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A REPORT


ON THE
TERMINAL FACILITIES FOR HANDLING FREIGHT
OF THE
Railroads Entering the Port of New York:


ESPECIALLY OF THOSE RAILROADS HAVING DIRECT
WESTERN CONNECTIONS.
'TTIEN AND PREPARED FOR THE "RAIR   GATTTE
GRATZ MORDECAI.            *S
NEW YORK:
RAILROAD GAZETTE.
73 Broadway.
1885.




fransportatmua
Library
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Copyrighted, 1885, by GRATZ MORDECAI.




RAILROAD    TERMINAL FACILITIES
FOR
Handling     Freight at the      Port of New     York.
I NTRODUCTIO N.
It is evident that the work of moving freight on railroads consists in general of the operations of transporting or hauling, which
may be classed as " Work on the Road and at Division Yards," and
also of the operations of handling, or receiving and delivering,
which may be classed as " Work at Stations and Station Yards."
And it is equally evident that these two classes of work are distinct
both in methods of operation and management, for while the railroad companies have full control of all details of hauling, the work
of handling directly depends also upon the merchants, and their
commercial laws and business methods.
This division is not always clearly defined, either in railroad
work or accounts, but it is proposed herewith to make a distinct
separation and to give some notes on the terminal work alone of
some of the railroads entering the port of New York. It is not
intended to give complete details, but simply to give an idea of
the general methods; of the appliances used and the work done.
Very little description will be given of the clerical work, and none
at all of the management.
The freight handled by these railroad companies has been
divided into three general commercial classes':
Goods for local use and local storage: The terminal movement
of this class is east-bound, and is from the cars to the stores, markets, warehouses and factories, which last are generally situated
inland in New York, and on the water in Brooklyn and other
points.
Goods Fold in New York for shipment to the interior: The




4


terminal movement of this class is west-bound, and is from the
warehouses and factories to the cars.
Goods for direct export or import to other markets: The terminal movement of this class is both east-bound and west-bound,
and is between the vessels and the cars.
It should be remembered, however, that this terminal movement
in general is not always either direct or prompt, even where the
railroad tracks run to the warehouses and shipping docks. The
goods in general, whilst in the hands of the railroad companies, are
subject to the important operations of weighing and inspection by
the merchants, the commercial exchanges, and the railroad companies themselves, and in addition to this the final destination of
the east-bound freight is often uncertain. Hence the railroad
companies are frequently obliged to furnish room for temporary
storage in their freight houses, and it will therefore be well before
giving any details of operation to divide the freight handled at
stations and yards into the following terminal classes:
Class I.-Goods promptly handled in large lots and weighed,
either in the car by the railroads or in piece by the merchants,
such as machinery, lumber, coal, etc., both in-bound and out-bound.
The handling of this freight is a mere transfer to and from the
cars, often performed by the merchants, and on account of the
simplicity of this operation requires but a small expenditure of
room and labor. It is more open to the application of mechanical
contrivances, and it is the constant effort of all railroad companies
to enlarge the limits of this class of operations.
Class II.-Goods promptly handled, but re (quiring weighing by
the piece and sorting for destination by the railroad companies,
such as dry goods, groceries and other out-bound freight. The
handling of this freight requires more room and labor than the
first class, and any system of work or communication between the
railroads and the shippers by which the labor on this class of
operations can be diminished is worthy of consideration
Class I11.-Goods not promptly handled and requiring temporary
storage on account of inspection or uncertain destination, such as
grain, flour and other in-bound freight. The handling of this
freight requires much more room and labor than any other, and
machinery is applied to it as far as possible.
The hauling in this city is not done by the merchants except in
a few cases, and never by the railroad companies, but by third
parties, who own the drays and horses and contract for the work
at a fixed price per piece or per ton, according to the freight. The




5
drays hold from 3 to 4 tons of heavy freight for each 2-horse
team.
It is possible that the following description may suggest standard arrangements of both freight house and yards, and also help
to fix the approximate area necessary for the daily movement of
a given number of cars at country, city and seaport stations.
Terminal Works and Business of the New York Central &
Hudson River Railroad.
The general business of this road extends over connecting lines
to all parts of the Western states and Canada, and the railroad
proper with its branches traverses for a long distance a portion of
New York state, having a great variety of products and a rich and
enterprising population.
The Western freight business, known as the " Line Freight," is
managed by the following companies and organized agencies, each
using  special cars, viz: Merchants' Dispatch Transportation
Company, doing certain business over all connecting lines; the
Blue Line on the Michigan Central Railroad; the Canada Southern
Line over the Michigan Central Railroad exclusively; the Red Line
over the Lake Shore and Wabash Railroads, the Nickel Plate
Line over the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway; the White
Line ever the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis
Railway; the Midland Line over the Lake Shore and other
railroads. These lines are co-operative associations of railroad
companies, each road furnishing cars and receiving pay for the
work in proportion to its mileage in the route.
The New York state freight business, known as " State Freight,"
is managed by the local agents of the railroad and its branches
using New York Central & Hudson River Railroad cars.
The terminal freight stations of this road are:
The lighterage station and terminal yard at Sixtieth street, on
the Hudson River.
The city stations at Thirty-third street and at Barclay street,
both on the Hudson River, and the station at St. John's Park
(bounded by Beach, Laight, Hudson and Varick streets) and one
at Pier 5, East River.
The coal station is at Port Morris, at the entrance to Long
Island Sound.
The Brooklyn station is on the Williamsburgh docks.




6


* SIXTIETH STREET TERMINUS.-The freight tracks of
this railroad enter the city by running along the east bank of the
Hudson River, at the foot of a rocky bluff, until they reach
Seventy-second street, about 5 2 miles north of the Battery.
Between Seventy-second street and Sixtieth street, where they enter
and run along the city street (Eleventh avenue), the tracks, still
following the foot of a rocky bluff, skirt the lowlands which reach
out to the river channel; and on this convenient site within the city
limits, yet free from city streets and business, was located the
principal terminal yard, with its accompanying freight docks and
sheds, grain elevators and stock-yard, arranged as shown on Plate A.
The site was formerly under water, and unoccupied until '1877,
when Elevator A was built, and Elevator B in 1879. From  that
time the works were extended till 1882, when the last shed, "G,"
was built. The elevation of the main tracks is about 18 ft. above
mean high water, and the general level of the docks and yard is 8
ft. above the same level. Hence the yard tracks have io ft. fall
toward the river. The foot of the steepest part of this grade is
shown approximately by the dotted lines on the plan. The line of
the bulkhead wall follows a little west of and parallel to the line
of Twelfth avenue, and the piers extend from it at an angle of 60
degrees to the southwest. At low tide the water is i6 ft. deep at
the bulkhead. The total area of this property is about 57 acres, of
which the piers and elevators occupy six acres, the stock-yard and
abattoir 13 acres, store-house one acre, and yard 37 acres.
The original tracks leading to Elevator A were built on trestle
work, but when the yard room was extended it was filled with sand
brought by train from Croton, 37 miles up the river. Some ashes.and city refuse were used in the northern part of the yard and also
back of the bulkhead. The tracks are of good material, laid with
stub switches and rail frogs. There are 22 miles of track in this
yard (exclusive of the siding running north to Manhattanville, 2-4
miles), divided as shown on the plan. The bulkhead is constructed
*of timber crib work filled with stone, which was sunk in a trench
-dredged for the purpose. The cribs are about 40 ft. in height.
The piers are constructed of pile bents, 7 ft. o1 in. spans centre to
*centre, with an extra number of piles on the north line to protect
them from floating ice
The sheds on Piers D, E and F are used for transferring eastbound freight to lighters and vessels and for temporary storage.
They are two-story timber structures, sheeted with corrugated
iron; the general construction of these piers and sheds is indicated




