McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1915-12-24
Our New York Letter.
Dec. Is, 1915
EDITOR INDEPENDENT:

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Having been in this great city fol
the past four months on a specia
confidential detail for Uncle Sam,
thought few words from this Bureau
perched on the ninth floor Of a twenty
six story skyscraper, would be inter-
esting to your readers.
Every American ought to visit two
cities once in his lifetime: Washington
and New York. After twenty-four
years. acquaintance with the capital
city, it is still a revelation to come
here, to this metropolis Of the western
world, and see the sights. No one
ever saw all of New York. From the
outskirts of Brooklyn to Van Cortlandt
park is one mass Of streets and build
ings for no less than twenty-five miles,
with the East River between. Ny
office is on Park Row, and the nearest
corner, at Frankfort street, is the
busiest place in the world. On that
corner, on each ordinary day of the
week, 100000 people pass, according
te actual actual police count. Across the
way is the WoolWorth Building, tow
ering up 1872 feet, and its foundations
going 300 feetinto the earth. There
are five cellars underneath, and fifty
four stories above ground. More
than 5000 people are located in the
building. All around, loom up the
buildings of the World, Tribune and
other great papers, hundreds of feet
high, and the land on this part of
Park Row and Broadway is worth
several dollars square inch!
The subways took my fancy from
the start. | live about twelve miles
from my Office, but il is still several
miles from my home to the outskirts
of the city. You see dark. round
beaded little structure near a street
corner, and throng of people going
into it, and many coming out, You
enter, go down stairway, buy a &c
ticket at window, drop your ticket
in glass box little further on, and
follow the crowd to the elevator. II
went down with 70 people. 100 feet
to the bottom of tho shaft Cat 181st
street. and there hurried with the
crowd into train of ten cars. The
station (away down under the ground)
was big affair, 360 feet long and 80
feet wide, arched over and lined with
white porcelain brick, but the train
soon hurled itself along a concreted
tunnel, past other stations Git was AT
express) and stopped but a few times
till we got to the Brooklyn Bridge
which is the station nearest
to my office. At that one station
alone, ltwenty-nine million people came
and went during the past twelve
months. The paving stones followed |
out and the hard steel stairsteps wore
away under those myriads Of foot
steps, and the stairs have to be re-
newed occasionally. From this sta.
tion to the end of the Broadway Sub.
way line it is farther than from Sell
ner to Corinth, and that is only one
Of several branches. At some places
II goes 200 feet underground, and at
others the track is outside high up on
pillars. Atbusy times the trains, of
ten cars each, run TOO feet apart, |
and are jamhed SO tightly with peo-
pie that one can hardly breathe in
there. No fewer than one million1
people travel by the subway each day.
many Of whom 90 down in the tube
far under the Hudson River and over
into the New Jersey cities; others
take the cars across the immense
bridges. of which four now span the
East River.
0. the multitudes that have passed |
over those waters since the first one,
The Brooklyn Bridge, was finishedl
Enough human beings to people an
other world and then fill several Tenn
essees. But itlooks small and shabby |
beside the giant Manhattan Bridge
that crosses little farther down. II
walked across the Manhattan Bridge;
t was a mile and a half long; 1856 |
feet above the river; so feet wide;
5he four cables holding up the bridge
2l inches thick and weighing four
million pounds each, and each one
strong enough to hold up four more
bridges like that. The approaches
IN the Brooklyn side are as high as
buildings. Many people