No Bridge

In William Wallace Atterbury's magnificent Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan one evening last week occurred a passing commotion. Under the grey concourse lights were gathered some 200 persons, mostly girls, some young and lithe, some young and statuesque. They made weary travelers stop and stare. Surrounded by luggage, scented with flowers and perfume, bright with jewelry, they laughed, giggled, squeaked shrilly. Flashlights were taken. In the centre of the group stood a grey-haired, hook-nosed man puffing a big cigar. He was Florenz Ziegfeld. About him were the stars, the 70 "glorified" girls, the dance directors, technical men, wardrobe mistresses, musicians et al. of the forthcoming Follies, first in four years. With farewell whoops, the troupers trooped down the stairs to their special train of nine cars which carried them to Pittsburgh for a week's tryout before their Broadway opening.

Such theatrical scenes could not occur in any Manhattan station belonging to Daniel Willard's Baltimore & Ohio R. R. because it has no station for them to occur in. And last week the War Department doomed any chance of its having such a station for years and years by disapproving construction of a bridge across the Hudson River which would bring the B. & 0. tracks over from New Jersey to New York.

Mr. Willard became president of the B. & 0. in 1910 and that same year the Pennsylvania opened its Manhattan terminal. For two decades he has been plotting and planning how he could get his line across the river to compete with the Pennsylvania in the country's richest passenger market. A huge Hudson River bridge to Manhattan's 57th Street seemed the solution. Though no official sponsor, President Willard rooted hard for this project. Now he is 70 years old; his great career as a railroader is drawing to a natural close. The War Department's disapproval meant that he would probably never live to see the day when the B. & 0. gets into New York and carries a long train of sleeping Follies beauties to Washington or Pittsburgh or anywhere.

The War Department after prolonged re-examination turned down the North River Bridge Co.'s specifications on the ground that its proposed structure would be a menace to navigation.*

Where the Army and the bridgemen split was on clearance. The War Department insisted that the bridge centre must be at least 200 ft. above the water, its pierheads 185 ft. The bridge company offered 180 ft. centre clearance and 154 ft. at the pierheads, declared the structure, if made higher, would be economically unsound because of increased approaches. The Army's specifications, it said, would add $25,000,000 to a cost that already rose close to $200,000.000. But the Army insisted on 200 ft. clearance to accommodate the masts of the Leviathan, Majestic, Olympic, Bremen and Berengaria, which otherwise could not get above 57th Street. The Bridge company pointed out that 135 ft. was the highest liner stack, offered to put collapsible masts on vessels that could not get under their span. The Army's decision was a victory for the Fifth Avenue Association and other civic groups who argued that the congested midtown district could not absorb new traffic from the bridge.

*The Hudson River is called the North River in its flow along Manhattan Island's west shore. Transatlantic liners sail from piers on the North River (N. R.), not the Hudson.

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