7
on Plate B. There are no posts in the centre of the lower platform, the second story being supported by rods from the roof; the
floor joists are calculated to hold a load of 400 lbs. to the square
foot.
Shed G is of different construction and is used in transferring
west-bound freight from lighters and barges. It is only one-story,
and the tracks are on the outside, as shown on the plan and in
cross section on Plate B.
The piles for the foundation of Elevator A were driven regularly over the whole site about 2 2 ft. apart, and then cut off near
low water, and a platform strong enough to distribute the load laid
over the whole; from this platform stone piers were erected as
supports for the posts of the timber frame-work. The outside
walls of this elevator were built of brick work but slate has been
substituted for it in order to diminish the load on the foundation.
Elevator B has a somewhat different foundation.  The piles
were driven in clusters of 25 in a space IO x 1T and cut off about
30 ft. below the water. The stone piers to support the posts were
then built on separate platforms, suspended by rods and lowered
as the masonry was built. This elevator is constructed of timber
frame-work sheathed with corrugated iron and slate.
Each elevator cost about $500,000.
Operation of the Yard.-East-bound Freight.-The east-bound
freight train with cars for this station is switched from the main
line to the siding marked "section" where the road engine leaves
it, and the caboose is run to the track marked " caboose." The
" section" siding extends northward about 234 miles and is used
for the reception of trains in the busy season, but that section of
the track on which the trains in general arrive only holds one
train; therefore, the cars must be quickly distributed in the yard.
The way-bills are received in advance of the train, and hence the
contents and destination of the cars are known, and the number of
the track on which each car is to be run in the yard is at once
chalked on the side of the car; a man known as a "pin-puller"
draws the pins according to the destination in the yard, and the
great number of tracks allows of an excellent system of classification. Grain cars are sent on the tracks marked " grain-yard," and
there are also separate tracks for other staples, as a cotton track,
a tobacco track, flour tracks, and so on: thus the same kinds of
freight are kept together, saving much labor in the freight house.
The yard engine is run behind the train on the section track and
pushes the cars slowly forward, each section of the train as it is cut




8


off having a brakeman to control it. The only duty of the engine
is to push on its own track, for as the grade falls from each switch,.
the car runs to its destination without further aid. It is there
coupled to the car ahead of it, so that in case of fire the yard can
be quickly emptied. Each track is numbered in connection with
the letter of the pier, and it is the duty of one man to take and
keep in a book the position of every car from the bumper block on
every track throughout the yard.
The cars can be run from the yard tracks into the freight sheds
and elevators by gravity, although it takes an engine to put them
in position in the elevators and at shed G.
West-bound Freight.-After the cars are unloaded on the piers,
they are sorted on the tracks marked " empty yard," or in the
" west-bound yard" if they are to return west empty. The empty
cars are then delivered to the west-bound freight house G, first
according to the general arrangement of the house, which will
hereafter be shown, and then by the special orders of the foreman
of the pier, according to the freight which he has to load. On
account of the different lengths of the cars, it is often necessary touncouple in order to make the doors of the cars on both tracks
coincide; hence two engines work at a time, so that as soon as a
train of loaded cars is pulled out, a train of empty cars is pushed
in, thus causing little delay to the men in the house. All westbound cars from all stations are sorted on the 26 tracks marked
" west-bound yard."  The building of the store-house shorteped
the yard, so that none of the tracks hold a full train, but in other
respects it is very easily operated. The cars are delivered into it
by gravity, and each track is used for a special route and is designated by a number. The brakeman, as he enters this yard on a
car bound for a certain track, signals the number of the track by
hand signals to the three switchmen who control the yard, and the
whole work is done very quietly and systematically.
In pulling up the grade out of this west-bound yard, the yard
engines are obliged to assist the road engines. Trains are sent
out of this yard directly for Chicago, the only further yard work
being the changing of engines and cabooses on the different divisions.
Including both east-bound and west-bound, about 9oo loaded
cars are moved in one day, but with the same equipment i,ooo cars
are frequently handled. Each car, from the time it enters the yard
until it leaves to return, is moved eight times in the regular course
of business.




9
The following is the force at work:
Day.       Night.
Engineers......................................  4   4
Conductors.....................................  4   4
Locom otives...................................  4   4
Brakem en.....................................  35  35
Switchm en....................................  28  28
Pin-pullers.....................................  4   4
C halkers......................................  1   1
Car  record  clerks..............................  4  4
Yard-masters  (assistants).......................  4  4
Yard-master.................................  1      1
There is an assistant yard-master each for the east-bound, grain,
and empty yards.     The regular yard engine weighs about 26 2
tons, all on four drivers, the total weight, with tender loaded, being
about 40 tons; it consumes about 4 tons of coal in 24 hours.
This whole force is largely increased during the busy winter
months, eight engines being sometimes in use.
Operation of the Piers in General.-Almost all the railroad business with the New York city docks, and all the business with the
Brooklyn storehouses and other points in the harbor, is done by
means of lighters or barges, generally holding about 450 tons.
There are two lighters used by this company for quick delivery of
small lots of freight, which have both steam-hoisting and propelling apparatus, but, as a general thing, the lighters are moved by
separate propellers.
Ocean steamers and large vessels having regular docks do not
leave them. The tracks of this railroad enter some of these docks,
but, for reasons mentioned in the introduction, the movement of
freight is not always direct, and even with bulk cargoes the freight
is transferred by lighters. Grain is transferred from the lighters to
the vessels by floating steam elevators, and miscellaneous freight
by steam-hoisting apparatus, either on the vessels or on the shipping dock, where they are very general.
Independent sailing and steam vessels which have no regular
docks transfer freight directly at these railroad docks, however;
hence the slips are kept to a sufficient depth for this work.
About eight years ago, before these piers were constructed, all
the city lighterage was carried on at the Thirty-third street station,
and the export lighterage of grain, and other "bulk" freight from
Athens, about 115 miles up the river, and only 30 miles below
Albany.
Operation of tAf  East-bound Freight Piers C, D, E and F.-Pier
C is out of the way, and is not used now    except in case of necessity.  Pier D is used for east-bound miscellaneous freight, such as
provisions and manufactures, and occasionally for some west-bound




Io


freight, such as railroad iron transferred directly from vessels.
Pier E, a section of which is shown on Plate B, is almost entirely
devoted to export dry freight, snch as flour in sacks, and oil cake,
etc. On pier F are handled barreled flour and other freight for
local use or storage. All export flour is inspected on these docks,
and the Produce Exchange (representing the combined merchants
of the port) requires of the railroads five days' storage for this purpose. In i883, 2,552,88i barrels of flour were brought to New
York by this railroad.
On all these piers the freight is moved by hand trucks (except
barrels, which are rolled on the floor), but the operation of the
yard and the fact of the freight coming in large lots avoids long
trucking to a considerable extent.
The second stories of the sheds on Piers D, E and F are in constant use, the freight, mostly flour, being elevated in each by six
Bates automatic elevators, which are hinged sheet-iron platforms,
mounted on endless iron chain belts, similar in operation to a grain
elevator. As it requires an additional gang of men to handle the
freight on the second floor, the first floor is used in preference.
The elevators are very economical, however, and save the work of
piling the freight, as the second floor more than doubles the storage area. The elevators in each house are worked by one engine
of 45 horse-power, i6 X 24 in. cylinder, at about 40 lbs. pressure
and 70 revolutions per minute. Each engine has an adjustable
cut-off, regulating the amount of steam used to the work required.
At the usual rate of speed, each elevator raises in actual practice,
including the movement of the cars, 5oo barrels an hour. The
freight is lowered by the same contrivance, except that no steam is
used; the weight of the load carries it down, the speed being regulated by a foot brake on the second floor, (nd 5oo barrels an hour
are lowered by each leg per hour in the regular course of work.
Most of the freight is moved to the lighters by hand trucks, but
when the tide is low (as indicated on Plate B), the deck of the vessel is considerably below the level of the dock, and the freight is
slid down a plank from the dock stick and packed by another gang
-of men on the lighter.
The total floor area of sheds D, E and F is 234,500 square feet,
which will accommodate a daily movement of I50 cars, or about
1,500 ft. per car, which is probably equivalent to an average storage of four days.
Barreled oil is handled on the platforms between the oil tracks,
the barrels being easily rolled along on top of two lines of rails




II


laid i6 in. apart, and thus moved to and from the lighters at the
bulkhead.
Export timber is transferred to lighters at the bulkhead track
back of the round-house.
The coal wharf is for transferring locomotive coal from lighters.
Live stock is run directly into the stock yards; as these and the
abattoir are operated by a separate company, no description will
be given of them.
The tracks near the office, marked "bulk," are used for car-loads
of east-bound freight, such as lumber, received for local use in this
part of the city.
Organization.-East-bound Freight.-There are employed on each
of the docks D, E and F one engineer (one of whom also works
the steam derrick on F and G); 30 laborers, who are paid by the
time worked, 17 cents an hour; two tallymen, and one clerk.
A slip is made out for each consignment in the car and checked
by the tallyman as the car is unloaded; it is then sent to the main
office and destination marked on it, and the goods shipped accordingly. The tallyman also records in a book the freight as it is
unloaded from each car. The regular work of the men on the
east-bound freight is to unload the cars and pile the freight in the
house, and to load the freight stored in the house into the regular
company barges. Taking both these operations into account, a
good average work in ten hours is the unloading of a car of freight
to each laborer, but it varies greatly according to the freight and
the room in the house. Twenty-five men will unload 50 cars of
oil, and taking the whole work, the average work of a man would
probably be from iX to i  cars a day.
West-bound Frezight.-Tlhe lay-out of the west-bound freight
house G is shown on accompanying cut. The greater part of the
work at this house is done at night, as most of the freight is collected during the day at the Brooklyn, Jersey City and New York
city docks, arrives at this dock in lighters about 7 p. m., and is
unloaded, sorted, weighed and loaded in cars generally before
4 o'clock in the morning, and is always on the road before
7 o'clock. The house is nicely whitewashed and admirably lit by
electric lights, 30 of which are distributed around the works, the
company operating its own machine on the premises.
Five regular boats run to this house every night. One boat
carries line freight from the Barclay street dock; it is unloaded at
doors Nos. 3 and 4. Another barge brings state and line freight
from Pier 5, East River, and is unloaded at doors Nos. i and 2.




