Show M Got h m. m 4 ry r rr r b a t Af k 9 q p f I t t Where Central Park Halts the Northward March of Architectural Giants Prepared by tho N National 1 Geographic Society D. D C. C Service TT ESPITE Its youth and D DESPITE I ence compared with London and the recent flow of ot gold toward the British capital New NewYork Nework Nework York ork retains Its position as the orld's leading banker New New l York Is a city of tIes thes It Is mans man's Incomparable feat teat I As Incredible almost as that ants should have haye built the Andes I 1 IGo Go up on any high hotel roof after niter I sunset and watch the city come to life Ute By electric ele moons rainbows and fixed comets you see Manhattan blaze from dusk Into gorgeous theatrical theatrIcal theatrical theat theat- Illumination Its twinkling skyline ebbs and flows In tides of tempo and color As each e edifice melts Into new lights and shadows all aU the architectural phantasmagoria of the ages linked even even en with earths earth's ancient scars seems to unfold In fancy you sou see sec seca seea a phantom city a kaleidoscopic riot of t Alps and Acropolis Ming tombs Taj Mahal and Pyramids Gibraltar Gibraltar Gibraltar tar Panama canal Tower of Babel with Grand canyon and Yangtze gorges formed by street caverns farbelow farbelow far farbelow below Cologne cathedral Pikes Peak and St. St Pet Peters Peter's rs r's a n Chinese Wall Wan against a n Sahara Sabara desert of lit lamp sl sky y towers toners and turrets mosques minarets domes steeples roof tanks tank and penthouses all heaped and crowding and seeming to barn as smoke moves mO In electric I light Next day from the same high place see It again realIstic agaIn realistic noisy its Ita streets crowded with traffic New NewYork NewYork NewYork York nC never cr rests Higher and ever eyer higher rise the sk skyscrapers Their ma bulk their grace of at geometric geometric ge ge- design their dizzy height and fearsome beauty beauty beauty-at at first they Almost t most hint that mans man's monsters avo run away with him Stare up at t such a building and It fairly dominates ones one's mind and body From their upper stories you see bits of fog floating by Miles Ines to the east ast stretches Long Island to the south Is the Statue of at Liberty and Staten Island to the west spreads New Jersey and to the north that part of ot the city beyond Ce Central s ral park Below lie merely pigmy structures of t six and nod eight stories Here and there up from among them other skyscrapers rise In this swiftly changing region of ot Mid Vertical Travel Is Immense These high buildings that visitors from all over the world stare at atwith atwith with Ith such astonishment make NewYork NewYork New NewYork York what It Is the Is-the the supreme wonder wonder won- won der ler of the modern world When the first skY skyscraper croper of ot only 13 IS stories stories stories stor stor- ies went up on lower Broadway people feared It Those in adjacent houses moved out In alarm Now high and higher they go go ro 50 CO GO 70 85 stories So many there are and so high that today the vertical travel In New York actually exceeds the horizontal In other words elevators elevators elevators ele ele- ele- ele carry more passengers than do all the surface cars elevated trains taxis busses and subways combined In one skyscraper 21 elevators cover er a mileage equal to the run of ot I the Twentieth Century Limited from New York to Chicago dally daily I One of at the big problems In New NewYork NewYork NewYork York is getting the occupants of ot skyscrapers In an and 1 out on time The larger buildings hold bold anywhere from to and even 20 workers In some are found p people people peo peo- pIe from practically every state In inthe the tho Union Even with express c elevators It takes nearly an hour to empty some of the Ule larger buildings and get the people away from the ground floor and entrances because of at congested subways If It they all came down at once nce it would pile people up ten or tw twelve lve d deep deop In t tl tho streets The New York skyscraper Is a city In Itself with all a city's problems problems problems lems of traffic water heat lights sewage fire and police protection and cleaning Its total tokil floor ar area area equals that of ot many a farm Torun Torun To Torun run the ele elevators of one of ot them requires requires requires re re- I quires a starter six sir assistant starters starters start start- I ers 35 operators and a n crew of often often ten n maintenance men M Since water from fire hydrants I can cnn be squirted upward only about feet and since firemen cannot drag a hose up 50 W or 7 75 stories a skyscraper has Its own upright