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NEW YORK HARBOR. EAST RIVER.
Resuming our interrupted walk, we come to the 23rd Street Ferries just above the Chelsea docks. Most of the boats are still running except the Pennsylvania. Here you connect with the Central, Erie and Lackawanna roads to Jersey City.
The passenger traffic, however, now goes by the Hudson Tubes, the ferries being mostly for vehicles. It remains, nevertheless, an important transit point though robbed of much of its former bustle and would hardly be recognized by the old New Yorker who recalls the days of its bygone glory when it was one of the busiest parts of town, especially in summer at week ends. Just beyond 23rd Street are more Atlantic steamships—the Anchor Line, the Southern Pacific, the French and Italian lines, the Pacific Mail and Panama Steamers; the principal pier of the beautiful Albany Day Line boats and the swift steamers to Atlantic Highlands, Long Branch and Jersey Coast resorts.
Here ends that stretch of the marginal street called West, paralleling the river called North, which isn't north at all, as we have explained. Beyond this, the street becomes Tenth Avenue.
As if to recall its old days as "the shore road to Greenwich," it meanders off as all good shore roads do, into the heart of town, forsaking the turmoil and commercialism of the waterfront. It reappears, resplendent in new asphalt and handsome architecture as Amsterdam Avenue—again reminiscent of Colonial days—and makes a glorious exit in the sanctity of the classic atmosphere of Columbia University and Cathedral Heights.
There is also considerable shipping on the opposite shore of the city—the East River. This locality during the reign of the clipper was a veritable forest of masts. There are signs of a rejuvenation of American Merchant Marine and perhaps before long we will again see the white sails of ocean beauties and hear the song of the Chanty man.
The South American trade docks largely in South Brooklyn, where an immense terminal development called the Bush Stores is. This now embraces miles and miles of piers, all equipped with the most modern appliances for the mechanical handling of freight. A lesson from Europe has evidently been learned by the American shipper and some of the ingenuity hitherto monopolized by the ore handlers of the great lakes has finally been adopted in the East. Huge factories are now located on these docks and an immense saving of unnecessary handling of freight is achieved.
The old shipping quarter of Brooklyn, which formerly began at Pierrepont Stores, just below the "Heights" in the days of the China tea trade, has gradually extended along the water-front and forms an unbroken line till it meets the Bush improvement, which we have just described. The South American ships still favor this locality, as do the steamers for the Antipodes. From present indications there will soon be great and far reaching developments in everything pertaining to docks and ships. There is no telling what the result will be when the Government finally announces its plans regarding its new ships, but in any event, New York is bound to be greatly affected.
The Government has recently established an enormous Arm Supply Base in this section. It is on a scale of magnitude never before approached. Else-where we give a picture of the splendid structure.
This maritime side of New York is very interesting. On account of the congestion that usually exists on the waterfront streets, the best way to see it is by a sail around the island. There is a boat that makes this trip twice daily—morning and afternoon.
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