12


Another carries sugar from the Williamsburgh refinery, 2,000o
barrels at a time, and is unloaded at doors Nos. 5 and 6. Another
boat carries coffee from Brooklyn store-houses, and still another during the day brings miscellaneous freight from Brooklyn. There is
frequently, also, a barge from the Jersey City sugar refineries.
There are also a great many irregular boats from the docks and
warehouses of the port, but the above are almost constant.
Lighters carrying freight which does not require weighing or
sorting lie on the north side of the pier, and the freight is transferred directly over the narrow, uncovered platform. On this platform are two steam derricks, capable of handling pieces up to four
tons in weight, such as barrels of soda ash and sugar, and paper
stock. There are no quick-acting derricks for smaller freight,
however, and that kind is unloaded by hand, unless the lighter has
a steam hoist and gaff boom, in which case quick delivery can be
made. Five hundred barrels an hour can be regularly raised in the
last-mentioned way with one boom. Miscellaneous freight is unloaded on the south side from the barges into the house by hand
trucks, which are run up to the gangways shown on the right-hand
side of the plan. The lift is very variable, and at low tide men
are stationed in each gangway to help the truckmen, but these
additional men are afterward used in the regular gang loading the
cars. The gangways coincide with the doors in the barges, and
the truckmen enter the boat by one gangway and haul out by the
other. The sugar boats are unloaded by rolling the barrels, and
at low tide two men are necessary in the gangway to each barrel.
Twenty men can unload 2,000 barrels in two hours when the tide
is high, and in four hours when the tide is low.
As a general thing, the freight requiring sorting is first handled;
at the head of the incoming gangway is a switchman, who tells the
truckmen at what number to put the freight, each number designating a certain place and route. After the freight is sorted it is
loaded, which is done one car at a time by each gang of six men
and a tallyman. The tallyman, who stands at the scales, has the
duplicate shipping bills, which have been sorted in the office, and
those for each car put in a separate envelope. These envelopes
are indorsed, stating car, route, tallyman, etc., and when the car is
loaded the envelope is taken to the office, the indorsement recorded
in a book, and a memorandum way-bill made out, and all compared
afterward by the man who cards the car. The duties of the tallyman are to weigh each package and put the weight and tally on the
duplicate bill. He simply follows and checks the duplicate receipt;




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14


he does not make an independent record from inspection of the
package, and thus avoids errors in description of the freight and
works quickly, except in cases where the freight is piled so that it
is hard to follow the order of the shipping bills, which is very
seldom the case in this house. In handling sugar or other freight.
which comes in large lots, but so mixed in the loading in the barge
as to require sorting, the lay-out of the house cannot be adhered
to, and hence the foreman of the house instructs the yard-man how
to deliver the cars.
Twenty-eight cars are loaded at a time, the north string being
loaded first.
The total area of shed G is 28,600 square feet, which will accommodate a daily (12 hours) movement of 120 cars, of nearly 240
square feet per car; hence the movement of this freight is so rapid
that it requires no more room to weigh and sort it than is necessary
to haul it in the car.
Organization- West-bound Freight.-The night force is generally
85 laborers and 20 foremen, tallymen and clerks, and the average
work is the loading of 120 cars in io hours. The day force is 20
men, and in 24 hours I60 cars are loaded at this pier.
The work at this pier is well arranged and concentrated. The
freight comes in large barge-loads and not by the dray-load, as at
city stations, and hence the men are kept steadily at a regular
routine and work effectively.
Operation of the Grain Elevators.-The use of the elevator is
not for the simple transfer of grain, for that work could be done by
much simpler apparatus. The laws of trade require that grain be
stored and weighed, and sometimes cleaned, by the railroad or
allied companies, and though it is possible that the average storage
is not over 10 days in length, in some cases it is extended; hence,
for a storage longer than 10 days an additional rate per bushel is
charged. The great size and consequent cost of these buildings
are caused, then, by a commercial necessity. Fortunately, it is
found possible to apply machinery and classification to the work,
and hence this great freight movement is carried on with relative
economy and by a standard system, the general operation of which
is well known.
Elevator A is used for handling small lots of grain and is located
along the bulkhead and delivers to vessels on the river side and
elevates grain from canal boats at the south end. The east and
middle tracks, each holding 11 cars, are used for east-bound cars,
and from them the grain is elevated. Grain to be shipped out on




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cars is loaded on the west or river track; the grain is delivered to
them by spouts running from the outside spouts which deliver to
the vessels. There are eleven shipping bins on the water side,
reached by the spouts from the shipping scales and also from the
receiving scales, which is necessary when there is a direct transfer
from the car to the vessel. The capacity of each of the scales has
lately been increased to 60,ooo lbs. in order to weigh a car-load,
which now sometimes amounts to 50,000 lbs. The shipping bins,
which are used to regulate the delivery and make it independent
of the raising and weighing, are not full-sized bins. They only
extend down to the height at which the spouts leave the building.
The delivery from the bins on the east half of the building is
made by means of the conveying belts shown, which carry the
grain to the shipping elevators. These belts were originally intended to make city deliveries on the east side, but they are now
run in the opposite direction. They are on a floor below the
bottom of the bins and above the track. The storage capacity of
Elevator A is 1,5oo,ooo bushels.
Elevat.,r B.-This elevator is used for large lots of grain, is
located on its own pier and has 15 shipping bins on each side and
o1 shipping and io receiving and 5 screening elevators; these
last are above the bins. Its storage capacity is 1,500,000 bushels.
Organization and Wo'-k.-Besides the Superintendent and his
clerks, there are in each elevator on this track floor i foreman, i
wharfmaster, 22 men with shovels (Elevator B, 20), i man opening
cars. i machinery man.
Engine Room. —  engineer, I fireman, day; i fireman, night;
i oiler (boy).
Scales Floor.-i receiving weighman, 2 shipping weighmen, i
spoutman and helper, i man sweeping bins, i man attending shipping bins, i man attending screen.
Top Floor.-i machinery man.
About 9.ooo000,000 bushels of grain were delivered by this railroad in 1883.
Elevator A has raised 306 cars of grain in one day. The
average receipts of both elevators are about ioo cars a day;
256,000 bushels have been delivered from Elevator A in one day,
and nearly as much could be done by Elevator B; but for a week's
run, taking-into account the movement of the boats and other
delays, 90,000 bushels for A and 80,000 bushels for B would be
good work. This would require 10 tons of coal for A and about
7'2 for B. The total average consumption for the year is io tons




