صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

The act as passed named the persons who were to constitute the Rapid Transit Commission. They were the Mayor and Comptroller of the city; the President of the Chamber of Commerce; William Steinway, Seth Low, John Claflin, Alexander E. Orr, and John H. Starin. Five of the eight commissioners were members of the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Orr was President of the Chamber, and consequently an ex officio and an individual member. At the first meeting of the commission, he was elected its President. He resigned his individual membership and John H. Inman was elected to the vacancy, giving the Chamber six members of the body.

From the moment of its appointment, the commission bent its energies continuously and tirelessly to the great task assigned to it. Necessary amendments were obtained from time to time enlarging its powers. Changes in its personnel from death and other causes were made as time advanced. Mr. Low resigned in 1896, and Mr. Steinway and Mr. Inman died. Their places were filled by Woodbury Langdon, George L. Rives, and Charles Stewart Smith. In 1899, Morris K. Jesup became President of the Chamber of Commerce and thereby replaced Mr. Orr as ex officio member of the commission. At the first meeting of the commission thereafter, John Claflin resigned and Mr. Orr was elected to the vacancy, continuing as President of the commission.

The commission, as soon as it had been appointed, organized and chose William Barclay Parsons as chief engineer and George S. Rice as deputy chief engineer. A route for the subway was laid out after taking into consideration the convenience of the population, the situation of existing lines of transportation, and the development of the city. Plans for the structure were determined upon, a financial scheme was evolved, necessary legal authority was secured from the courts, and the construction of an operating plant was authorized.

A delay of two years was caused in the actual beginning of

the work by an action brought in the Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of the Act of 1894 creating the commission. This was carried to the Court of Appeals and declared finally in favor of the city.

Obstacles and delays of various kinds arose constantly, but the patience and perseverance of the commission enabled it to surmount them all, and in the fall of 1899 a contract for the work was completed and was advertised for bids. On January 16, 1900, a bid was accepted, and a Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company was organized to capitalize the work. On March 24 following the work was formally begun, and four and a half years later, on October 27, 1904, the subway, fully equipped in every part and ready for operation, was thrown open to the public with impressive ceremonies. Every detail of the work, construction, equipment of stations and rolling-stock, motive-power, etc., was considered and determined by the commission, and after ten years of unremitting and devoted labor, its members presented the city with as perfect a system of transportation as the world had yet seen.

While the commission had been engaged in this task, the Greater New York Charter had gone into effect, creating a new city with a greatly increased population and with new and diversified interests. This enlargement of its field of labor had added enormously to the work of the commission by imposing upon its members the task of evolving a system of transit that should meet the wants of all the new territory that had been added to the old. This was done so effectively that the way was opened for whatever enlargements and extensions in the future the growth of the metropolis might make necessary.

During the closing years of service the commission made careful examination of the merits of proposed additional routes and decided upon so many that when, in 1907, it was abolished and its work turned over to the Public Service Commission

there was little for the latter body to do except to carry forward the general scheme which its predecessor had planned and partially executed. That Mr. Hewitt and Mr. Orr, as well as their associates, were men of vision, as well as devoted public servants, was demonstrated by the success of their ideas and plans.

CHAPTER XXIII

RAPID TRANSIT-CONTINUED

RECOGNITION OF MR. HEWITT'S SERVICES GOLD MEDAL AWARDED AND STATUE ERECTED TO HIS MEMORYMEDALS ALSO FOR MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION 1894-1907

THE Chamber was generous in its appreciation of Mr. Hewitt's services. When the contract for building the subway was signed, in April, 1900, Mr. Orr reported the fact at a meeting of the Chamber and proposed that a gold medal be struck in recognition of Mr. Hewitt's eminent services, saying that the result was due mainly to the active influence of the Chamber and the "genius and foresight of Abram S. Hewitt who had brought to the task a wide experience in civic affairs and an intimate knowledge of the requirements of the case." A resolution was adopted, appointing a special committee to procure a gold medal to be presented to Mr. Hewitt "with assurances of the admiration, respect and affectionate regard of his fellow members." A medal was struck and was formally presented to Mr. Hewitt at a meeting of the Chamber on October 3, 1901. In his speech of acceptance Mr. Hewitt reviewed the long campaign for an underground system, and remarked that in achieving this result the Chamber of Commerce had been the prime mover, adding: "I think it is not too much to say that in the future its successful intervention will be regarded as one of the most creditable achievements in its long and honorable history, identified, as it was and is, with the construction of the Erie Canal and of the great system of water-supply which has made

ΙΙΟ

« السابقةمتابعة »