N PORT PROGRESS AT NEW YORK DURING 1920, UNFAVORABLE AND FAVORABLE CONDITIONS BRIEFLY CONSIDERED EVER in the history of the Port of New York has it been beset by so many powerful and varied interests that are determined to wrest from New York the shipping and commerce that have made it great, and the retention and development of which are so vitally essential to the orderly progress and welfare of the greatest port of the nation and its eight million inhabitants, as now. It is true that the Port of New York, which coincides with the Metropolitan District of New York, and which includes all of New York City and other nearby parts of New York, as well as a considerable section of northern New Jersey, constitutes an empire in itself, perhaps not in actual territory, but in shipping, commerce, industries, population and wealth. It is the enormous business that is conducted within what is known as the Port of New York that enables this small section of the nation (in area) to contribute so large a part of the taxes of every kind for the maintenance of governments-national, state and local. The restriction of the Port's business in any particular is a restriction as well of its tax-paying ability; the impairment of its shipping and commerce, which will inevitably be followed by a loss of industries, population and wealth, will impose far heavier tax burdens upon the rest of the country than it has been accustomed to bear. And yet, the United States Shipping Board, controlling thousands of ships and millions of tons of shipping, is avowedly "distributing," among other, rival, ports shipping and commerce that otherwise would come to New York. These other ports have the backing of large, active and powerful sectional organizations which have their tap-roots far in the interior of the country. They are concentrating efforts toward the changing of the basis upon which for generations railroad rates have been made, in order to give to these rival ports unfair advantages, really at the expense of the tax-payers of the nation, eventually, that will enable these rival ports to obtain, to hold and to expand their shipping and commerce, not naturally, not upon the basis of unusual or exceptional attractions and facilities of a local or sectional character, but by the perversion of power temporarily in their hands. On the other hand, never has the future of the Port of New York seemed so bright and promising as now. The city government is finishing twelve immense piers on the east shore of Staten Island, that, according to an oft-quoted statement of Dock Commissioner Hulbert, will afford more wharfage space for ocean shipping than exists today in the whole of Manhattan. The municipality has also formally authorized the tearing out of all of the ancient, narrow and partially obsolete piers on the North River-south of the Gansevoort piers, and north of Fulton Street-32 in number that will be superseded by 18 modern, wide and commodious piers each about 1,000 feet long, and with wide slips between that, when completed, will afford more wharfage space for ocean ships than the present 32 piers afford. These will be undertaken as the leases under which the piers are now privately held expire, that is to say, during the period of the next four years. Additional new piers are also under way and authorized on the east side of Manhattan in the vicinity of 23rd Street. The dock department has prepared elaborate plans for no less than 18 additional piers, on the west shore of Flushing Bay, to be constructed as the demand for them arises. Just inside the Narrows, in the Bay Ridge section of the Brooklyn shore, 3 great new piers have been authorized and soon will be built. The municipality purposes itself building warehouses, immediately adjacent to the new piers on Staten Island, the West side of Manhattan (on the marginal way) and at Bay Ridge. At Jamaica Bay the city is considering an offer by Mr. A. H. Greeley, President of the American Chain of Warehouses (100 in number scattered throughout the country), to spend one hundred million dollars there in the construction of the 14 1,000-foot piers, with adjacent warehouses, railroad switching facilities, industrial wharves, and all of the necessary accessories of a great marine terminal, if the city will lease him for fifty years about 1,000 acres of land that at present is undeveloped and valueless, being partly submerged, Mr. Greeley also offering, during the fifty-year period, to pay rental to the city amounting to $1,250,000, the property, improvements and all, to revert to the city at the end of the fifty years, all at practically no expense to the city, the one condition being that a 30-foot channel from the sea to the property be provided, or assured. The city is also considering the construction at Jamaica Bay of four great quay piers, each to be 2,000 feet long and 800 feet wide, plans for which have been prepared by the Dock Department, the completion of which would involve an outlay of several million dollars. The foregoing plan, which are of a radical character in their purpose, scope, and extent, so far as New York City is concerned, are the result of a clearer realization on the part of the municipality of the priceless value of modern piers to the Port of New York. This has largely been stimulated by the indomitable insistence of Dock Commissioner Hulbert whose arguments are unanswerable and whose energy is irresistible. If New York could enjoy ten years' administration of its dock department at the hands of Commissioner Hulbert, and if he were given proper support in the carrying out of his ideas, there would be no further lack of adequate wharfage, at least in the City of New York. The activities of the City authorities together with the investigation, covering more than two years just concluded by the New York, New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission, have greatly stimulated the great civic organization especially in Queens, Brooklyn and Richmond Boroughs to quite unusual activities in behalf of the scientific and thoroughly utilitarian requirements of the port. Even the Bronx is becoming aroused to the tremendous possibilities inhering in the modern developments of its waterfront, and the potentialities of such maritime and commercial development in the general upbuilding of the Bronx. Naturally the press has been stimulated to give more attention to the strictly maritime and commercial affairs of he Port of New York as a result of the activities to which we have already adverted. The PORT OF NEW YORK ANNUAL makes claim to having substantially assisted in arousing the public interests which we have described. The New York, New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission's final report is sure to lead to protracted discussion, of a generally unfavorable