Iii Transportation and Communication

Streets.

The first comprehensive street plan was made in 1811 ; with few changes, notably the laying out of Madison av enue, midway between Fourth and Fifth avenues, north of 23rd street, and Lexington avenue between Third and Fourth avenues, north from 21st street, it is the street plan of Manhattan to-day as far north as 155th street. The 120,000 population at that time was concentrated south of Houston street. The plan provided straight line "avenues," with a uniform width of 1 oo ft. extend ing longitudinally along the island and separating block lengths ranging from 610 to 92o feet. At right angles thereto, "streets" usually 6o ft. wide were laid out, but 15 were made 1 oo ft. wide. These streets were separated by a block depth of 200 feet. The plan included the extension of Broadway, which has a general direction diagonally across Manhattan to 79th street, whence it parallels the other avenues. This system has been called upon to perform duties hardly foreseen at that time, and it has been over taxed by permitting elevated railroads over portions or all of six of the avenues and railways on parts of four more. The rapid growth of the city, the sky-scraper, and the use of motor ve hicles have produced serious traffic congestion in some sec tions of the city; and this has necessitated extensive street widening and the development of new thoroughfares. Notable improvements of recent years are the Express Highway for motor vehicles running up the west shore of Manhattan, partly elevated, and joining Riverside Drive at 72nd st.; the three mile viaduct on the Jersey side of the river, leading from the Holland Tunnel to the main highway to Trenton ; the beautiful Bronx River Park way extending for 15 miles through Westchester county; and the 19 miles of bridges and highways in the Triborough Bridge project opened in July 1936.

The more notable streets include Wall street, on lower Man hattan, the heart of the financial district ; Fifth avenue with its fine shops, residences, clubs, library and museum ; Riverside drive, overlooking the Hudson, Park avenue, which continues Fourth avenue above 32nd street to the Grand Central terminal and thence from 45th street to the Harlem river, and is lined with fine apartment houses in the middle section above 45th street; the Bowery, which runs diagonally through the east side of lower Manhattan from Brooklyn bridge to intersect Fourth avenue at 8th street ; and Broadway, which extends over 18 m. from the south ern tip of Manhattan to the northern limits of the city. In its middle part, from loth to 79th streets, it cuts through the heart of the business and amusement centre. This street owes its name to the Dutch, who called it the "breede weg." It is no longer a "broad way," but quite narrow, particularly in the lower down town section. From 34th street to Columbus circle at 59th street it forms the centre of the automobile, theatre, moving picture, restaurant and night life district. Subways follow the course of Broadway for the greater part of its extent.

Surface cars are rapidly being displaced by bus lines, particu larly in the borough of Manhattan. The transformation of the Madison avenue line was carried out in ; and in 1936 the bankrupt 8th and 9th avenue systems as well as the system of the New York Railways Corporation were reorganized to operate en tirely with busses. Trolley cars continued in active use on Third avenue and on some of the cross-town services—the cross-town cars serving primarily as "feeders" for the rapid transit lines and to a less extent for the ferries plying between Manhattan, New Jersey, and Staten Island.

In the boroughs of the Bronx and Brooklyn, however, the street railways still form an important part of the transportation facili ties. In 1936 the surface railways of Manhattan carried 133,197,

796 revenue passengers; those of Brooklyn, 339,500,111 ; and those of the city as a whole, 627,853,505. The total number of passengers carried by bus companies and by municipally owned busses in 1936 was Bridges and Tunnels.—There are at present five bridges spanning the East river and one over the Hudson river which ex tends from a point near 178th street, Manhattan, to Fort Lee, N.J. The span is 3500 ft., tower height 600 ft. The Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges have their Manhattan ter minals at Park Row, Canal, Clinton and Delancey streets, respec tively. All are suspension bridges and connect Manhattan island with Brooklyn. Brooklyn bridge, the first to span the East river, was opened to traffic on May 24, 1883. The Manhattan bridge was opened to traffic on Dec. 31, 1909, the Williamsburg bridge on Dec. 19, 1903 and the Queensboro bridge on March 30, 1909. All of these are municipally owned and operated for highway, trolley, elevated railways and pedestrian traffic. The fifth bridge to span the East river, called the Hell Gate bridge, is owned by the New York Connecting railroad company and is exclusively for railway traffic.

The Harlem river is crossed by 13 bridges of various types and designs. The most notable is the famous High bridge (1848) which carries an aqueduct of the city water-supply. This was rebuilt in 1928 to improve navigation.

Transportation of passengers by rail between the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, and New Jersey is provided by means of tunnels constructed well below the beds of the East, Hudson and Harlem rivers. Vehicular transportation between Manhattan and Jersey City was made possible by the opening to traffic of the Holland vehicular tunnel (q.v.) in Nov. 1927, a twin-tube highway, 9,25o ft. in length. The Pennsyl vania railroad has four tubes across the East river and two across the Hudson. The Hudson and Manhattan railroad company has two systems, each comprising two single track tubes from Jersey City, one to the down-town section of Manhattan looping around Fulton and Cortlandt streets at Church street, the other entering at Morton street and extending to 33rd street. The Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation has six rapid transit tubes under the East river, these are laid in pairs leaving Man hattan at Whitehall, East 14th and East 6oth streets. The Inter borough Rapid Transit Company also has three pairs of transit tubes leaving Manhattan at Whitehall street, Old Slip and East 42nd street. Practically all of the present railroad and rapid transit tunnels were completed between 1900 and 1920. In con nection with the new independent subway system, the board of transportation has designed five new tunnels, four of which were opened for service in 1933. Of the two which pass under the East River one extends from 53rd street, Manhattan, to Mott avenue, Queens, connecting the Sixth and Eighth avenue trunk lines and the lines from Jamaica and central Brooklyn at Union Station in Long Island City ; the other runs from Fulton street, Manhattan, to Cranberry street, Brooklyn. Under the Harlem river a three track tunnel connects the Washington Heights line with the subway under the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. This extends from the Polo Grounds at 156th street and Eighth ave nue, Manhattan, to 161st street and Jerome avenue, the Bronx. The fourth tunnel under Newtown Creek extends from Manhattan avenue in Brooklyn to Jackson avenue, Queens. The projected fifth line will be under the East River from Rutgers street, Man hattan, to Jay street, Brooklyn.