The New York Rapid-transit Subway

82 DISCUSSION ON NEW YORK SUBWAY. [Minutes of Mr.Fitz- Harlem River as far south as Fourteenth Street, was rock, and maurice. making a subway through rock was a very different matter from making it through such material as was found below the surface of the streets of London, a great deal of which was made ground and mud. The last point to which he wished to draw attention in regard to the differences between London and New York was that the Subway had been practically made by the Municipality and helped by the Municipality in every possible way. The Author stated that house-vaults were held not to be property but only revocable licences from the City, and the owners received as compensation only the price paid originally to the City for the right to use them. Even with the present conditions in London it would seem that Londoners were almost in a better position than the people of New York as regarded rights of property. At the end of the Paper the Author stated that the cost of an underground railway was at best high, and in order that it might not become prohibitive, the constructors must be given as much assistance as possible in the way of facilities, and the enterprise must not be burdened by heavy extraneous expenditure through the acquisition of so-called vested rights. In another part of the Paper the Author stated that in only six places had it been necessary to acquire any private property, over 25 miles of railway—private property of course not including cellars; and that showed at once what a considerable difference there was in this respect between New York and London. If anyone thought it possible to build 25 miles of railway, or even 3 miles, in London without acquiring a considerable amount of private property, he would find out his mistake before going veiy far. The great latitude given to the contractors had lielped very considerably in carrying out the work. It was work, he thought, as carried out in Contract No. 1, that would not be tolerated in London. Later on, when the constructors came to Contract No. "> which extended from City Hall down to the Battery, the Author came to the conclusion that it was better to carry the work deeper below the roadway, and instead of keeping the top of the roof of the subway 30 inches from the road, it was made 6 feet from the road—a very considerable difference. Probably the Author thong it, as he himself realized when he saw the work, that, as carried out in Fourth Avenue and other streets under Contract No. 1, it was the kind of work that an engineer could do once in his life, and consider himself rather fortunate to be alive at the end of it. The Advisory Board of Engineers of the Royal Commission on London Traffic said in their report that in the case of the original Metropolitan railway the local authorities and the public put up witli very great interference with traffic, an interference which would never be