Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 22, 1904)
A Billion and a Half to Rebuild New York (Copyright, 1904, by T. C. McClurc.) ww YORK. U sprucing up. It is N doing so at au expenditure o I something like $l,fio0,000,000. No other city in the world, not evoti London. Is spending bo much money by a good many tcn.i of millions. Sprucing up is the short way of Baying that the greater city is now deep in tho task of rebuilding Itself in order to niako i of itself a metropolis. ; "Consolidation took place the first of January, lm," said Nelson 1. Lewis, chief engineer of the board of estimates und ap portionment, recently. "Shortly after that event the city awoke to the realization of the fact that It was not a metropolis, as It had always dreamed it was, but a provincial conglomeration of live boroughs. It was astonished at first and confused. Then came a strong popular determina tion to make over the live inharmonious boroughs, bound together by law only, Into a real metropolitan center. This has been our uim during the last five years, ' and this is why we are spending millions." Actuated by this desire to make New York a metropolis in fact as well as in lancy, the city, big corporations and pri vate enterprises of all sorts, and even, the' federal government are practically re building the entire city from center to Circumference. What was good enough before consolidation, what is plenty good enough elsewhere, is being ruthlessly wiped, out of existence by blocks, and iu its stead Is springing up hundreds of sliyscrupers, Btately buildings for the use of the people or their representatives, beautiful parks and driveways, rapid transit systems under ground and bridges overhead -all taking millions and still more tens of millions. While it Is practically Impossible to as certain definitely, or even within several millions, the amount of money that New York la spending or has spent In this tasli of rebuilding since consolidation, the fol lowing figures, which have been obtained, from official sources, clearly serve to con vey to the mind the stupendousness of the undertaking which has caused the city to be ttfrn up the last few years and will keep it in a more or less chaotic state for soma time to come. ' Rapid Transit $2GO,0"0,0O0 Kducation 100,0(0,(00 Bridges 60.0 0,(00 Reautineation 35,000.000 Philanthrophy and public health.. S3,0oO.Oi'O Additional water supply ..... 21,00UKW Federal government 20,000,(100 Ferries and piers 12,000,000 Municipal buildings 10,000,000 Total ..' $531,000,0C0 Half a billion dollars are accounted for In this table. In the boroughs of Manhat tan and the Bronx, since 1899, excluding; the Bronx for 1902 and the year following, the building operations reach an aggregate value of $470,000,000. This, subtracting the ten millions for municipal buildings and a, few other millions, represents the contri bution of private enterprise. Another half billion, with three other boroughs unac counted for, among them that of Kings, in Which Is Brooklyn, where tens of millions of money have been put into buildings. Then consider how the city has spent money like water for such improvements as new streets and sewers since 1S99. Dur ing the last two years alone $14,000,000 was epent for streets and sewers alone. A billion and a half dollars is a conserva tive estimate, and it does not take Into con sideration the numerous plans of all sorts for the spending of still more millions. Sev eral of these schemes will undoubtedly be adopted and pushed forward in the near future; Buch as the erection of a new Belle vue hospital at a cost of $11,000,(00; the further extension of the famous Riverside . Drive from the end of tho one-mile exten- ' ion, now being made at a cost of KJ.OCO.OOO, t j rrji---:---.- vM T-" ' "7 ' . ' '-- .. .....--.t-v , , . - . .. . : v. j . .. V-j W- W- j mm .. . , . fi mm (t-Mt;v .:Mjlm '115 . ail , FOUR WHOLE RI-OCKS OF HESIIIENCKS AND APAKTMKNT HOl'SES BEINCS TORN DOWN TO Cl-KAll T11U WAT FOR THE GIGANTIC PENNSYLVANIA TKK&ilNAU "" """ . ,-tt. r-. - r w . :. 1. - . 1 , ' ' " .. . . : : j J CRKATION OF A NEW SKY-SCRAPEIt DISTRICT BROADWAY. AT FORTY-SECOND AND t up t' the nd of Manhattan Island; and In creasing tho entire city's water supply at u cost estimated at $HW,0H0,ft!0. No other city in tho world has ever au tl.iillzed thi? expenditure of so much money, or had so many millions expended upon it by private enterprises, In so short a period. Tho records show that. For example, tho city is spending more than two und a half times as much for parks as the next four teen largest American dlicH combined; it is spending more for schools than any other city. London not excepted; und where Is tho city in and on which one private corpora tion the Pennsylvania railroad Is spending I'J.WHU'OO? Staggering as these figures are to tha average mind, yet the cry is still and ever for more more more. Not a city depart ment but feels that it Is not getting half what It should have. In other words, no one Is content to rest on bis oars, and other tens of millions will undoubtedly be Bpent until such time as the city feels that It Is no longer five or more or less connected, boroughs, but an American metropolis. By common consent the city is pushing Its rapid transit plans ahead of everything else. For this reason the most Imposing item Is that of rapid transit. It is ulso the most important by far; on quick transportation depends the development of a metropolis. Rapid transit Is binding the boroughs together, wiping out, by tunnels and bridges, tiie heretofore insurmountable natural burrlers of rivers and buys and sound. It Is making access easy to and, causing tho building up of parts of the city that two or three years ago were deemed Inaccessible except for country es tates. When tho present plans are completed New York will have spent a quarter of a billion dollars for rapid transit and possess fifty-five miles of subways und tunnels. This sum named excludes bridges. Tho present subway represents an ex penditure of nearly J70,0OO,000. The Fust Side tunnel, contracts for which will be let in the neur future, Is estimuted to cost $.'10,000,000, and the scheme to connect the bridges now over the East river culls for at least eight millions. These Improvements are moro or less municipal In character, but others, equally us extensive and costly, are being made by vuriouH corporations that have realized the importance of taking a prominent part In tho rebuilding of the metropolis. Sixty millions of dollars are being spent by the Pennsylvania railroad to enter the Island of Manhattan under the Hudson und leuve it under the East river, and on its new freight route to New England from Constable Hook, New Jersey, across the I'pper bay to and through Brooklyn and the borough of Queens to the sound, and thence over the East river by bridges to th- mainland. The New York Central Is also making ex tensive improvements. After a recent costly remodeling of Its Orand Central sta tion It Is now completely rebuilding it and making other Improvements along its right-of-way which, all told, necessitates an outlay of half what its new rival In Man hattan is spending. Aping the railroads are the trolley com panies. The New York & New Jersey ' trolley tunnel has Just bc-en driven across the North river from west to east, and with the supplementary tunnel In Manhat tan, calls for a eool $10,000,000. A like Burn Is being spent on the . tunnel undi-r the East river at Forty-second street, which la to be used by various electric lines on I.or.g island. As for bridges, Borne $110,000,000 are beiiuj HOW Tins NEW YORK CENTRAL. IS SPENDING THIRTY MILLIONS IN T11K HEART OF THE CITY. (Continued ou Page. Nino.) 4