The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-06-03

Tunnels lead from it in many direc-
tons. Through them thousands of it's
tenants arrive each morning after
many miles of underground travel, and
through them one may wander, as in
the streets of subterranean city. In
this human prairie-dog town are more
than so places to eat, and stores SELL
ing everything from Office supplies and
lingerie to thermos bottles, sunray
lamps, cigars, books and haberdashery.
From these commercial catacombs one
may ride all the way out to Long Is
land without ever coming into the
open air.
Speed in New Construction.
But New York's greatness is not in
structure alone. It lies also in the
speed at which life moves and new
buildings displace the old. This swift
transition stuns even the blase New
Yorker. tt
Troy was wrecked and rebuilt nine
times. Here history repeats. Com
pare the skyline now with pictures Of
the same region made only ten years
ago. You will see, that palatial homes
have been demolished and whole res
idence districts swept away to clear
sites for higher buildings. You see
buildings like the famous Waldorf-As-
toria turn to junk, and hard on the
heels of its wreck come giants like
the amazing Empire State building.
To widen streets, houses are sliced
off in front as with giant shears. Four
hundred buildings wrecked to extend
subway spur; trainloads Of dirt
hauled to the river front and dumped
to make park below Riverside drive.
In cyclonic devastation, whole neigh
borhoods are RACED for new bridge ap-
proaches.
Swiftly the old landmarks fade.
Only Grants tomb and similar objects
of sentiment seem safe. If even the
Sphinx stood on Fifth avenue, some
body would probably want to wreck 1t
to build a skyscraper! Here is no
space for static things. By many cuts
and running it fast, imagine this pic
ture shown in, say, two or three hours.
You would see old buildings crumbling
down and new skyscrapers fastening
heavenward, pushing up like giant
mushrooms. 1t would be uncomfortable.
Compared with medieval cities,
think how fast New York grows. To
day, in New York, bricklayers may
run walls up two stories in day. A
building of so floors is begun and fin
ished in about the same time it used
to take Sioux to kill buffalo and
tan its hide for his wigwam.
Between crowds and skyscrapers is
reciprocal affinity. Each is the cause
Of the other. Into that part of Man.
haitian below Fifty-ninth street there
comes to work every morning an army
Of people equal to the population of
Paris or Chicago. No other spot on
earth is so crowded with men and
houses.
1t reminds you of one certain rock
near a coast where cormorants, gulls,
and pelicans all come to roost. Other
islets are near, but the fussing birds
crowd and defile only their favorite
rock. They pack it SO tight that If
one bird raises wing to stretch, an
other is pushed into the sea.
On, Under and Over Manhattan.
Thus men crowd Manhattan rock.
Not only that. They bore holes in It,
dig tunnels under rivers, and push
bridges over to it, so that still more
men may reach it hastily. The pas
sengers on its transport lines each
year outnumber all the people in the
world. Those passing through Times
Square subway station alone last year
equaled in number half the inhabi-
tants of the western hemisphere.
So jammed is Fifth avenue now
that in busy hours man walking goes
faster than a bus. In many streets
motors average less than four miles
an hour.
New York's fight to keep men and
things in motion knows no hull 1t has
built a great elevated express high
way, a novel thoroughfare many feet
above the street. 1t runs along the
Hudson river water front from Canal
street north to Seventy-second, with
ramps for access and egress at few
important cross-town streets. At Sew.
enty-second its outlet is Riverside
drive.
Think what this means to crowded
New York! A broad, free path of two
3O-foot roadways, with no grade cross
n
motor cars an hour, at speed of 35
miles-right over all congestion.
Then there's the new tunnel, to run
under tidewater from Brooklyn out to
Staten island. 1t will take two to four
years to bore this bold submarine high
way.