FROM
TRANSPORTATION ASSET TO BARRIER |
Seen
as one of the entryways to America from the time of Verrazano,
so far as internal transportation networks were concerned, ideas
about The Narrows changed dramatically. When transportation was
by water, The Narrows was seen as a valuable transportation link.
However, after the development of railroads as the dominant means
of freight transportation, The Narrows came to be regarded as
a water barrier. Proposals for tunneling under or bridging over
The Narrows were made as early as 1888.
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Railroads
By
the 1840s, railroads had begun to eclipse internal water transportation
in the United States. Staten Island got train service beginning
in 1860, but it just ran from Vanderbilt Landing inland. No bridge
was constructed to link the Island to the nearby rail networks dominating
the region, until a swing bridge was constructed in 1888 connecting
it to New Jersey. |
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| Library
of Congress, Geography and Map Division |
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The
First Tunnel Proposal
In
1888, subsequent to building a swing bridge between New Jersey and
Staten Island, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad proposed a tunnel
between Staten Island and Brooklyn.
In
1890, Staten Island developer Erastus Wiman sponsored a plan by
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to construct a tunnel under the
Narrows to connect Staten Island with Brooklyn. The proposal never
got through the approval process when financial challenges stopped
the plan at the drawing board. |
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| New
York Times, August 5, 1890, pg. 2. |
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The
Second Tunnel Proposal
New
York mayor John F. Hylan advocated a tunnel at The Narrows for the
sake of Staten Island's development. He secured appropriations of
$500,000. As the first steps in building a combined freight and
passenger tunnel, shafts were begun in Bay Ridge and near Fort Wadsworth
in 1923. The project was soon abandoned and the excavations came
to be known as "Hylan's Holes." |
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City
of New York Board of Estimate and Apportionment. The Narrows
Tunnel: South Street Shaft, Invitation to Bid, Forms of Bid
and Contract, Including Specifications for The construction
of South Street Shaft in the Borough of Richmond for a Freight
and Passenger Railroad Tunnel. New York: City of New York,
Board of Estimate and Apportionment, 1923. Archives &
Specials Collections Department of the Library, College of
Staten Island, Staten Island, New York. |
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The
First Bridge Proposal
A
New York engineer, David B. Steinman's proposed a suspension bridge
across The Narrows in 1926 to be funded by private investors. His
"Liberty Bridge" would have had a 4,620-foot clear span
and 800-foot tall towers ornamented with Gothic tracery enclosing
observation decks, beacon lights, and a clarion of bells. A business
syndicate applied to Congress for a charter to build and operate
the bridge. Congressman Fiorello H. La Guardia single-handedly blocked
the proposal, stating his opposition to a private corporation profiting
from a civic need.
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| Rendering
of the never constructed Liberty Bridge.Archives & Specials
Collections Department of the Library, College of Staten Island,
Staten Island, New York. |
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