of course be lost so much in length of the present piers; in some respects this will be an advantage in place of a loss, particularly in the lower part of the city, where the piers are so closely crowded together that it is impossible to move a vessel lying at the head of a slip, without moving three or four lying outside of her. A very great benefit will be derived from making our slips of a uniform width, as near two hundred feet as possible, by keeping the piers at the foot of the streets coming down to the river; the distance along West street, from street to street, being generally about that number of feet. In order to accomplish this, the ends of a few of the short piers would necessarily have to be removed; but, in many cases, the new proposed line would cover them, thereby enabling us to place the new piers at the desired distances apart. Table No. 1, is an estimate of the probable cost of extending the present piers belonging to the city six hundred feet beyond the proposed new line, as also building new ones at the foot of the streets, where at present there are none; this amounts to $405,775 for making forty-one thousand five hundred feet of wharf room, or about eight miles, affording berths for two hundred and seven vessels of two hundred feet long, without taking into account the ends of the piers. In the contemplated improvement, it is proposed to add fifty feet to the present width of West street, making it one hundred and twenty feet wide; a block outside of this, of two hundred feet wide, to be covered with warehouses, having fronts on the street and on the river. It is also proposed in the contemplated improvement, to continue a street, of twenty to thirty feet in width, along the bulkhead, allowing the same to be covered by the second story of the warehouses, thereby affording facilities for vessels to discharge immediately into, or receive goods from them. In place of continuing the streets crossing West street to the contemplated new bulkhead on the lines, as they now come in, it is proposed to set them all in at right angles, thus making all the lots rectangular. By a reference to table No. 3, it will be seen that the proposed line of two hundred and fifty feet will, after making West street one hundred and twenty feet wide, leave six hundred and seventy-eight lots, averaging about twenty-five feet wide by one hundred feet deep, adding to the taxable property of the city about $5,672,000. $4,839,000 of this amount will be owned by individuals, the residue, being $833,000, will be the property of the city. The cost to the private owners, as per tables Nos. 4 and 6, will be $1,873,337 59, and to the city, $146,384 53, leaving a profit to individuals of $2,965,662 41, and to the city of $686,615 47, to this last must be added the amount to be received as commutation money, shown in table No. 4, of $1,465,881 62, making the actual amount to be received by the city, to the credit of the sinking fund, the sum of $2,152,497 09, about one half the city debt, exclusive of the Croton water debt. With the foregoing statement before them, your Committee cannot but come to the conclusion that the time has arrived when an improvement, similar to the one proposed, should be adopted, they would therefore respectfully present for your consideration and adoption the following resolution: Resolved, That the Counsel to the Corporation be, and he is hereby directed to draft an act in accordance with the plan and suggestions contained in the foregoing report, and urge the passage of the same by the present Legislature, providing for the widening of West street, and changing the exterior line of the city between the Battery and Hammond street. |