'7
a day. TIhe boilers of B furnish steam for the engines which run
the elevators in sheds D and E; the engine in shed F, the electric
light engine and the steam derricks are supplied by a separate
boiler using about 5 tons a day.
THLIRTY-THIRD STREET TERMINUS.-The general
arrangement Of this yard and the adjacent freight sheds, etc., is
shown on Plate A. The freight yard is on the Hudson River, 4Y2
miles north of the Battery and two miles south of the Sixtieth street
yard. The works have grown uip around the oid passenger and
freight station of the Hudson River Railroad, and have been
enlarged as necessity required, and, as shown on the lolan, the site
is intersected by several city streets. There are about 26 acres in
the whole property. The new piers have not yet been constructed
and no plan of permanent occupation has been adopted; hence in
these respects it is a contrast to the Sixtieth street terminus. It is
conveniently located as a city station for the uptown trade and a
large proportion of the manufacturing districts.
A branch track at Forty-first street, about half a mile to the
north, runs into a large slaughter house and pork-packing works.
On the south, a double-track branch runs down Eleventh avenue
to Twenty-seventh street, about a quarter of a mile, and along this
branch (which is used for transferring car-load freight) are lumber
yards and iron works. There is also a siding about I 20 ft. long on
Tenth avenue, about a mile south, just below Twelfth street and
near the vegetable market, and another (half a mile further south,
on West street), 3,000 ft. long, between Barrow and Spring streets,
with branches into the piers of the White Star, Inman and Guion
lines of transatlantic steamers.
There are about six miles of sidings in the yard and piers.
There is nothing to be noted in the construction of these piers
and sheds, for, as the piers are not permanently located, the old
sheds have simply been kept in running order, and such changes
in the track made as found necessary.  After the Manhattan
Market (built by the city) was burned, this company bought the
site and erected two-story brick buildings along the streets, divided
by brick partitions into rooms about 6o ft. square. They have
platforms on both the track and street sides. The hay sheds are
wooden sheds covered with corrugated iron, open on the track
side and with doors on the streets.
Operation of the Yard.-The Thirty-fourth street yard is used to
distribute cars both to the sheds here and the down-town stations.
The car floats running to the Barclay street pier are loaded and




i8


unloaded here, and the cars to and from the large city station at St.
John's Park and the steamship docks are moved from this yard.
The trains on the Hudson River division come solid for this
station, the cars being arranged in the train at Albany according to
destination, all the cars for each of the down-town stations being
together. The road engine leaves the train at the Seventy-second
street engine-house, and the Thirty-third street yard engine hauls
a train of 20 cars to Thirty-third street, returning empty for another
train. The details of the operation of the yard are as far as
possible the same as at Sixtieth street. The yard is smaller and not
arranged in a general plan, and no west-bound cars are sorted here.
The St. John's Park freight is handled on tracks marked " P,"
the Barclay street on "B," etc. South of this yard dummies are
used, each moving io cars to the steamship docks and St. John's
Park station.
The total force in the yard night and day each consists of four
engines and 75 men, handling 250 west-bound and 325 eastbound loaded cars a (lay.
The io dummies used here are covered tank-engines, weighing
about 24 tons. Six are in constant use, two working at St. John's
Park, and one to the steamship docks. These latter are flagged
by a boy riding on a horse in front of the train. There are 33
train-men and yard-men employed in the dummy department.
One engine is kept on east-bound trains and another on westbound trains between this yard and the Sixtieth street yard, with
seven flagmen stationed at the principal street crossings. The
speed of these trains is not greater than five miles an hour.
Operation of the Frcizght Iouses in General.-A large quantity and
a great variety of local business is done at these yards, and also a
considerable lighterage business in provisions and lumber. This
station is conveniently located for supplies actually consumed in
the city, and is near tie store houses both by land and by water,
whilst the down-town business consists largely of westward shipments of goods by foreign importers or commission merchants.
Pier I (the most southerly) is used for lighterage freight. The
south platform is used largely for tobacco in hogsheads, and the
north platform almost exclusively for the business of a Western firm
dealing in boxed meat, transported in refrigerator cars. Their
agent sells in the city, and it is delivered either for foreign
export or local use. The floor area is 42,000 square feet. Sixty
cars are handled here in a day, or 700 square feet per car. The
average length of storage is about two days.




I9


Pier 2.-The position of the track allows for direct transfer to
lighters on the north side and to platform on the south. Lumber
and provisions are mostly handled here. The floor area is i6,ooo
square feet. Thirty-five cars can be handled here in a day.
Pier 3 is uncovered, and is used for the direct transfer of carload lots-lumber mostly. Heavy freight is handled at the end
of the pier by the ten-ton derrick, worked by hand.
Shed B.-This is for miscellaneous east-bound freight for local
use. The freight is unloaded and piled in the shed till removed
by the consignee. The floor area is 20,0ooo0 square feet, and 40
cars can be handled here conveniently in 12 hours, or 500 square
feet per car, showing an average storage of I /2 days.
Hay shed No. r is for storing such.hay as is not directly delivered to consignees.
Hay shed No. 2 is the regular hay market, and is leased in sec —
tions to the hay dealers, who unload their own cars. The only
work required of the railroad company is to arrange the cars in
the train according to the consignee's location in the shed. About
4,000 bales, or 40 cars, are handled every day, on an average,
throughout the year.
Manhattan Market.-The building on Thirty-fourth street is entirely devoted to the potato business, and is operated in the same
way as the hay business. The average number of cars unloaded
here is 55 cars a day for the months of September, October, November and December. There are also received here during the
same months about five cars of turnips and five cars of cabbage
every day. On the Thirty-third street side are the dealers in beef,
slaughtered and dressed in Chicago, and transported in refrigerator
cars, each piece hanging from the roof. It is here run, suspended
from overhead tracks, into refrigerator rooms, where it is kept till
sold. They average I30 pieces of t6o lbs., or about io tons to a
car-load.
Shed A.-This is for west-bound freight delivered by city drays.
Its floor area, including the wide platform which is used for a
truckway, is 0o,ooo square feet, on which 70 cars can be conveniently handled in 12 hours, or I50 square feet per car.
The general operation is similar to that of Pier G, Sixtieth
street, except that the freight comes in dray-loads throughout the
day. Car-load lots of west-bound freight are loaded directly on
the cars on the "bulk" tracks. There is one six-ton hand derrick
in the yard.
There are 8i laborers, checkmen, etc., employed on the east-,




20


bound freight, working i i hours a day and handling 95 cars on the
docks and in the sheds.
On west-bound freight there are 20 laborers and tallymen, handling 65 cars and working I hours. A large portion of this freight
is loaded directly on the cars, and does not pass through the freight
house.
BARCLA Y STREET STA TION.-This station is on the
BARCLAY ST. STATION..ialer. J.Vnvfac&ters.


WEST         ST.
Hudson River, at the foot of Barclay street, which runs west'from
the Post Office. It is one mile north of the Battery. It faces
on West street, and is convenient to the manufacturers, agents and
storehouses in the lower part of the city.




21


The pier and bulkhead are covered with a wooden shed covered
with corrugated iron, with a wooden lattice truss roof in 66 feet
spans on bulkhead and 50 feet on pier.
Operation.-This station was established about I878, in order to
relieve the St. John's Park city station. All the way state freight
west of Albany and car-loads on Hudson River Division are
handled here, to and from the car floats running to Thirty-third
street, and west-bound line freight is floated by barge to Pier G,
Sixtieth street. *The method of transporting the cars themselves
to the piers on floats saves one handling, and is probably cheaper,
and is certainly quicker, than to load the freight promiscuously on
a barge and then unload and sort it and afterward load it on the
cars.
The east-bound freight is unloaded from the floats and piled on
the south side of the pier, leaving the north side for a wagon way.
The freight is delivered, so far as the railroad company is concerned, when it is piled on the dock, and the consignees load and
haul it. The total floor area is 6o,ooo square feet; wagon way,
i6,ooo; and area devoted to east-bound business, 20,000 square
feet, on which 50 cars of general merchandise can be conveniently
handled in a day, showing a quick average movement. Large
quantities of apples are delivered here in the fall, probably 30 cars
a day, and 175,ooo barrels in a good season.  These are transferred directly to the drays.
West-bound. —Drays with solid loads of line freight drive directly
on the bulkhead and unload near the barge, the weighing and sorting being done at Pier G, Sixtieth street.
Drays having mixed freight, however, unload at the West street
face, and the goods are loaded on hand trucks and immediately
passed over the scales. The sorting is not done by piling on the
floor; the freight is trucked directly from the scales to the floats,
where the tallymen (generally two to a float) tell the truckmen in
what car to put it. The tallyman tallies on the duplicate bill sent
to him from the scales.
The tracks (on the float), generally six on west-bound business,
and holding 30 cars, are necessarily arranged at right angles to the
receiving platforms. The advantage in operation over the usual
arrangement of a platform parallel to and on the side of the track
is as follows: In a large city, where goods are sent to, say, 60 different stations and routes, it is often impossible, on account of want
of room in freight house and yard, to lay out a platform on a fixed
arrangement, and work both drays and cars in harmony, in order




