The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-06-10

land without ever coming into the
open air.
But New York's greatness is not in
structure alone. 1t lies also in the
speed at which life moves and new
buildings displace the old. This swift
transition stuns even the blase New
Yorker.
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
a subway spur; trainloads of dirt
hauled to the river front and dumped
to make park below Riverside drive.
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 il
to build a skyscraper! Here is no
d. 1F1rgy
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 a day.
building of 80 floors is begun and fin
ished in about the same time il used
to take a Sioux to kill a buffalo and
| tan it's hide for his wigwam. Chrys-
| ler's tower in Abraham's time would
have been a blasphemy. as when the
confusion of tongues fell on men who
dared build Babel.
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 II
one bird raises a 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 a man walking goes
faster than a bus. In many streets
motors average less than four miles
an hour.
Civilization is shaped by beliefs.
New York believes it must hurry. and
you see the strain in peoples faces.
They run to work and from work, and
to avoid being run over. In crowds,
haste is more than speed. Draw aside
in the Grand Central station and
watch the mad morning rush. At such
time and place, one expects little or
der; certainly no stately procession.
as Noah's animals marching into the
Ark But here is a mob. Turnstiles
are sometimes locked to check its
rushes, and guards are powerless be-
fore its giant push.
New York's fight to keep men and
things IN motion knows no lulL II 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 a few
important cross-town streets. At Sew
enty-second it's outlet is Riverside
drive.
Think what this means TO crowded
New York A broad, free path of two
30-foot roadways. with no grade cross
ings, able to carry from 5000 to 1000
motor cars an hour. at a speed of 50
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.
Rivers and bays are crowded. as
well as the city streets. Look down
from the Woolworth tower and see
our fleets battling for trade against
alien ships So thick are steamers
that collisions seem imminent From
every nook and Granny OF the world
they come. as countrymen flock to a
village store. Goods moving In scores
of millions of tons. No other port
fo 60 hrTS