The New York Rapid-transit Subway

80 DISCUSSION ON NEW YORK SUBWAY. [Minutes of Mr. Fitz- Sir George Gibb, namely, that the natural configuration of Manhattan ’Island rendered it a place where railways were bound to obtain traffic to almost any extent, whatever kind of locomotion was adopted. Manhattan was a long, narrow island 14 miles in length and 13 mile broad, and consequently nine-tenths of the traffic was in a north and south direction. According to the Paper, the population of Manhattan Island was 2,200,000, spread over an area of 21 square miles, as com- pared with the population of London, nearly 5,000,000, spread over an area of 121 square miles. Manhattan thus had an enormous population per acre to draw upon for any kind of locomotion, quite apart from the large numbers of persons who entered it every day from outside areas. Out of curiosity he had attempted to discover the most densely populated 21 square miles in London, and the most he could get was 1,300,000 to compare with 2,200,000 in New York. One of the first points of difference to which he wished to draw atten- tion was the width of streets in New York. He did not think it was quite realized what the width of streets meant to those who were making subways. Taking the New York streets under which the Subway was made, and beginning at the south end of the Subway, the width of Broadway at that point was 80 feet; further on, in Elm Street, there was also a width of 80 feet ; in Lafayette Place there was a width of 100 feet ; in Fourth Avenue there was 100 feet increasing to 150 feet; crossing over from Fourth Avenue into Broadway, through Forty-second Street, there was a minimum width of 90 feet; the upper part of Broadway began with a width of 100 feet and increased to 150 feet. Such streets were not to be found in London; it was possible to count on one’s fingers the streets in London which were 80 feet wide, and as far as he knew there were only three streets in London 100 feet wide, Whitehall, Whitechapel Road, and Kings- way. It was interesting to consider for a moment the construction of subways in wide streets as compared with narrow streets. First, there was of course the great facility afforded for construction by enabling cranes, materials, etc., to be brought alongside the work. Then, room for stations could be found under the streets, doing away with the necessity of acquiring property ; and there was ample room for access from the streets to the stations—a matter which those who have been engaged in making subways in London found extremely difficult and expensive to arrange for. There were also facilities for dealing with pipes and sewers. People hardly realized what difficulties there were in dealing with a number of pipes, unless they had to do it. He had had to carry out such work in narrow streets and had found that while it was quite easy to take the pipes out it was very difficult to find any place to put them in again. In