character, except on the part of the civic organization of Manhattan. The aroused sentiment in the New Jersey section of the Port of New York is most notable and encouraging. Whether right or wrong in the view expressed by their civic organizations, and especially the leading members thereof, the fact that a widespread and scientific discussion of the various plans for the most effective, economical and coordinative development of the port is well under way gives assurance of the ultimate adoption of a policy and system the lack of which has been the greatest drawback in the development of the Port of New York. We cannot pass from this discussion without calling particular attention to the fact that the Cunard Steamship company-the most important British steamship company in the world is all ready to begin the construction of eight or ten wharves, warehouses and other terminal accessories in the Jersey Section of the Hudson River at Weehawken, involving an expenditure of some thirty million dollars. The Luckenbach Steamship Co. plans a similar development at Weehawken in the way of new piers the cost of which it is said will run from five to ten million dollars. The long continued neglect of the Port of New York by the City and State in respect to waterfront improvement, and in respect to the improvement of channels by the Federal Government, lays the basis for the charge that the facilities at the Port of New York for the accommodation of shipping are not what they should be. In addition to this, the rates charged for wharfage both muni cipally and privately are exorbitant. This is due in part to a system of subletting which has grown into a serious evil. Efforts are under way, however, radically to remedy this condition. Another drawback which affords partial justification for the charge that New York is an expensive port is the fact that the cost of transshipment is out of all reason. This too it is proposed to remedy; but the remedy will be an expensive one and the adoption of it is likely to be deferred for a long period. This is true in our judgment, because there are so many different plans, suggested by such an array of competent, responsible and interested people, for the remedy of the evils that have grown up in the port. While it is true that the Hylan administration has projected a more comprehensive and extensive plan of waterfront improvement than has any preceding administration within our recollection, nevertheless, going back for a decade a lamentable insufficiency of funds has been appropriated during the average of the years for up-keep and for waterfront improvements and for the purchase of waterfront property upon which land additional wharves, sadly needed, could be constructed. This is another fault due to the lack of comprehensive policy and a necessary system for the carrying out of such policies. The wonder is that New York retains as much shipping and commerce as it enjoys and that the efforts of rival ports to wrest a portion of New York's share of the nation's commerce from it are not more successful. In this issue of the PORT OF NEW YORK ANNUAL, we have reproduced at considerable length a summary of the recommendations in the final report of the New York and New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission. Let us say, in passing, that the delay in the issuance of the 1920 edition of the PORT OF NEW YORK ANNUAL is due to the postponement from time to time of the issuance of that final report. A careful study of this summary will show the reader that the commissioners regard the problem of the Port of New York as a railroad problem, and therefore proceed to handle it as if it were wholly a railroad problem. They have evolved a very interesting, and, it is to be hoped, a feasible plan for the transfer of freight between the main land of New Jersey and the rest of New York-an automatic electric system that would take care of the probable growth of freight so transferred for an extensive period of years in the future. The plan resembles very much a system recently adopted by the City of London and now being put into effect for the underground transmission of mail. It has not yet been demonstrated that this particular plan is all that its promoters claim for it. It will cost in the neighborhood of $225,000,000 to install, and naturally the adoption of this plan will be undertaken only after the responsible authorities of the States of New York and New Jersey have become thoroughly satisfied as to its feasibility, practicability, efficiency and economy. The commission has devoted a great deal of time to the study of alternative plans which it demonstrates are not practical nor economical. The alternative plans with which it deals are a tunnel system under the Hudson River connected with an elevated railroad on the west side of Manhattan. Another is a tunnel system under the Hudson River with underground tunnel in Manhattan for the utilization of standard railroad cars and locomotives. The third is a bridge. As a reading of the summary will show it is proposed to have a number of stations at which the freight will be received in the automatic electric cars, which cars contain trailers, that have been loaded before they have been put into the cars, and which are quickly removed from them, thus leaving the car free for loading and returning. Already considerable opposition has arisen to this plan, largely in New Jersey. The people of Jersey City for example and to an extent Newark, seem to feel that the Commission devoted its time to the railroad problem to the exclusion of Port problems proper. The people in the New Jersey section of the Port who are interested feel that there is a chronic state of congestion in the New York part of the Port which it would have been proper for the commission to have remedied by transferring to the New Jersey section of the Port as much of the commerce as is possible, without increasing the expense. It is their belief that a large quantity of freight which is handled in the New York part of the Port is unnecessary. They believe that a very large part of the existing commerce could be transferred to the New Jersey section of the port which would welcome and accommodate it and that would handle it with very much more celerity than it is now handled. A considerable number of citizens of Jersey City have formed themselves into a commission for the purpose of studying and discussing this subject and their views as to what is most desirable for Jersey City will be found in this issue of the PORT OF NEW YORK ANNUAL. Naturally the statement has been compiled hurriedly because of the very brief time in which they felt they had in which to prepare it before the legislatures of the States of New York and New Jersey would be called upon to approve of and adopt the plan and