22


to attain the best theoretical arrangement of the dray unloading
opposite its proper car. Even if this arrangement is attempted, it
would not allow for a dray-load of goods mixed in destination,
which necessarily occurs in using the large drays of New York.
By the arrangement we are now considering, however, the freight
is immediately weighed and trucked in one direction, and with only
one handling, into the car.
The disadvantage is the long haul, averaging 250 ft., with an
average load of about 200 lbs. to the man. Only a certain number
of men can work to advantage, and in busy times the goods are
not trucked away as fast as unloaded from the drays, and hence
there is delay and a blockade of drays.
One way to avoid this is, first, to take a short haul and sort and
pile the freight in the bulkhead shed, and then take the long haul
to the floats afterward, which is done at some piers. If any sort
of machinery could be used to do the long hauling, this arrangement of freight house might be applied with advantage in other
circumstances. It would be, however, a mixture of machine and
hand labor, which might be difficult to regulate, and even after the
goods were thoroughly sorted, on account of the tallying and loading, probably only one car could be loaded at a time. To be sure,
the varying heights of the floats caused by the rising and falling of
the tides would make it more complicated to apply such machinery
here, even if it were practicable otherwise; and it could certainly
best be applied economically at stations exclusively devoted to
freight moving in one direction.
The average force at work is:
14 clerks.
24 tallymen, weighmen, etc.
40 truckmen, 11 hours a day.
Handling:
30 cars east.
30 cars west.
Though in the busy times, as in the apple season, there are 9o
laborers and 70 cars of east-bound freight and 50 west-bound.
PIER 5-FREIGHT STATION.-This consists of three
piers about 60 ft. wide and 400 ft. long, situated on the East
River, a quarter of a mile north of the Battery. It is mostly used
for flour, the railroad depots for which are generally in this neighborhood.
Pier 5 is covered with an ordinary wooden shed, built in i6 ft.
sections, with a door in alternate sections.  The barrels are




23
occasionally piled five tiers high, though this brings a heavy weight
on the bottom barrels; there is then a distributed load of 280 lbs.
per square foot of floor.
Operation- [test-Bound.-Pier 4 (uncovered) is generally used
simply as a wharf for a barge. The drays are unloaded directly
into the barge which runs to pier G, Sixtieth street. The business
is miscellaneous freight, and amounts sometimes to 200 tons a day.
Eat —BouZnd.-The Produce Exchange requires the railroad to
give five days' storage for flour for inspection; this is done for
local trade, mostly at this station, where it comes in barges from
Sixtieth street station, for city and Brooklyn delivery to merchants,
bakers, etc. It changes hands on this wharf, and its average
length of storage is five days. The necessary handling is done by
rolling the barrel on the floor, one man to a barrel. The barges
are unloaded by railroad workmen, but the city drays are loaded
by the drivers and longshoremen. Eighteen thousand barrels have
been on this wharf at one time on 34,000 square feet, neglecting
the wagon way of 8,o00 square feet.
Pier 6 is uncovered and used mostly for handling flour, which is
protected when necessary by tarpaulins.
STEAMSHIP DOCKS.-Single-track. branches run into the
docks of the White Star, Inman and Guion lines. They are on the
Hudson River, facing West street, about two miles north of the
Battery and two miles south of the Thirty-third street yard. The
business is mostly east-bound freight, largely cheese and provisions,
consigned for direct-export. During the busy season the business
amounts to 20 cars a day for each line.
ST. JOHN'S     PARK-FREIGHT         STATION.- This is
shown on accompanying cut, and is situated in the city about I,200
ft. from the Hudson River, 2Y2 miles south of Thirty-third street
yard, 4Y2 miles south of Sixtieth street, and i 2 miles north of the
Battery. It is conveniently located for the dry-goods and grocery
trades, and is the principal shipping point of west-bound freight
from the jobbers.
It occupies the site of a former private park, and is surrounded
by streets about 80 ft. in width. The tracks enter it on curves of
about i60 ft. radius; there is one short siding on Hudson street,
but no yard. The building was erected in 1868. It occupies four
acres, and has o.6 mile of track, or eight tracks capable of holding
2 cars apiece, making a total of 96 cars inside. The tracks occupy
36,000 square feet; driveways, 27,000 square feet.
The foundations of the walls are stone masonry and concrete';




24


the foundations of the posts are separate piers, in some cases i6
ft. deep. It is a three-story fire-proof building of brick walls, iron
columns and beams, and flooring of brick arches, of 3 ft. spans.
The second and third floors are used as a general warehouse. The
door sills for receiving and delivering from drays are 27 in. above
LA^  4iT      ST.


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L- i 1- Y


BEACH            ST.
the street, and the track platforms are 3 ft. 9 in. high above the top
of rail, which will allow of the opening of a hinged door to a refrigerator car. The light comes from openings indicated by the
dotted lines. At night it is lit by gas. The doors are iron and




25
fold vertically, entering a recess in the jamb. They are 6 ft. 6 in.
wide. The building was originally constructed to allow the wagons
to enter and load and unload directly from the platforms, but two
tracks were subsequently removed, and the house arranged as
shown. No. i platform is paved with wooden blocks like a wooden
pavement. Platform No. 2 is plank. Platform No. 3 is paved
with stone blocks, and teams drive in on it, leaving by the same
door they enter. Platform No. 4 is also stone blocks. Platforms
5 and 6 are plank.
Opera/ion.-East-bound.-The loaded cars, which are brought
from Thirty-third street, are arranged in the train according to the
destination in the house, and run into the house by two dummies
kept at this station. As soon as freight arrives in the station,
messengers are sent to notify consignees through the business part
of the city south of Houston street. The drayman goes to the office and is told on what platform he can find his freight, and gets
a pass which admits him to the building. The delivery clerk
(whose duty it is to note where each car is unloaded on the platform) delivers the goods and gets a receipt in a book. As each
car is unloaded the contents are recorded in a book by a checkman.
Platform No. 6 is largely used for small farm produce-butter,
eggs, etc.
Platform No. 5 is mostly used for cheese. This comes consigned to commission merchants who have no ware-rooms, hence
the cheese changes hands on this platform. That which is sold
for export is repacked and branded. A large quantity is also sent
to what are known as cold stores, some of which are in the building. They are here operated by condensing anhydrous ammonia
by steam engines to about I50 Ibs. pressure, and then letting it
expand in pipes through the building. The refrigerator rooms are
thus kept at different temperatures, ranging down to 20 degrees
and even lower. The work on these platforms, 5 and 6, takes 400
square feet per car-load a clay.
Platform No. 3 is for both east and west-bound car-load freight
-machinery, fruit, hides, leather, etc. As there is no storage
room for cars, this movement must be prompt, and it consignees
do not unload the cars they are returned to Thirty-third street.
The drays drive directly to the car.
Platform No. 4 is used in handling general merchandise, mostly
manufactures.
West-bound Freight.-Platforms Nos. i and 2 are laid out as
shown. The drays with freight for this station form into a long




26


line down Laight to Canal street, along Canal to West Broadway,
and then up South Fifth avenue, and as places are opened at the
freight house they unload the freight on the platform. No draysare allowed to join the line after 5 P. hi., and there are generally
80 left in line at that time during the busv season. The only classification made by the draymen is that they are obliged to unload
"line" freight on Platform No. i, and "state" freight south of
Albany on Platform No. 2. As the goods are unloaded at the
most convenient place for the draymen, they are sorted for distribution after being weighed. The weighman tells the truckman
the number of the column at which he is to leave the package, and
it is loaded on the cars from these piles. As a general thing, as
there is no yard at this place, the cars cannot be arranged according to the freight; consequently a good deal of labor and trucking
is required to get it into the car. The freight for some firms in
the West who have large daily shipments is put together at a certain place, and a car always left there, and, in general, great care
is used to prevent long trucking. The handling of west-bound
freight takes about 200 square feet to a car.
The method of loading and tallying is much the same as at Sixtieth street.
It may be well to note here that though a box can hold ten tons
of miscellaneous merchandise, the average load is about six tons,
as many stations require only part of a car-load as a general thing.
This may be partly avoided by transfer stations at distributing
points, but the work of transferring necessarily takes time, and, as
promptness is one great element in railroad work, the establishment of these transfer stations is regulated more by the demands
of business and competition than by the cost of operating. A long
haul to a distributing point and short hauls beyond it may be
favorable, or a comparatively short haul to a very large distributing point with many distinct long hauls beyond it. These transfer
stations may be made to increase the average load of cars, and also
their regularity in running, and it is probable that they are constantly attracting more attention from railroad managers.
The average total force employed at this station is: In the office,
30 clerks, messengers, etc.; and in the house, 300 laborers, tallymen.
scalesmen, etc. The laborers are paid 17 cents an hour, and are
worked only as needed. The average daily time at this station is
about 12 hours.
On west-bound freight business, in busy seasons, the average
work is 75 cars on Platform No. i, 45 on No. 2, and 20 on No. 3.