water water water wa wa- ter mains maw tanks tI and pressure high pumps with an nn elaborate system of alarms and extinguishing apparatus Beneath one building are turntables turntables turntables turn turn- tables for busses from railway terminals ter ter- Tunnels lead from It In Inmany Inmany inmany many directions Through them thousands thousands thousands thou thou- sands of at Its tenants arrive each morning after many miles of at underground underground underground un un- un- un travel and through them one may wander as In the streets of at a n subterranean city In this human human human hu hu- hu- hu man prairie dog town are arc more than 50 places to eat cat and stores sellIng sellIng sell sell- Ing lug e everything from tram office supplies and lingerie to thermos bottles sunray sunray sunray sun- sun ray lamps cigars books and haber haber- From these commercial catacombs one may ride all nil the theuay way out to Long Island without c ever er coming cornIng Into the open air Speed In New Construction But New Yorks York's greatness Is not In structure alon alone It lies Hes also In Inthe inthe the thc speed at which life moves and new buildings displace the old This swift transition stuns even en the blase New Yorker Troy was wrecked and rebuilt nine times Here history repeats Compare the skyline now with pIctures pictures pic plc tures tares of ot the tho same region made only ten j years rs ago You will see that palatial homes have haye been demolIshed demolished demolished demol demol- and whole residence districts swept away to clear sites for higher high high- er cr buildings You see buildings like e the famous Waldorf Astoria turn to Junk and hard of at the heels of Its wreck come giants like the amazing Empire State building To widen streets houses are arc sliced oJ off in front as with giant shears Four hundred buildings wrecked to extend a subway spur traInloads of at dirt hauled to tho tho river front and dumped In to make mako a n park below drive In cyclonic devastation whole neighborhoods neighborhoods neigh neigh- I are arc razed for new bridge approaches Swiftly the old landmarks fade Only Grants Grant's tomb and similar objects objects objects ob ob- ob- ob of at sentiment seem safe If even cven the Sphinx stood on Fifth avenue ave aye nue flue somebody would probably want ant antto to wreck It to build a skyscraper Here Is no space for static things By many cuts and running It fast Imagine this picture shown In sa say two or three days You would see old buildings crumbling down and new skyscrapers hastening heavenward heavenward heavenward heaven heaven- ward pushing up like Uke giant mush mush- room It would be un unendurable Compared with medieval cities clUes think how fast New York grows Today Today Today To To- day In New v York bricklayers may run nm walls up two stories In a n day A building of 50 W floors Is begun and finished In about the same time It used to take a Sioux to kill a buffalo but falo and tan his hide for a n wigwam Between crowds and skyscrapers Is reciprocal affinity Each Is the cause of the other Into that part of ot Manhattan below ninth Fifty-ninth street there comes to work every morning an army of at people equal to the population of at Paris or Chicago No other spot on earth Is so crowded crowd crowd- ed with men and houses On Under and Over Manhattan Thus men crowd Manhattan rock Not only that They bore holes In It dig tunnels under rivers and push bridges over O It so that still sUll stillmore stillmore more men may reach It hastily hasUly The rhe passengers on Its transport lines each year outnumber all aU the people In the world Those passing through I Times Square subway station alone I last year equaled In number half halt the Inhabitants of at the western hemi hemI- sphere here So Jammed Js is Fifth avenue now that In busy hours a man walking goes faster than a bus In many streets motors average less than four tOUl miles an no hour New Yorks York's fight to keep men an and 1 things In motion knows no lull i Ili ihas has built a great elevated express highway a novel thoroughfare many feet above the street It runs along I the Hudson river water front from Canal street north to Seventy sec ond and Think what this means to crowded crowd crowd- I ed cd New York I A broad free tree path I of ot two 30 foot 30 foot roadways s 's with no i grade crossings able to carry from I to motor co cars s an hour at ata a speed of or 35 miles right miles right over oyer all I congestion Then theres there's the new tunnel to torun run mn un under tidewater from Brooklyn out to Staten Island It will take taketo two t to four tour years to bore this bold bole submarine highway |