The business district of Pittsburgh is as restricted as that of an old
world city bound in by compressing fortifications. But its boundaries
are not to be readily moved like the works of men. They are the broad
rivers and the obstructing hill. The district extending from the
"Point," where the rivers join, to the "Hump," is approximately an
equilateral triangle, of which the sides are less than half a mile in
length. Into this small area is crowded the business of an enormous
manufacturing center. Here the railroads and boats bring their
passengers; here the trolley roads of the whole district converge;
here reach the bridges with their continual traffic. The condition is
similar to that of Manhattan, except that in Pittsburgh the space in
proportion to the business is even smaller.
[Illustration: SMITHFIELD STREET FROM FOURTH AVENUE.]
The pressure in such a restricted area is of a double character. There
is a pressure for traffic room, and an equally insistent pressure for
building sites. One demand is as legitimate as the other. Therefore,
although the streets are too narrow, relief must be sought rather by
increasing their carrying efficiency than by changing their dimensions
or adding to their number. To accomplish this three plans have been
under consideration.
One, and an obvious one, is to increase the area of the business
district by leveling the low hill (the "Hump") that bounds it on the
east. This plan seems now to have been abandoned. It would involve
great cost, and it would not certainly better conditions in the most
crowded area. Furthermore, business has about climbed to the top of the
hill already.
[Illustration: SESQUI-CENTENNIAL PARADE.]
The other plans have to do with the trolley cars that come here from
all sections of the city. As most of the cars do not pass through the
district, but go out as they came in, there are numberless "loops",
each of the various lines making a turn around two or three blocks,
with the result that loop overlaps loop, and the cars interfere with
one another as well as with general traffic. One plan would put many of
the cars underground, in a subway, in the business district; the other,
while permitting them to traverse the district, would carry them on
into Allegheny to make their loops.
It were better, however, that there should be no loops at all; that the
cars should not "go out as they came in." By the substitution of long
through lines for the loops which are only a survival of other times
and conditions, all the advantages would be gained with none of the
drawbacks of transferring the loops across the river.
In the plans for a downtown subway loop, it is proposed that all the
stations be located on private property, so putting no additional
burden on the streets, and furthermore that the loop be open to the
cars of all companies. This would give much relief; and as subways
have proved too successful in other cities to be regarded any longer
as experimental, it seems that one here, properly constructed and
authorized with equal regard for financial and municipal interests, is
a civic improvement necessary for Pittsburgh's business district.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE INCLINES WHICH SCALE THE PITTSBURGH HILLS.]
As it would take some years to construct the subway; and as the relief
to the streets afforded by straightening out the surface car routes
might be overbalanced by a rapid increase in the number of cars, it is
necessary to consider other immediate measures for traffic relief. A
rounding of curb corners even at alleys, and the substitution of a well
laid grooved rail for the present T-rail may be here suggested. With
the grooved rail there is less temptation for teamsters to use the car
tracks, the tracks can be turned out more readily and the whole width
of roadway is made available, instead of being divided as now into
longitudinal sections.
Costly as is the widening of streets, or the opening of new ones,
such heroic measures are already being adopted for short distances
in the peninsular district. For instance, the city is completing
the widening of Sixth street, from Grant to Forbes, an improvement
tending to facilitate a further eastward march of business. Of even
more importance is the discussed and much needed provision of a better
outlet for Grant boulevard. This comparatively new boulevard was
designed to afford pleasant access to the East End on a thoroughfare
free of car tracks, for those who drive or who ride in motor cars. But
the boulevard itself can now be approached from the business district
only by Seventh street, which is crowded with freight traffic, or by
an ill paved narrow alley. The plan is to widen and repave the alley
and thus carry the boulevard to Sixth street, which is slightly less
crowded. Another interesting proposal is to give the boulevard, by
means of a curving bridge over the Pennsylvania tracks, direct access
to the Union Station, which can now be reached only by a detour. These
may be called local improvements, but they have a relation to the whole
district, and are likely to be worth their considerable cost.
[Illustration: _The Industry Printing Company_