Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE BRIDGES OF NEW YORK CITY. 259 Ferry Service. A wonderfully efficient ferry service was built up on both rivers, partly by private ferry companies and partly by the ferries of the railways which terminate on the New Jersey and Brook- lyn shores. Even to-day this ferry service is still magnificent, though it has to compete with, bridges and tunnels. Until the early ’eighties, however, it was supreme, for there was no other way of crossing. Then the Brooklyn Bridge was built—“ The Great Bridge,” as it is called in some writings of thirty years ago. But this only gave relief at a single point ; on the whole, the pressure of traffic needs was virtually undiminished. Yet for thirteen years nothing was done to provide further facilities. The constructive problems were appallingly great. In 1897 a change began, and development has come with, a rush. The problem was attacked on every side. In 1904 the second bridge to Brooklyn was opened—the Williams- burgh Bridge—in the very year that saw the opening of the Rapid Transit Subway. Two additional bridges were then already begun ; a few months hence one of these will be in use, and a year later the fourth also. During the same period tunnels under the rivers were started. In 1908 the first tunnel under the Hudson to New Jersey was put into service. That year also witnessed trains running through the Rapid Transit tunnel under the East River to Brooklyn. And at present four more tunnels under the Hudson and six more under the East River are being built, and are nearly ready for trains. Two hundred million dollars have already been spent on these bridges and tunnels, and there is pressure to provide yet further means of across- river transportation. The fer- ries still carry 220,000,000 passengers per year, nearly half as many as come from city homes by subway and elevated railways. The two bridges now in use carry 150,000,000 per year, T raff ic Figures. The Geography of New York. and the tunnels about one-third this number. Obviously much remains to be done before the open and outlying residential regions are accessible to all members of the army of toilers. The relation of the great bridges and tunnels to this traffic merits a word to explain our sketch map (Fig. 2). The triangular southerly tip of Manhattan Island is the office and bank district, the destination of possibly half the total morning inflow. The Brooklyn Bridge brings its passengers here. The Subway runs through the centre of the district, carrying passengers from Brooklyn vid the Battery Tunnel, and from the upper residence districts by either the Harlem River Tunnel or by the Broadway line crossing the Manhattan Valley arch viaduct. In a short time, also, New Jersey season ticket-holders will be able to reach, the financial district directly by way of the lower Hudson tunnels. Just to the north of this section is a terri- tory occupied by wholesale merchants. The Manhattan Bridge will feed directly into this area ; while at its easterly end it converges with the Brooklyn Bridge to the focal point of the numerous transit lines radiating out into Brooklyn and the Long Island suburbs. The upper Hudson tunnels serve the northerly part of the wholesale district, and more directly lead to the shopping district just above. The Williamsburgh and Queensboro Bridges create new dwelling districts on Long Island. The former gave prompt relief to the fearfully congested tenement house district known as the Lower East Side, and brought within its reach a new territory of cheap houses in Brooklyn. The Queensboro Bridge, when opened, will perform the same service for the crowded Upper East Side. There is much open country around the eastern end of this bridge at present, allowing room for excess population. The Belmont or Steinway Tunnel will also reach this new dwelling territory.