In preceding pages reference has been made to the general objects of the
improvements included in the project of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company for the New York District. While it is impossible, in this
introductory paper, to analyze fully the transportation problem at New
York, it seems desirable to indicate briefly some of the more obvious
effects which the improvements may be expected to produce upon the
distribution and handling of traffic.
New York City owes its position as the business metropolis of the
country mainly to its magnificent harbor and the extensive waterfronts
on its deep, wide rivers, which furnish unrivaled facilities, at a short
distance from the sea, for foreign and domestic water-borne commerce,
its foreign commerce being about half the total for the whole country.
The water-transportation facilities of the port and its tributaries,
therefore, have always been guarded with jealous care, not only by the
local commercial interests but also by the General Government.
During recent years, however, the population of the metropolitan
district has increased so enormously that New York is now the greatest
terminal passenger and freight traffic center in the country; and in
manufactures it ranks first among American cities. The new commercial
interests thus created are of at least equal importance with those of
the water-borne commerce, although their existence and development are
largely the result of the water facilities of the port.
The local passenger and freight traffic of the Pennsylvania and of other
railroads reaching the west shore of the North River is conducted by
car-floats and ferry-boats which deliver their loads at piers on the
Manhattan waterfront and elsewhere in the harbor. These boats obstruct
and endanger the free navigation of the channels and occupy space along
the waterfront greatly needed for the accommodation of the long-distance
water-borne commerce, especially on the North River.
In the East River the importance of ferry-boats as a means of traffic
distribution has already been greatly reduced by the construction of
bridges and tunnels which provide for the greater part of the passenger
and vehicular traffic. The North River, however, by reason of its
greater width and the comparative slowness of its currents, is by far
the more important waterway for the use of ocean-going vessels of the
larger classes. In this river the conditions for the construction of
bridges, within the limits of commercial convenience, seem to be
practically prohibitory. Tunnels, for the transportation of passengers
and the diversion of the freight traffic from the inner waters of the
harbor, are apparently the only available means of relief.
When the new line is in operation, a very large part of the New York
passenger traffic of the Pennsylvania Railroad will be carried to the
New York Station at Seventh Avenue and 33d Street and the rest will go
to Cortlandt Street through the Hudson Company's tunnels. Thus a large
portion of the Pennsylvania passenger ferry traffic, which amounts to
more than 91,000 passengers daily, will be practically eliminated from
the water-transportation problem. In addition, a large part of the Long
Island Railroad's passengers will use the station at Seventh Avenue and
33d Street, and its ferry traffic will be reduced accordingly.
The new arrangements for the transfer of freight from Greenville to Bay
Ridge will relieve the inner waters of the harbor of a large volume of
obstructive car-float traffic. There appears to be no reason why this
traffic should not be eventually conducted through tunnels under the
outer harbor, should future transportation conditions justify the
enormous cost of such structures.
It is to be remarked that while these new arrangements greatly reduce
the passenger and freight water transportation, they have no effect on
the large vehicular traffic across the North River which must continue
to be conducted by ferries until it can be otherwise provided for. As
long as these conditions exist, ferry-boats must be used in large
numbers and continue to obstruct the North River. This difficulty
probably cannot be overcome by the construction of bridges, as in the
case of the East River, but it does not seem too much to expect that,
eventually, tunnels to provide for the vehicular traffic, like the
Blackwall tunnel under the Thames, will be established under the North
River.
It would be interesting to estimate the increase in railroad traffic
capacity resulting from these improvements, but the data required for
this purpose are not available. Some idea of the increase in passenger
traffic capacity resulting from the establishment of the tunnel line may
be obtained by comparing the proposed daily train-movements for the new
station with the train-movements at other important railroad stations.
The daily train-movements of six such stations are given in the
following table:
Total trains Movement
in and out at
for 24 hours. maximum hour.
Jersey City 281 29
Broad Street Station, Philadelphia 538 48
Union Station, St. Louis 462 89
South Terminal Station, Boston 861 87
Grand Central Station, New York 357 44
Pennsylvania Station, New York[B] 500 50