also to provide for the permanency of the present temporary Bi-State Commission. The report, or rather the manner of its presentation, together with the actions of the members of the commission suggest a suspicion that they are more concerned in having the commission made a permanent one through the ratification of the proposed treaty than in discovering and presenting a thoroughly practical plan for the comprehensive development of the entire port in a systematic and co-ordinated manner. Having evolved the automatic electric system for the interchange of freight between the Jersey mainland and Manhattan, which is very ably presented and supported by strong arguments, the commission seems to have felt that the other important problems confronting the Port of New York would either be solved automatically through the adop tion of the automatic electric railroad system, or that such details were of a minor character that might properly be left to the commission for such remediable measures as they would devise after they have become the permanent organization that they aim to be. The one-sided development of the Port of New York is one of the great evils in connection with the handling of freight. Naturally the Jersey waterfront should be availed of to a much greater extent than it has been or is; but for various reasons it has not been. The chief reason is that the Hudson waterfront of Jersey City, extending some five miles, is almost entirely owned by the railroad and used by them for railroad switching and terminal purposes instead of being devoted to the interest of marine commerce. The astuteness of the railroads in having long ago acquired this Jersey City waterfront on the Hudson precludes the municipality from developing any wharfage accommodation on that shore and has forced it to seek such development as it is capable of, upon the Hackensack River and Newark Bay on the west side of the city. This development is now under way and with the deepening of the channels leading to it to 30 feet and upwards an extensive and extremely useful section of waterfront will be developed which will accommodate ships of ordinary size, the area of the hinterland to the rear permitting of warehousing, switching and industrial plants, all possible in the most economical manner that can be imagined. Newark, too, is ambitious of very extensive port development in order to utilize its extensive meadowland and the waterfront thereof for the construction of wharves, warehouses, railroad switching accommodation and industrial plants. There is a marked awakening on the part of these two cities (Jersey City and Newark) to a realization of the opportunities afforded to them by New York's chronic neglect of its waterfront and its consequent inability to accommodate the shipping seeking accommodation at the wharves of New York City. But the great trouble has been, in the New Jersey section of the Port of New York, that the municipalities themselves were not interested in securing their fair share of the shipping and commerce coming to the Port. Besides, the size of the municipalities themselves did not permit of their undertaking so expensive a work as a reclamation of the waterfront and the construction of adequate piers, on the comprehensive scale necessary. This is the situation that led to the appointment of the temporary New York, New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission. It was to investigate the conditions thus described that the commission was appointed, and it was expected that it would recommend sufficient practical remedies that would enable the port to accommodate all of the shipping seeking accommodation here and at the same time lessen the tremendous charges that accrue to shipping using the Port of New York, chiefly wharfage rates and the cost of transshipment. The situation is one that necessitates the orderly, systematic, co-ordinate development of the entire Port of New York, the vesting of authority in some body, officially representing the two States with jurisdiction over the entire port. It is this necessity which the commission uses as a basis for its efforts to have itself made a permanent body, with authority over the entire port into whose hands eventually the entire administration of the Port will fall. There is much to be said in favor of the appointment of such a body, or commission or authority, to the extent that it can be created with power to act without recourse to other authority for the funds necessary to carry out its plans. The most necessary thing is that such an authority when created should be as free of red tape in its administration as is posssible. The administration of the ports of Liverpol, London and Glasgow afford excellent examples of efficiency and economy. In our judgment they are the best administered ports in the world. It is our judgment that they are so well administered because the people who have business to do in the port are the dominant influence in their administration. The rate-payers, so called, that is to say the people who use the wharves, have the greatest say in the administration of them greatly to the advantage of the shipping and the commerce that the ports enjoy. There seems to have been no thought in the minds of those framing the plan of New York's Port administration to pattern after these very excellent examples or to include in the membership of the commission the people most interested in its efficient and economical administration. Particular attention is called to the plan put forth by the citizens of Jersey City and which have the approval of the municipal authorities. The people of Newark who are willing to spend one and a quarter million dollars of their own in order to secure a 31 foot channel to their Newark Bay waterfront are deserving of the highest commendation. Attention is also invited to the plan put forth by the Chamber of Commerce of Brooklyn for the improvement of its waterfront and its proposed facilitation of shipping and commerce using the same. It is understood that the plan prepared by Major Sullivan and adopted by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has the approval of the interested parties in the Boroughs of The Bronx, Queens and Richmond. It is at variance with some of the details presented by the New York, New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission, especially in reference to a marginal railroad along the Long Island waterfront. The attractions of The Bronx for shipping and commerce also forms an interesting chapter of this issue of the PORT OF NEW YORK ANNUAL and are deserving of study. Staten Island's progress, now so thoroughly assured, is briefly presented. Thus all of the Boroughs of Greater New York, and Jersey City and Newark, are presented for the consideration and study of our readers. |