Times Union from Brooklyn, New York • 18

Till: It 00 LYN TIM ICS, NATUKDAY, MAUCH -28, .1008. IN "SOLVING PRGBLEM OF RAPID PROGRESS TRANSIT r' if i Info rr ill J2 "if -jV These pictures show present condition of the underground work where the subway connects with Flatbush Avenue Station of Long Island Railroad. The first picture shows the centre platform with unfinished subway on the left and car of Long Island Railroad to the right. The other picture shows the two sections of the subway looking down Flatbush avenue. i V.

tlcth street, Alanhutlan, across Bliick-wcll's Island, and to Iong Island City, were submitted to the Becrntary of War In ISM. It's estimated cost was S12.C00.0O0. Of this was for the structure If. Tho bridge Is one of the lurgnft, If not tho litrgeHt In tho world. Its total length Is 7.S38 feet.

The clear height over tho river channel Is 136 feet. Plans have been approved by the' Municipal Art Commission for mftgnlllcont approaches. For yean to come. It Ii apparent, the future of Brooklyn Ilea In Ita nbll- Hy to overcome tho difficult lei of transportation to Manhattan by subways and bridges. What Is true of Brooklyn, the nearest neighbor to the greater business borouKh, Is doubly or triply true of all outlying districts.

The future of Queens County Is the same future that faces Kings County, and the hope of each Is In transportation development. And In the consideration of the ul 1 now Isolated Borough of Richmond, rs making their last desperate fight to pre vent the breukJng of the transportation monopoly. Their purpose was plainly evident In the resolution which they sent to the Secretary of the Board of Estimate, and which would have been ailopted had not my exposure of It frightened those behind It. "The Idea of turning over the subway to the Pennsylvania Railroad by constructing It only as far es the Flatbusn avenue station, of that railroad, Is not a new Idea. Commissioner BasBett urged It with force when the matter was before the Public Service Commission, and was then overwhelmed by popular protest.

The Mayor and the Comptroller have now seized upon It as a subterfuge and are presenting It to the people In lieu of the great transportation system, which has been planned, and for the construotlon of which the faith of the City of New York is pledged. Manhattan Bridge and Flatbush Av timate possibilities of the two great counties lies, too, the promise of that future, for subways are promised, are coming, and In one Instance, are) here. The Brooklyn Tube, adopted by tne Rapid Transit Commission, January 24, enue Extension. The Manhattan Bridge, and Its continuation, tho Fourth avenue subway, going through the Flatbush avenue detention, comprises the most gigantic Idea of Improvement yet conceived in connection with the civic growth of Brooklyn. The Flatbush extension has progressed somewhat In the last year.

Land has been cleared of rows of dwellings, tho Montauk Theatre has been condemned and sold for a song, and then moved Instead of being razed. The condemnation 1801, has during the last year been opened for service under the East JUver, connecting the Interborough System of subways In Manhattan with How Fourth Avenue Subway May Ba Built. But despite the facts that led to the above statement realty dealers are pretty sure to-nlay that the route as planned will be completed. One real estate mar, explaining tbe situation In detail, prophesied that the building of the subway would be In sections about as follows: "The first section, after Ashland place and the Atlantic avenue station of the Long Island Railroad Is passed, will go along upper Fourth avenue to the edge of South Brooklyn, entering a section in w.hlch there are at present good transportation facilities, and probably help the City Hall In Brooklyn. The effects of this tunnel were Immediate and presage, In part, the greater results soon to come when It Is connected by way of Fulton street and Flatbush avenue with Atlantlo avenue terminal of the Long Island Railroad Company, and provides a clear passage, With one transfer, to Long Island pie from Jamaica to up-town Manhattan.

1 Effect of Subway Opening. The immediate effects of this tunnel were seen In tne easing up In the Improved property field near to the Borough Hall, a' great many people, according to the real estate reports, moving down-town to be near the sub and Requiring of properties have been completed. extension, In Is coming out of the mist of conjecture and is assuming a tangible shape. In its dim outlines it can be comprehended. Though the structure of beauty that will be reared cannot aB yet be seen only by the very highly Imaginative, still the projection of the Idea has been accomplished, and all facts look to an accomplishment of the actuality, within a few years.