27
On east-bound business it is about 45 cars a day on each of the
Platforms No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6.
IN BROOKL YN, the Williamsburgh station is simply a covered
pier for east-bound freight, on which the wagons drive and unload
directly on the barge.
Refined sugar in barrels is the principal freight. One agent and
about ten men are employed here.
LIGHTERAGE.-The lighterage equipment is as follows:
io tugs for towing.
2 propellers carrying freight for quick delivery and having
steam-hoisting machines.
33 barges, two of which have steam-hoisting machines.
40 canal boats for grain lighterage.
7 car floats.
This fleet is largely increased in busy times. It is managed by
a private company.
TERMINAL        WORK      IN  GENERAL.-It will be seen that
this work, employing daily I,300 men, 30 engines of all kinds, and
92 vessels, and using IIo tons of coal for handling 1,200 cars of
freight a day, is carried on throughout with promptness and with
the greatest attention to details.
If it is not perfect in its methods, it is more the fault of general
arrangement than anything else, and it would seem that if any
further improvement were possible in the work, it can only come
from the further concentration of certain kinds of business and
classes of work.
This can best be done permanently and effectually from full and
accurate information and with the hearty co-operation of the mer.
chants.
The following is a separation of expenses estimated from the
annual report of this railroad company for the year 1883:, —Freight Expenses chargeable to ---
Class of Expenses.  Road work.    Station work.     Total.
Operating.
Office.....................  $24,688   $25,000       $49,688
Agents...................  22,398     940,000       962,398
Labor at stations................  1,515,982      1,515,982
Switchmen...............  393,509     100,000       493,509
Fuel at water stations.....  31,293     10,000        41,293
Conductors, etc...........  480,361    100,000       580,361
Enginemen, etc...........  805,863     100,000       905,863
Fuel...................... 1,329,617   200,000      1,529,617
Oil.......................  136,706    30,000       166,706
Loss and damage.........  236,853       27,000       263,853
Salaries..................  94,705     20,000       114,705
Lighterage, rents, etc.....  62,904   900,000       962,904
Hire of cars..............  456,465     50,000      1,506,465
$5,075,362    $4,017,982     $9,093,344




28
— Freight Expenses chargeable to —
Class of Expenses.  Road work.   Station work.     Total.
Brought forward........ $5,075,362  $4,017,982   $9,093,344
Maintenance of road.
Road bed................. 1,497,609   166,400      1,664,009
Fences...................  20,050      2,000        22,050
Rails....................  493,190    8,000       501,190
Repairs to buildings.....  45,812     200,000       245,812
Taxes....................  535,763   110,000       645,763
2,592,424       486,400     3,078,824
Maintenance of cars
Repairs of engines........  636,368  120,000       756,368
Repairs of cars........... 1,727,630  300,000      2,027,630
Repairs of tools, etc......  68,366     7,000        75,366
Incidentals...............  126,003    14,000       140,003
2,558,367       441,000     2,999,367
Total................$10,226,153  $4,945,382  $15,171,535
The total ton-mileage was 2,200,896,700, which gives an average
cost of road work of 0.46 cent per ton-mile.  The number of trainmiles was about II,ooo,ooo, or 92 cents per train-mile.
The number of tons hauled was 10,392,440, or about 45 cents
for station work per ton hauled.  But as the tons hauled were not
all handled (some going to and from Boston and other places), it is
likely, especially on account of the very heavy necessary expenses
at New York, that the average cost of handling merchandise freight
at this port is fully 60 cents per ton, the average cost of labor
alone on this freight being about 30 cents per ton.
The cost of hauling on the Hudson River Division would be,
according to the average rate (say I50 miles multiplied by 0.46
cent per mile), equal to 69 cents per ton, and it is quite likely, for
various reasons, that it is not actually more than 65 cents on the
Hudson River Division.
Hence it costs nearly as much per ton to handle freight at
New York as it does to haul it between Albany and New York.
In regard to the time occupied in the terminal movement of
freight, it is probable that the average time consumed in this work
is nine hours on west-bound freight, from the time it is received at
the freight station to its departure on the road
As regards the amount of room necessary in freight houses,
the information given in this single description would seem to
indicate that at lighterage stations west-bound freight promptly
handled, weighed and sorted, requires the same amount of room
in the freight houses as in the car; and for east-bound freight, with
longer temporary storage, six times the amount of room in the
freight house that it does in the car. At city stations, west-bound
freight promptly handled requires about three-quarters of the room




29
in the freight house that it does in the car, and the east-bound
freight about twice as much room.
Terminal Works and    Business of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The freight business of this road is divided into main-linefreight
on the Pennsylvania Railroad proper (New York to Pittsburgh and
branch lines). Westernfreight on lines which it controls north and
west of Pittsburg and Erie-this business is managed by the Union,
Empire and Anchor fast freight lines-Southern freight, on the
lines which it controls south of Philadelphia, and Eastern freight,
between New England and points on the Pennsylvania Railroad
system generally. For this latter business New York is a transfer
and not a terminal station.
The Pennsylvania Railroad connects with and operates several
distinct lines in the vicinity of New York, and as the only means
of communication with the city is by water transportation from
the New Jersey shore, the terminal freight stations and yards of
this railroad system are numerous and widely scattered. They are:
In New Jersey.   First, the terminal yard and shops at the
Meadows. Second, the through Western freight station and transfers, the grain elevators and the stock yards and abattoir, all at
Harsimus Cove, Jersey City. Third, the main line freight station
and transfer and the Red Star and Netherlands steamship docks,
adjoining the passenger station, at Jersey city. Fourth, the oil
yard at Communipaw. Fifth, the coal docks of the Amboy Division at South Amboy.
In New York City At five separate localities on the Hudson River
docks are six freight stations, used for the local freight business of
the city.
In Brooklyn: At Williamsburgh is a freight dock used largely
for the shipment of sugar from the Brooklyn refineries.
On the Harlem River there is a transfer for Eastern freight, and
also one on the Hudson River at Fishkill. Neither of these is
operated by this company.
TERMINAL      YARDS AT THE MEADO WS.-The first
available site for a yard west of Bergen Hill is where the grade of
the railroad descends to the level of the marshy land west of the
Hackensack River (about four miles from the Hudson River), on
the long and narrow strip lying between the main tracks of this
railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad.




30


The construction was begun about 1872, and the yard was first
used in i874. The site, formerly under water, had been reclaimed
by a dike. The surface was properly ditched, cribs sunk where
necessary, and gravel brought in by train. The bank being very
light, there was little disturbance of the original surface. The
general plan consists of eight tracks, parallel to the main tracks
forming four yards by means of lines of cross-overs located about
4 mile apart. The three-throw switches are made of two No. 8
rail frogs and one No. io, with upright stands; they work well.
The grades, following the surface of ground, are light, and neither
materially help nor retard the work of drilling. There are about
19 miles of available track in the sidings.
Operation: The engine from the incoming train from the West
is detached at the west end of the yard, and the yard engine on
the adjacent track, by means of a pushing pole, cuts the train up;
this is done according to destination, and in a general way, as to
classes of freight.  Fast through freight is placed on the section
of tracks called "Merchandise Yard;" slow through and local on
Coal Yard," etc.  The yard engine then pulls them out on the
northerly track to the different Jersey City yards, bringing back
empty cars, which are placed on the tracks for empty cars.  This
work generally requires, night and day, four engines in the yard
and two running to Jersey City.  With this equipment, in the year
1883 there were received 214,863 loaded cars of all kinds from
the West, and 151,592 were forwarded west from Jersey City and
from this yard.
The following is the organization at this yard.     It applies
generally to all yards, except that it varies in the numbers according to the size of the yard and the work done:
Day.   Night.
Yard-M aster......................................   ht.
Assistant Yard-Master, east-bound freight........  1
4" "           west-bound freight....... 2  2.. it          local freight............... 3  0
Y ard  clerks.......................................  4  2
Car  record  clerks.................................. 2  2
Lock  and seal clerks............................... 2  2
W eigh  clerks.....................................  1  0
Coal clerks.......................................  1  0
W atchmen............................... 2  2
Switchmen........................................
Each of the six engines have the following crew, night and day:
i engineer, i fireman, i conductor, i flagman and 2 brakemen.
HARSIM US COVE TERMIN US-JERSEY CITY.This (Plate A) is on the Hudson River, about I,200 ft. north of
the Jersey City passenger and freight yard. It has a double-track




