Part 4

When the Pennsylvania Tunnel Extension is in operation, the easiest and quickest way for the passenger to reach the city from Newark will bring him into the Pennsylvania Station at Seventh Avenue and 33d Street. The schedule fast time from Newark to the New York Cortlandt Street Station is now 25 min. This may be reduced to about 18 min. by the use of the Hudson Company's tunnels, and while this involves inconvenience in changing transportation at Jersey City, yet it brings the traveler three blocks nearer Broadway. The time from Newark to the Pennsylvania Station will be about 17 min., and the trip will be made without change of transportation, so that, undoubtedly, by far the greater part of the Pennsylvania's passenger traffic desiring to reach the shopping and hotel center of the city will go to the new up-town station.

The effect of the Tunnel Extension in increasing the volume and rapidity of the up-town movement and the real estate values will be very great; indeed, its influence is already apparent, although the line is not yet opened for traffic. With the extension of the present subway down town on the west side with direct connections to Brooklyn, and up town from 42d Street to the Bronx, with connections to permit convenient transfers between these two straightaway subways--one on the east side and the other on the west side of Manhattan--the Pennsylvania Station will become a great center for receiving and distributing passenger traffic between all the Boroughs of the City and outlying points. The new post office to be established adjacent to the Terminal Station will also greatly assist in accelerating the up-town movement.

In concluding this account of the New York Tunnel Extension project, the writer desires to pay a tribute of admiration and respect to the memory of the late A. J. Cassatt, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, to whom the conception, design, and execution of the project are mainly due. His education and experience as a civil engineer, his thorough knowledge of all the details of railroad construction, operation, and management, gained by long and varied service, the directness, clearness, and strength of his mind, and his great executive ability, placed him at the head of the railroad men of the country. In the consideration of great problems, whether of transportation, finance, commerce, or political economy, he was almost unequaled, owing to the breadth, originality, and decisiveness of his character; yet his manner to his subordinates was so direct and simple that he seemed unconscious of his own superiority. Great as it is, the New York plan of improvement is only one item in a far-reaching scheme of development which became the policy of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company through Mr. Cassatt's advice and influence, yet his strongest interest was doubtless centered in the New York works. It is the sincere regret of all connected with the design and execution of the project that he did not live to see its completion.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote A: Brigadier-General, U. S. Army, _Retired_; Chairman, Board of Engineers, Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal R. R. Co.]