December, 1909, is set as the date for the completion of the Manhattan Bridge, and this may be assumed to be fairly accurate. The towers Of this bridge aro nearly finished, and may be seen from any part of the river, rising red and stalwart from the river banks. The estimated cost of the bridge, when tho plnns were drawn, -was $16,833,600. For a time the Board of Aldermen withheld authorization of the bond issue necessary for the construction of this bridge. The trouble over eye-bars was smoothed out, ing to hold values, but not necessarily to Improve them.

The second section. for It Is sure that the subway will be built In sections, will go through the heart of South Brooklyn, materially aid- lng a section that is dependent on the lines and trolleys, or on the Thirty- ninth Street Ferry. This section of ths route will be of more transportation value than the one laid before It, but however, and all Is going merry as a wedding bell. The steel work for the bridge Is being cast, all of the contracts for not so valuable as the one to follow. This next section will tap Bay Ridge, AT WORK ON SUBWAY STATION AT FOURTH AND FLATBUSH AVENUES.

way, who a few years ago moved uptown. A section of the city that for residential purposes was falling- behind the growing park sections boomed appreciably. The "crush" on the Brooklyn Bridge was lessened considerably for a little while but gradually seemed to recover its proportions until whatever gain In convenience of transportation there was might be well ascribed to tle new system of running trains inaugurated by the Rapid Transit Commission. With every Improvement in the transportation facilities to Brooklyn there Is a rush of new home-seekers to the borough so that the problem is not one of handling so many people more or. less-comfortably, but muBt be to provide, more rapidly than tne people can move Into Brooklyn, for those who are here, those about' to come, and those at all likely to come.

ests. Then there would be more bidders in the field. Monday there was held a meeting In Manhattan, though, attended by Comptroller Metz, Corporation Counsel Pendleton, Engineer Lewis, Chief Engineer Sea-main of the PuWIo Service Commission, and Commissioners Basaett and William MrcCarroll. At this meeting a plan said to be entirely satisfactory was advanced. It was not given out, but It may have been either a proposed repeal of Els Borough Park, BIythebourne and ths residential sections where the facilities are wretched at present.

It will be three years, at the soonest, before this work will be attempted. It will be a marked feature, and Is so In fact to-day. The fourth section, counting from Atlantic avenue, will traverse a stretch of sparsely settled country until it strikes Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, Bensonhurst, Ulmer Park and Coney Island. It Is probable that this fourth section will not be built until money Is on hand for the route clear through to Coney Island, for with the tarrying of the subway to BIythebourne sequent opening of real estate ventures, an Improvement of figures and great advantages of transportation. It is even possible that trains may be operated to the station at Atlantic avenue In the latter part of April.

Orders have been given by the Interborough Company, which operates the tube, for the delivery of station supplies not later than April 15, and if it is a physical possibility to get the stretch of roadT between Borough Hall and the Flatbush avenue station of the Long Island Railroad Company In operation before May 1, It will berg law, which would open the subway Held to competition, or the law framed by Senator Page, by the provisions of which the expense of constructing subways would be outside of the debt limit of the Growth of Brooklyn. Figures on the probable growth of Brooklyn are given as follows: Brooklyn's population U. 8. oan.ua nt 190 city. Fourth Ave.

Subway Prospects. It Is over the Fourth avenue subway that the contention has arisen. Action taken this week by Comptroller Metz and the Special Committee of the Board of Brooklyn's population 1902, when first tunnel and sub- way were authorized 1.Z7O.450 Brooklyn's population 1903, when Flatbush and Fort Hamilton subways were agreed upon J.aia.usD Estimated population 1908, supposed date of completion of tunnel, subway and Manhattan Bridge 1. 980,391 Estimated population 1910, two years after completion of Improvements now iirMov WAV Estimate shows that contracts for sec tions of this will probably be let In the near future. It has been decided to build the two sections from the entrance of the Manhattan Bridge, to Ashland place, the Atlantic avenue station of the Long Island Railway.

For this work $5,000,000 will be 'be done. Through trains will be put on the hour that the tunnel Is ready to receive them. The unexpected rapid progress made by the contractors has been due to the early spring. Comparatively mild weather permitted concrete work to go on during much of February and since March 1 the number of men employed In the subway has been greater than at any time in the past. Because the contractors were able to do concrete work during the latter part of February and early March, a season when it Is usually necessary to suspend it, owing to the frost In the ground, they expect to gain a month in finishing the job.

