Show mighty gotham es j K 0 V N dai KY W as V ak V it ol 01 k i 4 i ir v 1 wab 44 k lowy ls wy S 7 V whore central park halts the northward march of architectural glants prepared by national w D C brulc ESPITE its ita youth and experience D dand compared with london and the recent flow of sold gold toward the british capital now new york retains its position as the worlds lending leading banker new york to la a city of superlatives it Is mans incomparable fearl As aa incredible almost BB art that ants anta should have built the andes I 1 go up on tiny any high hotel roof after sunset and watch the city come to life by electric moons rainbow and fixed comets you see eee manhattan blazo blaze from dusk into gorgeous theatrical illumination its twinkling skyline ebbs and flows in tides or of tempo and color As each edifice melts into new lights and shadows all the architectural phantasmagoria 0 of the ages linked even with earths ancient scars seems to unfold in fancy you see it a phantom city a kaleidoscopic riot of alps alpa and acropolis ming tombs taj mahal and pyramids gibraltar panama canal tower of babel with grand canyon rind and yangtze gorges formed by street caverns far below cologne cathedral pikes peak and st reters a cht nese wall against a sahara desert of lamp lit sky iky towers ind and turrets mosques mos minarets mina domes steeples roof tanks and penthouses all heaped and crowding and seeming to burn as smoke sm oke moves in electric light next day from the th same high place see it again realistic noisy its streets crowded with traffic new york nover never rests higher glier and ever higher rise the skyscrapers their lc bulk their grace of geometric design their dizzy height and fearsome beauty at first they almost hint that mans monsters have hava run away with him stare up tip nt at such a building and it fairly dominates ones mind and body from their upper stories you see bits of fog floating by miles bailes to the east stretches long island to the south Is the statue of liberty and staten island inland to the wet west spreads now new jersey and to the north that part of the city beyond central park below lie mere pigmy structures of six alx and eight stories here and there up from among them other skyscrapers rise in this swiftly changing region of mid manhattan in their myriad windows one sees girls pounding typewriters or r powdering their noses but save for a faint metallic city hum from far below there Is no sound vertical travel Is immense Im monife these high buildings that visitors from all over the world stare at with such astonishment make new york what it to Is the supreme wonder of the modern world when the first skyscraper of only 0 ly 13 stories went up on lower lomei broadway people feared it those in adjacent houses moved out in alarm now higher and higher they go CO 00 60 70 85 stor st orlea lem so bo many there are and so high that today the vert iclal travel in new york actually exceeds the horizontal in other words elevators carry more vas pas engers than do aalthe air the surface cars elevated trains taxis busses and sub ways combined in one skyscraper 21 elevators cov jr ir a mileage equal to the run of the twentieth century limited from new york to chicago dally daily one ona of the big problems pro blema in new york Is getting the occupants of skyscrapers in and out on time the larger buildings hold anywhere from to and even workers wor kera in some are found people from practically every state tat in the union even with express elevators ele it takes nearly an hour to empty some of the larger buildings and net get the people away from the ground floor and entrances because of congested subways aub ways if they all came down at once it would pile people up op ten or twelve dep in this the streets around a building the new york skyscraper Is a city in itself with all a cites problems of traffic water heat beat lights sewage fire and police protection and cleaning its total floor area ernsts that of many a form farm to run the elevators of one of them requires a starter nix assistant starters 85 operators and a crew of ten maintenance men since water from fire hydrants hydra nta can be squirted upward only about 1150 feet and since firemen cannot drag a hose up 50 or 75 stories ft a skyscraper has its own upright water mains maim tanks and high preb sure pumps with an elaborate system of alarms and extinguishing apparatus beneath one building are 0 bles tor for busses from railway gliwa r terminals Tu tunnels anelis lead from it in many illren through them thousands of its if tenants arrive each morning moraine after many miles of underground travel and through them one on may wander as aa in the streets of a subterranean city in this human prairie dog town are more than CO 50 places to eat and stores selling everything from office supplies upp lles and lingerie to thermos bottles bott lea sunray lamps lampa cigars books and haberdashery from these commercial catacombs cata combs an one may ride all the way out to long island without ever coming into the open air speed in now new construction but now new yorks greatness groat great nees neos Is not in structure alone it lies also in the i speed at which life moves and new buildings displace the tha old this swift transition stuns even tho the blase now new yorker i troy was wrecked and rebuilt nine times here history repeats compare the skyline now with pictures of the same region made only ten years alro ago you will soe see that palatial homes have been demolished and whole res dence districts swept away to clear mites for higher buildings you see buU buildings dings like the famous waldorf As torla toria turn to junk and hard bard on the heels of its wreck come giants like the amazing empire state building to widen streets houses are sliced off in front as with giant shears four hundred buildings wrecked to extend a subway spur of dirt hauled to the river front and dumped to make a park below riverside niver side drive in cyclonic devastation whole neighborhoods bo ore are razed for new bridge approaches o pro aches swiftly tile the old landmarks fade only grants tomb and similar objects of sentiment seem safe it if even the sphinx stood on fifth avenue somebody would probably want to wreck it to build a skyscraper I 1 here Is no space for static things by many cuts and running it fast imagine this picture shown in say two or three conro hoars you would see old buildings crumbling down and new skyscrapers hastening heavenward pushing up like giant mushrooms it would be unendurable compared with medieval cities think how fast new york grows today in new york bricklayers may run walls up two stories in a day A building of 60 00 floors Is begun and fi an n lobed in about the same time it used to take a sioux to kill a buffalo and tan its hide for his bla wigwam between crowds rind and skyscrapers Is reciprocal affinity each bach la Is the cause of the other into that part of manhattan below fifty ninth street there comes to work every morning an army of people equal to the population of paris or Clil chicago cago no other spot on earth Is so crowd crowded led with men and houses it reminds you of one certain rock near a coast where cormorants gulls and pelicans pell cana all come to roost other islets are near but the chii fussing birds crowd and defile only their favorite rock they pack it so tight that it if one bird raises raise a wing to stretch another Is in pushed into the sea 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 to it so that still mill more men way may reach it hastily the passengers on its transport lines each year outnumber all the people in the world those passing through times square subway station alone last year equaled in number half balf the inhabitants of the western hemisphere so jammed Is fifth avenue now that in busy hours a man walking goes faster aster than a bus in many streets motors average less than four miles an hour new yorks fight to keep men and things in motion knows no lull it has built ft a great elevated express highway a novel thoroughfare many feet aboyo above the street it runs along the hudson river water front from canal street north to seventy second with ramps for access and egress at a few important cross town streets at sey sev enty second its outlet Is riverside drive think what this means to crowded new york I 1 A broad free path of two 30 foot roadways with no grade crossing able to carry from to motor mrs cars an hour at a speed of 85 nilles miles right over all congestion then theres now tunnel to run ander tidewater from brooklyn out to staten island it will tako take two to four years tn bore this bold submarine highway |