridge of that kind was about a nun