OCR Text |
Show MAKING LAND NEAR A BIG CITY. When the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad bought the largo tract of mareh at the edge of the sound near Hunt's Point and commenced com-menced filling it and Installing a storage stor-age plant for empty cars it was regarded re-garded as a costly experiment by those who could not penetrate tho future. fu-ture. They figured that hundrods of acres of high land could have been bought at a ligure that was not high and the expense of Uje fill could have been avoided. Tho railroad authorities authori-ties said nothing, but continued to reclaim re-claim tho marsh, and today they have some of tho most valuable realty along that portion of Long Island sound. The ground is as solid as tho highlands adjacent, and long since tho ashy fill at the bottom had become be-come incorporated with tho soft mud which made the ground almost Impassable Impas-sable spring and fall when the tides wore high and the creeks which Intersected In-tersected tho area wore bank full. Of course the railroad accomplished tho work of reclamation with ease and facility and at a price which would have baffled a prlvato Individ-ual. Individ-ual. With a lot of other work under way and a certain amount of material to be dlBpoecd of dally It waB a convenience con-venience to have a place In which to dump It, 30 that the work of lmpiovo-ment lmpiovo-ment accomplished a twofold purpo.se It was In line with the stunt put Into practice by a man who is now more or less prominently in tho public pub-lic eye through his promotion of a vaBt seaside project This man in tho early stage of his career as a contractor con-tractor and developer of properties undertook fo remove many thousand tons of earth in a hilly section which was being made ready for apartment house deolopnient. Before he signed the contract be found a man not far away with a large plot that was much below grade. This he offered to fill at a price that seemed ridiculously low, and tho owner lost no time in binding tho bargain. The man who wanted tho hillside reduced to grade thought he had a bargain, as th,e young contractor's figures were lower than those of any. of his competitors, so -all hands were content Between, what tho contractor got for removing; : the high laud and filling tho tow area , he made a handsome profit ' With, tho money thus won he commenced building houses and developing sections, sec-tions, until today ho is a conspicuous figure pronounced "lucky" by soma . and clover by '"others. On the Hudson river sido of Man- . hattan' beyond the Harlom rjver the New York Central railroad has .for many ears been reclaiming land, in fact, for more than fifty miles from . Now York the work of filling the edge . of the river with rock and surfacing -with earth and cinders has been in 'progress. Many sharp curves and dangerous areas ot trackage within the rnngo of cocklnll from tho contiguous con-tiguous mountains have been overcome over-come as a Jesuit of this work, which has been combated In certain quarters Tho roadbed of the railroad has been improved beyond question and travel is safer than ever beforcT -- What -the region beyond tho Harlem Har-lem will bo within the next twenty years Is not difficult o conjecture. Already tho territory clear to Yonkers is being developed" and the section beyond that city, which was once considered con-sidered scarcely a suburb, Is coming Into Its own with great rapidity. Vast fortunes have been made in realty within fifty miles of New York city hall and the man who listens to tho doddoring veteran who tells of the time he drove cows to pasture on his farm in Harlem may leave a heritage to his children and grandchildren, If he wills, by ln eating In real cstato In the greatest city on the American continent The manner in which tho Pinkney, Wat. Astor, Wondoll and other great estates have Increased In value Is an incentive to buy and forget for-get the existence of tho Investment until the opportune moment comes to realize Somebody once Eald, "there's nothing like leather" He might hac gone further and added "except land " New York Sun. -oo |