c
2
LL
0
LI


SOUTH SIDE.
340  339   338  337  336    35  334   383  33     1   380  329  82     7   326  325   324   323.322  321  320 <319   318  317   316
289 2      291   29 — 29 ---               -LT -296-  9  9- -9- -  0 - -8 — 80- -3 4- -30   -306 — -37- -308-30  '3 --- —3  311 0  313  314
~..,.        'i         ~          x \    /. /              ~'                  / 1 K    e/ 1,' -/                       /' 1-    _    _
28        2V;        28  '28 / 2      2   |
288  287   286  286  285   284  283   283  22    281  2     280 279   278  2777       276  275   274Y 274   273  272  271   271  270  269
243  244   24   246  247   248  2     250  251  252   2     254  255  256  257     8  259  260   261   262  263  264  265   266  267  268
242  241                  -237- -26-   35 —234 —233 —232-   3-230- -2.29- -228   227- -226- -225- -2S4  23- -222 -221          1218   21722
EN4  N E 24      i 0  3  2 -  -2 -   2-   - 2 4  - -   - 3   CO N V EY IN G   B ELT. \           \                 2____  L L L U
HOUSE                                                4                                         A -  T_
197  190  199    9   200   201   0R   202  203  204  205 20;4 206    207      28 209       210,211   211  212   213  214  214   215  216
9    195   19491                  0    9             186        184   83  182   181  18          178  177   76   75     17       172  171,!1.I! o:  o,         0               CC.NVEYIN BEiLT.
99   100  0l   l|    103   104  10 7  106  107   108  109  1   it   |      11    1 4  115  116   11t 7  118  119  120 21  I   2lz  123  124
ENGINE
98.97    9G   95   S4    93   9      1   90    89   88    7    86   85    84    3    82   81   80     79   78   77   76    5    74   73
51   54    55   55    56   57   58   558   59    60   61         62   63    64   |64   65   66    6    67    68   69  '70/*70     71   72
2  5  ll  9    4    4-       ' 1-  /4Io -4VEYING BELT.                             /\                          11|||m /
652  5   o '..s- -'.,46- -4-. 3_   2 -42  -~1.-  40,x ~39- -38 -37  36   3- -34-.33-      31! 130,U IUl!9  28   27
36                         11   12 1t4           15    16              19   20    223             24   25    26
1+...I ~      110   120      0    40    O50Ft.                                F.N


PLAN OF GRAIN ELEVATOR AT HARSIMUS COVE,. JERSEY CITY, N. J... _.. %we.wo


/ij




3I


connection with the main line, about one mile long, built on trestlework, crossing the city streets above grade. The elevator, instead
of being on its own pier, is located inland between the piers, with
its end only toward the water, on account of the scarcity of water
front controlled by the company, and also to enable ocean steamers
to lie along the pier and receive grain by the conveyers and merchandise from the freight pier at the same time. There was also a
rock foundation at its present site.
The tracks were formerly built on trestle-work, but when the new
work was done in i880 they were filled in with street refuse from
New   York, top-dressed with ashes.    This material was cheap and
light in weight, causing little disturbance of the silt lying on the
rock bottom, which dips rapidly toward the river. The tracks
keep in excellent shape, are laid of new material, and are generally
ii ft. between centres. The switches are almost entirely singlethrow, split switches, with steel coil springs; the frogs are No. 8
and No. 6 rail. There are 14 miles of track in the yard.
The construction of the piers and freight houses is indicated on
Plate B. The sides are corrugated iron; the roof, gravel; the
piles are not driven to the rock; they are about 80 ft. long, and
are not spliced, nor pointed, but driven with a square end down.
The freight houses are neatly whitewashed inside and kept very
neat.   The following are some of the particulars of the size and
cost of these sheds:
Floor area of New Shed Pier No. 2 (see fig. 3):     Sq. ft.
First floor, North platform.............................. 32,000
First floor, South  "  west-bound.................. 11,000
Total................................................  43,000
Second floor, North platform............................ 31,000
South   "..........................  9,000
Floor area, total.....................................  40,000
Old  Shed, North platform............................... 54,000
South   ''............................. 16,000
Floor  area, total......................................  70,000
Pier No. 3 Shed (see fig. 4):
8 ft. centre to centre of pile bents.
16 '        "  "     house sections.
32 "    "             side doors.
7 ft. x 8 ft., size of upper doors.
11 ft. x 12 ft., size of lower doors.
Area, 2 lower platforms, each 35,000 sq. ft............. 70,000
2 upper   "      "  30,000   "............. 60,000
130,000
Cost of shed, about 90 cents per sq. ft. of total area of lower floor.
Cost of pier, about 100 cents per sq. ft.
The grain elevator, the plan of which is shown by fig. 5, was
built in 1879-80, and is constructed of heavy timber framework,
founded on rock from 12 to 26 ft. below the surface. The founda



32
tion of each post is a separate pier, the coffer dams used in the
construction generally inclosed four piers. The boxes or legs in
which the elevators work are of boiler iron, and are shown in black
with white figures in the plan; the weighing bins and spouts are
of iron; the sheathing of the sides of the building is corrugated
iron. Those parts of the framework lying under compression are
oak. The engines are situated on the bin floor, 90 ft. above the
ground; they consist of two pair of double engines, making in all
four cylinders, 20 x 24, running four 48 in. driving belts, and are of
ioo horse-power each. The weighing bins are in pairs, two to each
scale; the capacity of each bin is 36,0ooo lbs. Each was intended
when the elevator was built to hold a car-load, enabling the scales
to be kept constantly at work. The contract price of the building
was $450,000.
Operation of the Yard: The yard engines at Harsimus Cove receive the trains from the Meadows engine and sort them more
thoroughly on the tracks marked K.   Freight from  and to
transfer bridges are put on W and E respectively; for the elevator on G and empty cars from the elevator on F; Piers i and 2
freight on P. The part marked. R is the freight yard under the
charge of the local agent. (The freight is here delivered directly
to the city drays.) West-bound freight is hauled directly from
this yard, and does not stop at the Meadows. The track scales
are at S, the water stand-pipe at C. Five switch engines are employed, two constantly at the transfer bridges work; the pier
freight houses generally require two and sometimes three shifts a
day.  The general grade of the yard falls slightly toward the
river, and, especially at the head of the yard, materially aids the
work of drilling.
Operation of the Elevator: Before the cars loaded with grain enter the elevator, the agent of the Produce Exchange inspects and
"grades" each car-load; this is done in the yard. The cars are
then run into the house and the contents elevated, weighed and
run into the bins, where the grain is stored according to grade and
not according to owners. The business of the elevator, as is usual,
consists of handling the grain, storage and cleaning. The cleaning (only when requested by the owners) is done by blowing a
stream of air through the grain after it leaves the weighing bins.
It is then elevated again and again weighed, the dirt falling to the
ground floor. The charge for this work is one quarter of a cent
a bushel. A regular charge is also made for storage of certain
kinds of grain after a period agreed upon, generally ten days. The




33
weighing and general methods are those usually employed in receiving and delivering grain in elevators, except that as the grain
is delivered by belt conveyers, the bins are all operated alike, none
being exclusively devoted to shipping nor to transfer. They all
receive and all deliver, and the transfer from one bin to another is
made by spout, or when necessary by belt. These endless belt
conveyers run horizontally from end to end of building on the bin
floors; they are made of rubber, are 36 in. wide, and each one of
the six in use can carry 8,ooo to Io,ooo bushels an hour. Grain is
lifted from the bins, runs through an adjustable sheet-iron spout,
and falls on the top or carrying portion of the endless belt, which
runs at a rapid rate toward the river, and at the return of the belt
the grain (which is spread on the belt in a layer about 3 in. deep)
shoots forward and runs down the sheet-iron spouts extending from
the shore-end of the building. Three of these spouts lead to the
bulkhead, where there is sufficient dock room for small boatssuch as canal boats-which are used as grain lighters. Six spouts
lead to the long gallery belts, the position of which is shown in the
plan and section of the freight sheds. These gallery belts convey
the grain to large boats lying along the piers. For the purpose of
delivering the grain at several points along the pier, the upper or
carrying part of the belt is raised, at any point desired, by a loose
roller mounted on a movable iron frame about 4 ft. high, and as
the belt falls by its own weight away from the roller, the grain
shoots ahead in the upward direction in which it was traveling, and
falls into a box made with one spout on the side and one in front
over the belt.
In the box is a movable partition which separates the grain in
any desired proportion, one portion falling through the side spout
into the sheet-iron tubes, which carry it to the vessel, and the remainder falls through the front spout upon the belt and is carried
along by it to another delivery spout. These belts are operated
by independent 30 horse-power engines working at the shore end
of the galleries.
It requires 20 tons of coal a day to operate the entire elevator,
working at an average rate, and 13 tons when work is slack. The
capacity for receiving and delivering grain in this elevator with 24
legs and 6 belts is very great; indeed, the size of the yard and the
movement of cars is more a measure of its work than its own capacity. A good average of continuous work has been o00 cars a
day, though over 200 cars are sometimes unloaded in one day, and
156 cars were lately unloaded here in the forenoon with six gangs




