crowded harbor of New York Bay on their way to their piers in the river. Many a pilot has grown gray haired through worry in making the thousands of small craft in the bay keep dodging.

To obviate this delay and to provide many other additional advantages, Mr. Thompson has suggested that New York be extended for a distance of four miles right out into the Upper Bay, by reclaiming a section of the bay four miles long and a mile wide. His method of reclamation is extremely simple. He would merely erect two parallel concrete walls about a mile apart from the Battery toward Staten Island for the desired distance. This plan would leave a ship channel between the new land and Staten Island wider than the Narrows are now, and so there would be just as free access to the New York and Jersey shores as at present. The East River would also remain as accessible to navigation as now, but the shore line would be greatly increased.

According to Mr. Thompson there are

no difficulties to be feared in building the encircling seawall. He points to the enlarging of Governor's Island, situated in the Upper Bay, where the same situation was encountered, and every difficulty was overcome. When New York was trying to secure the Columbian Exposition, nearly twenty years ago, it was proposed to make a site for the Exposition by increasing the area of Governor's Island from 70 acres to 230 acres. But when the Exposition was secured by Chicago this scheme fell through. Later, however, the Federal Government undertook and carried out on its own account the reclamation of about fifty acres by filling in the shoal water lying to the south of the island. The plan of lengthening Manhattan Island would necessitate the abandonment of Governor's Island by the Government, as it is in the direct line of the proposed extension. But the city could manufacture a new and finer Governor's Island elsewhere.

The waters of New York Bay are in no place deeper than fifty feet, and in a

number of places, especially near the Battery, bedrock would be found at that depth. In other places it would hardly be necessary to build the seawalls deeper than one hundred feet at the outside. If bedrock were not found at that depth, piles should be sunk and the new-made land started on them. Mr. Thompson suggests that whenever rock is found within one hundred feet of the surface it would be advisable to sink caissons all around and pump out the enclosed area for laying the foundations of future skyscrapers. The foundations of some of the large office buildings in lower New York have cost as much as $1,500,000. This shows how valuable the newmade land would be when ready for skyscrapers with comparatively no work for foundations. Furthermore, this plan would result in a great saving of time in the case of buildings which it might be desired to erect in a hurry later on. With the foundations already prepared, the building could be put up at once.

The new neck of land would furnish a coast line of eight or nine miles, along which could be constructed immense docks and piers, each 2,500 feet long, capable of taking care of as many and as large ships as may be expected within the next twenty-five years. With this With this much accomplished, the docking problem would be practically solved. If these If these accommodations proved inadequate in the future, it would be possible to construct breakwaters along the entire coast of Staten Island, or even to build a strip of land a mile wide and ten or fifteen miles long, parallel to Staten Island, right out into the ocean proper.

While this work of reclamation is going on it is purposed to build a sixtrack subway all around Manhattan Island, including the new extension.

similar subway would be constructed to encircle Staten Island and the two connected by means of a twelve-track tunnel under the channel. This would furnish a loop of over sixty miles. It is Mr. Thompson's idea that the passenger transportation lines on both the new neck of land and in Staten Island should be built not on the streets but through the center of the future blocks of buildings.

The subways on the proposed extension, instead of being bored, would be built on the bedrock and then covered-as some of the conduits along the Panama Canal have been built.

The cost of this entire work would, of course, reach an enormous figure. But it is figured that it could be done for less money than will finally have been expended on the construction of the Panama Canal-about $500,000,000. It would not be necessary to make all of the improvements at once, however. Just as much or as little could be undertaken as desired. Yet even if the work should cost twice as much as that on the Panama Canal, it would be well worth while.

There are two reasons for this. In the first place, while it is impossible to say just what would be the value of the new neck of land, it would undoubtedly amount to far more than the actual cost of construction. The value of real estate in the lower portion of New York is now figured at close upon $7 a square foot. If the 1,400 acres comprising the new section were worth only half as much per square foot, the total value of the added area would still be considerably in excess of $500,000,000. There is no reason to think, however, that this land would not be as valuable, or nearly so, as that on the present Manhattan Island. Then the constantly increasing value of real estate in New York must be taken into consideration. In 1900 the assessed valuation of real estate in Manhattan Borough (Manhattan Island) was $2,231,502,655. For 1910 it was $4,743,916,785—a clear gain of over one hundred per cent in ten years. As the work on the proposed extension progressed the new land would undoubtedly show a substantial increase in value each year.

In the second place, it is generally believed that when the scheme is carried out, the value of Staten Island, at present assessed at $50,000,000, will be increased ten times-to $500,000,000. Here alone are two items amounting to one billion dollars, to say nothing of the enormous revenue that would be derived from the docks and freight sidings that would be built all around the two islands.