The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-21

s. Farrar is in charge of the company.
 
 at the Hudson river and Thirtieth street. This was the original terminal of the Hudson River railroad.
 An Original Problem
 This command of the legislature in- volved the working out of original prob lems. There was at that time no ade- quate apparatus for hauling heavy trains by electricity or suitable apparatus for the installation of electric energy Fur thermore, in order adequately and safely to operate trains by electricity and to install electric energy apparatus suffi- cient to furnish power for the move ment of heavy trains operated in the day. light hours under headway of two min utes, it was inevitable that there be constructed an underground or subsur- face channel stretching northward from the Grand Central station for distance of mile and half.
 This work entaied the buying of A great deal of real property and some very expensive rock cutting. The install
 ation of electricity and the purchase of necessary land were the chief items in the cost of the improved terminal. The terminal building itself, while admirable rom the architectural point of view. did not involve, relatively speaking, very large cost.
 Although the improvement of new ter minal facilities represents Ian investment of about $50, ,000, GOO nevertheless William II. Newman. formerly president of the Grand Central, has so utilized the land Tor sbuilding that now these improved properties are bringing a handsome in come, and it has already been demon strated that when the Improvements are completed they will furnish a yearly in- come in excess of the interest upon the investment
 The Pennsylvania Terminal
 There has always been considerable crit icism of the achievement of the late A, J. Cassatt when president of the Pennsyl- vaia Railroad company which is now rep resented by the tunnels under the Hudson and the electrification of them the Penn. sylvania terminal on Manhatton island
 and the tunnels extending therefrom
 under the city and the East river to the true terminal of the Pennsylvania sys. tenn upon Long Island. The estimated in 1 vestment in this work is fixed at about $10O,0O0,00O. A good deal of figuring has
 been done at one time or another for the purpose demonstrating that these i'm. provements will not increase the incom,
 of the Pennsylvania by an amount suffi l cient to pay the interest on the cost of tn, | investment,
 | put nhdt IS iOt SelltTdllN known IS tna1 | President Cassatt was not contemplatine the present, but the future He had ir | view the control of the very great trans. portation. freight and passenger. which the rapidly growing population and in dustries of Long Island would furnish Furthermore, he had in view the com.
 nard for the Pennsylvania system of very great traffic which would originate in ol be distributed throughout New England l The BennSylNaria fo ,i this traffic if President Cassatt's Dur. poses were carried out through the con struction of bridge over Hell Gate which would make it possible for the New Haven system and the Pennsylvania to be in physical contact
 There was no attempt on the part of President Cassatt to secure lands adia. cent to the Manhattan terminal with in. tent so to improve them as to cause them 10 yield good income. But there was nc necessity for him to do that, as was the | case with the New York Central, for the New York Central could not have electri. fled it's approaches to she Grand Centra terminal unless it had purchased great amount of real estate.
 The Great South Terminal The late Charles Peter Clark, when he was president of the New York and New
 Haven Railroad company, planned and completed the construction of the unsur- passed South Terminal at Boston. MT Clark said to the writer short time after the station was completed that if he had any ambition to be remembered after his death 1t was centered In the desire to be | known as the builder of the South Termi- | nal at Boston. It cost good deal ol | noney, but the large expenditure was jus | tined, especially in view of the fact thai
 at that terminal there originates or Is dis tributed the largest passenger traffic ol
 any railroad station in the United States
 The great terminals at Chicago, Buff. | falo. and especially Kansas City, witt
 their approaches, are. in the opinion oi | competent authorities not only reasona l ble, but in fact are imperative railwa, 1 Improvements.
 | For some b or 20 years the great rail way managers of the United States have heer persuaded that perhaps more i'm 1 Iers tive than any other railway improve ment Is the construction of adequate ter minal facilities A handsome raiwa,
 Ftation from the architectural point O view may cost milton or two dollars l perhaps little more. But the termina
 Pui'6ing itself is only an incident in tn, general plan of railway terminal i'm
 prcvements. especially in large cities
 Some of the best railway authorities ar,
 new of the opinion that unless there bs
 speedily perfected greatly enlarged rail fway terminals, especially in the largel cities. transportation is likely to become 1 within few years seriously contested. |