As the situation now stands, nearly everything Is ready for opening the rest of the road, Bave the Atlantic avenue station. On what day the entire system Is put Into operation wll klepend wholly oo the, progress made In connection with that station. The tube Itself has been finished and the tracks practically laid as far as the Junction of Fulton street and Flatbush avenue. Both the Hoyt street and the Nevlns street stations-have been finished. A big increase In subway traffic Is expected to develop when the subway Is one great transportation problem will be solved, and from that point to the Island Is practically a new problem.

It will probably take two sections from BIythebourne to the Island. As the route approaches the Island the construction will be cheaper, as an air structure will span the swamps. The most expensive part of the line will be along Fourth avenue. Flans for Subway Development. It was eleven years ago that the old Rapid Transit Commission, adopted a comprehensive plan for subway development.

The East River route Includes one two-tube tunnel from Pineapple street, Brooklyn, to Maiden Lane, Man- hattan; one renir-tube tunnel from East Fourteenth street, Manhattan, to North Seventh street, Brooklyn, to connect with the Brooklyn Subway Loop connecting all East River bridges; one two-tube tunnel, from East Thirty-fourth street, Manhattan, to Borden avenue. Long Island City; thence to connect with the Brooklyn Loop. The latter of these subways, the Belmont tube, was the first tube completed under the East Kiver. The Brooklyn tubes Include the loop necessary, and the Comptroller says the city has that much ready money. Brooklyn was promised the Fourth ave i i.i it ..3 dSfeh New Buildings In Brooklyn, i Qnfl 3,019 Cost.

$1.49,582 New Buildings In Brooklyn, coSt' v. New 'Buildings in Brooklyn, fm I Co.t:::::::::.,.;.::::23.95:292 New Buildings in Brooklyn, 1904 while subway was in Ainatrurtlnn nue subway. The specifications were ap proved by the Public Service Commls-ilon. The city has not made good. Con sidering these facts it Is no wonder that Nathaniel H.

Levi, of the BroaoTway Cost 42.0Z7,7 tvio-h wArri between va- Board of Trade, said to the Special Com mission: 'I think It unnecessary for me to dwell PRESENT APPEARANCE OF SUBWAY STATION BELOW THE SURFACE. structural work are and the rapid tween the elevated tracks of the WHl on Brooklyn's need of subways. "But there Is another question concerned. The city has made a promise which should be kept. If the public cannot learn to de completing of the structure is looked The subway loop In Brooklyn, to Join the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williams-burgh Bridges, has been shelved for the time being, owing to the apparent mix-up as to who Is to pay when the city cannot or won't, but men who ought to koow sav that the Brooklyn loop and the iamsburgh Bridge and the Broadway elevated a great section of Brooklyn, branching from Broadway like vertlbrae from a spinal cord, find it as convenient to go to Manhattan, or more probably, to pend upon the solemn promises made to operated through to the Flatbush avenue rlous members of the borough and city administrative departments has -hown real estate men as well as the generally Interested citizens the necessity of cooperation if the great effects that follow the installation of subways are to be quickly attained by Brooklyn.

Between the statements of Comptroller A. Met, that the city has no money to build subways, the attestations of Borough President and ex-Comptroller Bird B. Coler. that plenty is obtainable, and to connect the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburgh and Blackwell's Island Midges passing under Manhattan ave terminus. Brooklynltes who live on the Park Slope and near the Flatbush avenue When completed, the influence this tripartite improvement will bave on realty values in Brooklyn Is easily conceived to be tremendous.

The widening of Flatbush avenue into a great highway of travel, the building of the bridge with its additional facilities to get to the business section of New York, and the laying of nue, Ureenpolnt avenue to Long Island them by their officials, then the very foundation upon which our Government rests Is In danger. I am here pleading for the building of the Fourth avenue subway, not because the section wherein my activities are confined will be directly affected thereby, but because Broadway-Lafayette subway feeding the old Eastern District are not so far away City; the Flatbush and Fourth avenue subway to Fort Hamilton, with spurs via New Utrecht avenue to Coney Isl the wide variance of plans and schemes the subway out Into a Section of home- that have come forward since the Comp troller's statement, there Is a valley of seekers, will produce an effect quite unprecedented. But with the boom along Fourth avenue, as with all other Brooklyn booms, and, and the subway from the Brooklyn Bridge via Willoughby, Lafayette and Bedford avenues to the Williamsburgh Bridge, and under the Williamsburgh Bridge to Jamaica. Surveys, soundings and borings for all of these routes have been completed. desolation about as wide as the city of Brooklyn, occupied by the people of come from Manhattan, as do the downtown dwellers that travel by way of the Brooklyn Bridge.

