The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-27
TUNNEL DIGGING
 IN NEW YORK
By HOLLAND

the late Austin Corbin was maturing his l,.ns for perfecting the harbor facilities of New York and included in those plans
 the construction of a tunnel which
 would connect Long Island with Jersey City and have a station at the lower end of Manhattan Island, he also had in mind the development of the resources
 or Staten Island. Looking into the fu- tore he saw with his minds eye tunnel or subway connecting Staten Island with
 Long Island and dug almost directly un~ Ger the narrows of New York harbor.
 Mir. Corbin was one of the three or
 four men who 2)-odd years ago asserted
 that the city of New York would he lobliged to spend money and in other ways
 show itself equal to the opportunities if it were to maintain it's prestige as the Heading American port.
 A few men, inspired by MT. Corbins
 counsel, agitated the upbulding of Staten
 Island so that it would become an i'm
 portant factor in the haroor facilities or New York. They also urged the con-
 struction of Q bridge from the New Jer- sey shore over the narrow strait which divides Staten Island from the main land, and which is commonly called the Kills For if bridge of that kind were built and controlled or operated by one of the trunk lines, that railroad company would, it was assumed, secure unsur- passed harbor facilities in the waters of l New York.
 The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad com ipany, which at that time had secured through line from Washington to New , York, caused the bridge to be built, re- lying upon it to give the railroad com pany great advantages in the competition for traffic which then prevailed. This view would have been justified. if New York had developed the Staten ' Island ocean front.
 But the leaders in New York of that j day could not be persuaded that this su- rerb island, which is now part of New
 York city, and which fronts the mar
 rows and also the ocean, could be so exploited as to provide an important fac
 tor in maintaining the ocean trade of
 New York
 The leaders at that time thought that New York was sure always to main
 tain supremacy, so far as incoming com-
 merce was concerned, and would be able
 to hold it's owE notwithstanding the rap idly increasing commerce of Newport News and other ports upon the Atlantic coast and at Mobile and Galveston.
 NEW YORK IS GETTING BUSY 1 Now at this late day New York has
 awakened to the fact that unless several things are 6.one and most of them done
 speedily the prestige of New York as an ocean port will be seriously threatened. These leaders have turned their eyes to Staten Island and those things which Austin Corbin and Erastus Wiman and others advocated 20 years ago are now
 discovered to have been wisely advo-
 cated Had they been acted upon New
 York would now possess. abundant ter
 ninal and port facilities,
 TO COST A HUNDRED MILLION
 The proper authorities in New York
 have approved the construction of F large piers on the Staten Island front The piers alone will cost not far from S20 0D,- o00 certainly as much as $15 ,0O0,0OO. and
 tie entire undertaking will involve in-
 vestment of s100,0O0,00o. The property
 which is to be taken over extends for
 nearly a mile and a half on the water
 font The experts report that it is cor
 rectly valued at not less than s6,o0c,o00 possibly $S0000,009 would be more ac- eurate estimate.
 A GREAT OCEAN TERMINAL 1 Upon Staten Island Commodore Van derbilt established his first railroad. Ear Her than that he began life as a ferry I man taking passengers back and forth between the lower part of Staten Island l and the mainland at New Jersey. His wife was a true helpmate for she carried on an excellent hotel at which travellers and merchants were entertained But as large as is the area of Staten Island it
 
 Commodore Vanderbilt The island be- came the home of many New York mer- chants It was also favorite place for those who sojourned briefly in this country, as, for instance, Garibaldi lived | in a cottage there during his entire so- journ in the United States. Thoreau awelt there for nearly year, and he Twas inspired by what he saw while living lthere to write one of his best poems. 1 George William Curtis always lived there and was for years the lay preacher in ] one of the churches.
 Theodore Winthrop while living there wrote the novels which gave him fame. I But none of the dwellers, and few if any 1 of the citizens of New York realized that l this island could be made a very great 1 ocean terminal Manhattan Island is now fully frinoad by docks and piers and so is Brooklyn. The great barge canal which has recently been completed and whose success as transporter of slow moving freight seems now to be assured, is to have terminals upon the Harlem river and also at Brooklyn.
 This new hundred million venture will T evitably be follo~E by the adoption of the plan advocated by Austin Corbin mere than 20 years ago, thereby bringing Staten Island into physical touch with Long Island and with Manhattan through the construction of two or more tunnels. If this be done, then this island which in area is greater than Manhattan, being 57 square miles, while Manhattan is only 22, will become an intrigal part of the entire city from which it is now sepa- rated by the waters of the harbor of New