Proceedings of the Public Service Commission for the First District, State of New York, from ...

transit system which would be included within the debt limit of the City, and the Fourth avenue, Fort Hamilton and Coney Island section was decided upon as an adequate increase to the system. It is unfortunate that the City could not get some relief at this time for Manhattan and The Bronx, as the travel is increasing to an alarming extent, as will be plainly seen by reading that part of the Engineer's annual report for the year 1906 to the Board relating to the increase of travel and the necessities for new work. Inasmuch as Manhattan, from Tenth street up to One Hundred and Third street is underlaid by rock which is near the surface, additional subway construction for any north and south line will necessarily take about four years to construct. The only possible relief on that account is to put additional tracks on the elevated roads on the east side of the City, that is, on the Third and Second avenue lines, which extend from The Bronx to the lower end of Manhattan. This addition to the elevated facilities has been urged for a number of years, and the Rapid Transit Board at a recent meeting sent communications to the Interborough Company notifying them that they were willing to negotiate in reference to the affording of additional facilities by means of additional tracks under certain conditions. This problem is the greatest problem which the Commission has s at the present time; it means the granting of privileges as suggested, with provisions which will not only compensate the City but protect the City in the granting of additional facilities for the franchise given in perpetuity.

In the upper part of The Bronx the Board has laid out several lines of elevated connections, not only with the subway system, but also with the elevated system. These are necessities and are also urgent on account of a wonderful growth of travel between the Boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx.

The Rapid Transit Board have recently laid out a subway system through Centre and Delancey streets for the purpose of affording a quick and adequate system of connecting the railroads in Brooklyn with Manhattan. Five contracts for this work are under construction, and this line contemplates not only a possible connection with the Brooklyn Rapid Transit and Interborough systems in Brooklyn, but also a connection with a proposed subway system into the northern and eastern part of the Borough of Brooklyn, besides affording communication with the west side of Manhattan south of Fourteenth street, and also making additional connections with the southern part of Manhattan below the City Hall.

For a considerable time a patented system of elevated railroad called the "Behr Monorail System" has been suggested to the Rapid Transit Board. This proposed road starts from South Ferry, at the foot of Atlantic avenue in Brooklyn, along Atlantic avenue to Fourth avenue, thence through private property to Dean street, near Fifth avenue, through Dean street, Washington avenue, Prospect place, Rogers avenue, Flatbush avenue, Nostrand avenue, private property from the intersection of Nostrand avenue and Avenue R to the intersection of East Nineteenth street and Avenue U,

through East Nineteenth street to Voorhees avenue, through private property to Emmons avenue, through Neptune avenue, West Twelfth street to terminus near Surf

avenue.

After due deliberation on the application for a franchise for this proposed road, the Rapid Transit Board made arrangements by which the Behr Monorail Company should pay $25,000 to guarantee the City against any failure on the part of the Behr Monorail Company to carry out its plan, but the Behr Monorail Company evidently have been unable to raise the $25,000 which the Rapid Transit Board deemed necessary to protect the City against a failure of that scheme. The Rapid Transit Board have never laid out a route as suggested by the Behr Monorail Company. Even if the road were built, it would have to be built under competition, and some other form of elevated road might be the successful bidders. The requirements as demanded by the Rapid Transit Act would prohibit the entering into a contract with the Behr Monorail Company without public competition, and other people interested in patented devices for railroads have manifested their desire to be competitors in any scheme which may be proposed.

The Rapid Transit Board in connection with the City authorities have within the last few years perfected franchises for the McAdoo tunnels and to the Pennsylvania, New York and Long Island Railroad Companies, connecting the State of New Jersey with the neighboring territory across the North and East rivers.' These franchises are all in active construction, and have been under the supervision of the Rapid Transit Board; more particularly the McAdoo tunnel connection up Sixth avenue from Christopher street to Thirty-fourth street, one of the conditions of their charter being that the City could in twenty-five years buy at cost this portion of the McAdoo Railroad. A portion of the Pennsylvania tunnel in the vicinity of Broadway and Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets has also been particularly under the observation of the Board, on account of some trouble having been had in connection with the rock, more particularly in the vicinity of Fifth avenue and the two strects named above.

A large amount of work has been done and is now being done in connection with the rebuilding and enlargement of the terminal facilities of the New York Central Railroad near Forty-second street. This construction did not come under the control of the Rapid Transit Board, but is a part of the work under the Public Service Commission for the First District, as well as the tunnel which has been under construction for about two years, called the "Belmont Tunnel," which started under the franchise given to Mr. Steinway in the early 90's.

These are the main problems which occur to me in which the Commission will be interested, without referring to the elevated system and surface system in Manhattan, .which are manifestly of interest to the Public Service Commission.