In order to render this elevated connection of any practical value though, and In order to attract to the home districts outlying In Brooklyn the business people of Manhattan the subway loop on the Manhattan side will have to be finished. This loop is now under way, and some work has been done on It. When it is completed the elevated trains soon to travel on the Wllllamjburgh Bridge will duck down underground on the other side and carry their passengers downtown or' give them transfers to subways feeding other sections of section and who now use elthei the elevated or surface cars when they wish to to Manhattan will. It is believed, trarsfer their patronage to the subway. Infact, railroad men In Brooklyn believe that the opening of the rest of the subway will revolutionise transportation In Brooklyn almost as much as did the opening of the under-rlver tube.

Practically the same schedule will be maintained In operating the trains througb to the Atlantic avenue station as Is now In effect as far as the Borough Hall. Elevated Train Over WHliamsburgh Bridge. With the completing of connections be- It Is to be seen that the inflation of as pessimists would try to prove. The Queen sboro Bridge. From a field that may be said to be In the nature of conjecture, however, we come to an actuality when from the Brooklyn subway loop we proceed to the Blackwell's Island Bridge, already connected from shore to shore, and already Influencing with magician-like touch the real estate values of the County of Queens.

The general plans for this gigantic cantilever bridge to go from Second avenue, between Fifty-ninth aod Slx- Brooklyn. 1 'Wants Elsberg Law Amended. Brooklyn Is practically a unit on the question of the building of the Fourth avenue subway. "We are aware that the city cannot find the money necessary to build all the subways that Brooklyn needs, and that private capita must be enlisted to construct some of them; but we do make this demand upon the city, that It shall fulfill the promises It baa made with regard to the building of the Fourth avenue subway, and also to complete the Brooklyn section of the "loop subway, part of whkh In now In course of construction In Manhattan. Nothing short of this will satisfy our people, and I hope you will see to it that their wishes in Borough President Coler was asked for Iris opinion on the Elsberg law.

which provides that after twenty years subways built br sjrlvate corporations shall be Big: New Gas Tanks. The new gas tank, opposite the McCar-ren Park, on Berry and North Twelfth streets, In the erection of which three men lost their lives. Is practically com prices proceeds by years the actual completion of the work. Real estate owners are already receiving the full value of the subway, so far as prices go. Borough President Coler Pessimistic.

Borough President Coler Is very pessimistic in regard to the building of the Fourth avenue subway. A statement Issued from his office recently says: "The people' should watch the actions IWWtWWWMWMWWWW WWWWWlrtHmwWWW VWWWVWVWVj I At the office of the Commissioner of Bridges it was authoritatively stated to- pleted. Painters are now at work painting the huge bolder, which is alongside of another holder, the two taking in the entire block between North Twelfth and North Thirteenth streets, Wythe avenue turned over to the city. "I am In favor of the law as it stands," the official answered, "win the exception that I favor forty years for private dealing. Real estate men contend that Coler voices the sentiment of many prominent business met) in this statement The time allowed, they contend, is too short to iow a gala on the, funds Invested roensurate with ths risks and lensrtb or day that elevated trains would run oyer.the Williamsburgh Bridge by the middle of the committee appointed by the Board of Estimate to consider the advisability of advertising contracts for only por this respect are put into execution." and Berry streets.

The two holders, are the largest In this country and next to the tion of ths Fourth svenue subway. The ui rfuue. aiic xjiuurviii ivapiu xiaiiaiv wiuyau oaiu mat me iiiaitti nas the Bridge Department, but said that they had heard Decoration Day set as the largest In the world. Subway to Flatbttsh and Atlantic Avenues "tfay 1. It seems probable that the Brooklyn Interests opposed to the construction of a great Independent system operating from date for opening the Williamsburgh Bridge to elevated railway traffic.

yos nut to buy bone, er net knew Batt If try tb dTrrtllisf subway will be operated to the Flatbush avenue termiui by iiAf first, with a con time Involved. Hots time for reintjurse-Bot should allowed tbt prrrat Inter the Bronx through Manhattan and Brooklyn lo Coney, and to ths Mm nostri XIsms. Tssy sent tsIM.