34
of shovelers unloading the cars; but the rapidity of the work somewhat depends on the character and condition of the grain. The
storage capacity is about 1,500,000 bushels: 9,ooo,ooo bushels of
grain were delivered by this railroad in 1883.
Organi3ation: The working organization of the elevator is as
follows:
i Superintendent and clerks;
i General Foreman over all workmen, and with him i car record
clerk and i shipping clerk;
I Master Machinist, who has special charge of keeping all machinery in repair, and under him 2 assistants on repair work and 3
oilers;
I Wharf-master, who provides boats and directs their loading,
and who has charge of the trimmers;
On the Track Floor:  Foreman of shovelers, and under him 12
laborers at the shovels and 2 opening cars;
On the Bin Floor:  Foreman and 2 men setting spouts, etc.,
under general direction of the weighman on the floor above; I
engineer-in-chief, who runs one main engine and has oversight of
the engineers who run the other engines; also over the firemen, of
whom there are 2 during the day and i at night;
On the Scale Floor:  Chief Weighman, who weighs all grain
coming into the house and directs its distribution; 2 assistant
weighmen, who weigh the grain shipped from the house;
In the Galleries. i Foreman, with 3 men, who attend to the loading and unloading of the delivery belt, and i man to attend to the
three small engines which run the gallery belts.
Operations of the Piers in General: The piers at this place are
almost entirely used for the lighterage business of through Western
freight, moved in car-load lots; of freight coming from the Westflour for instance-to be lightered to a ship for foreign export, or to:storage warehouses located on the water; and of freight going to the
West-sugar for instance-lightered (or transferred directly) from
-ships, or from manufactories and warehouses; in this way saving
the hauling to the railroad freight stations in New York. This
through business is under the management of the fast-freight lines,
which are organizations of agencies managing that portion of the
western business of this railroad system which extends over lines
connected with, or controlled by, but not operated by, the Penn-:sylvania Railroad proper.
All transfers to or from large ships are done at these piers,
whether on main line or Western business; hence, although for the




35
sake of proper operation the business at Harsimus Cove is mostly
confined to fast-freight line business, it is not exclusively, nor is
the loading entirely, done in fast-freight line cars, though considerable effort is made to do so. This is desirable in order to keep cars
running in certain beats, one class for long and one class for short
hauls; for in railroad management constant effort is made to attain
in all things a systematic operation of business, classified in
character and concentrated in location, and just how far this can
be profitably done is a subject of constant thought and experiment.
Except the hydraulic elevators hereafter mentioned, there is no
stationary machinery for loading, unloading or moving freight on
any of these piers; the only machine for moving it is the hand
truck. Two lighters, used for freight requiring quick delivery,
have both steam-hoisting and propelling apparatus; a few have
steam hoists and are moved by separate propellers, but most of
them have only the gaff boom and hand drum. These are operated
either by hand or by an independent boat carrying a steam hoist
especially for this purpose, or by one on an idle lighter alongside.
The unloading of ships and independent lighters is done by city
stevedores, and not by the railroad company.
The approximate daily work at the freight houses on these piers
is 145 loaded cars of east-bound freight and 50 cars of west-bound,
requiring about 225 truckmen and tallymen for handling the
freight.
Operation of Pier No. i: This is not covered, and is used for
the direct transfer of such freight as building material, machinery
and iron manufactures which do not require storage, inspection,
or piece-weighing, but are directly transferred by lighters to
destination. There is no platform, and the cars are seldom loaded
here with west-bound freight.
Operation of Pier No. 2: In the old freight house, marked D,
"wet" freight, such as bacon, sugar in hogsheads, and cotton,
copper matte and other merchandise in car-load lots requiring
weighing, inspection or temporary storage, is handled to and from
the cars. In this house the weighing is done on movable scales.
The wide platform between the water and the track is mostly used;
the other platform is out of the way for lighterage business and
more convenient for transfer to cars on the track on the south
side. The new shed, marked A, has two stories, and is mostly used
as an export flour depot.  On the wide platform  were three
hydraulic elevators, 8 ft. x 8 ft., capable of lifting 22 barrels, but
generally lifting i6. They worked excellently in summer, but the




36
water froze in the pipes under the wharf in winter, and steam
power has been substituted. The narrow or south platform is used
for general transfer from lighters of merchandise moving west,
such as imported wire or sugar from the refineries, the only difference in operation being that local freight must give way to fast
through freight. There are three stationary platform scales on
this platform, as shown on the plan; they are placed between the
doors.
Operation of Pier No. 3: This house is devoted to dry freight,
such as flour, oil-cake, machinery and boxed groceries. The second floor has not yet been used. The uncovered portion of the
end of the pier is used for transfer between ships and cars of certain freight, as imported lumber, which may be left exposed if the
transfer cannot be made at once. About i,430,000 barrels of flour
were delivered by this railroad in i883.
Operation of the Transfer Bridges: Freight shipped eastward for
use or sale in New York and westward from New York merchants
in car-load lots, or less, is not lightered across the river as it was
before i866.  The cars themselves are now carried across on
barges or floats, which generally have two lines of track and hold
ten cars, five on a side, with a raised platform between the tracks.
The transfer bridges carrying the tracks, by means of which the
cars are run on and off these floats, are Howe truss bridges, ioo ft.
long, hinged at the shore end and suspended by heavy iron chains
from a stationary frame-work near the river end. They are thus,
by means of the chains, which run over large sheave wheels above,
and are worked by hand gear below, made adjustable to the stage
of the tide and the load on the float. These bridges are located
at A and B on the plan. The through New England freight is also
transferred over these bridges to three track floats, holding 14 cars,
and having no platform in the centre. This business amounts to
about 150 cars a day. Coal for New England is also transferred
over these bridges to large floats holding 20 cars, which are towed
to Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, about 6o miles up the river.
JERSEY CITY TERWIVUUS.-This (Plate A) adjoins the
passenger station on the north. It is the original yard, where the
whole business was formerly moved. It is short and wide, and has
been developed, or spread out like a fan, from the narrow entrance
at the head. At the busiest point in the yard there is a dangerous
crossing of a city street, which is guarded by six men with flags.
The track is furnished mostly with three-throw switches. There
are five miles of available shifting tracks in the freight yard.




37


The sheds on the piers are ordinary one-story wooden sheds,
with a wooden truss roof. The sheds are covered with corrugated
iron on the outside, and are neatly whitewashed on the inside.
The transfer house, marked T, is an ordinary temporary shed inserted on the only spare room in the yard. It is built between the
tracks without a platform on the outside, and hence the cars frequently require shifting, so as to make the car-door correspond
with the door of the house. This would not be necessary if there
was a platform on the outside, or if the house covered the tracks
as well as the platform between them.
Operation of the Yard: There are four engines in use here, night
and day, one of them constantly on the transfer bridge work.
Each engine has one day's rest for cleaning in the week, only two
working on Sunday. The cars which go to the docks of the Red
Star and Netherlands lines of steamers are hauled by horses.
West-bound freight from the transfer bridges is placed on tracks
marked W; east-bound on tracks marked E.
Operation of the Piers in General: This is similar to that at Harsimus Cove, and is devoted to the lighterage business of car-load
lots of main line and Southern freight. The west-bound freight
lightered from ships, storehouses and factories is much heavier
than, sometimes twice, the east-bound freight; hence a separate
house is devoted to it. A small quantity of through Western
freight is moved at these docks, as there is a derrick here (L on
plan) of large capacity, and there is nothing of the kind at Harsimus Cove. There is no steam or hydraulic machinery used here;
but there are some small hand derricks on the north side of Pier
E. The freight is moved in the house by ordinary hand trucks,
excepting hogsheads of imported sugar weighing 2,000 lbs. and
over, which are moved by special iron-frame trucks, by means of
which three men can truck them instead of rolling them. Also in
the New England transfer house, where a great variety of merchandise is handled, there is an ordinary four-wheel truck without a
handle, about 8 in. square and having wheels 4 in. in diameter,
which is found very useful for moving boxes, either too heavy or
too bulky for the ordinary hand truck. At these piers can be seen
the loading of what is called the "fast local freight " on the Pennsylvania Railroad. This is a service induced by the competition
of the Philadelphia & Reading system west of Lancaster. The
packages are very carefully loaded in the cars, the first to go in
being the last to come out. The train is run on fast time, and by
having a few additional train hands, the delivery is quickly made.




38
The daily work here is about go cars west-bound and 6o cars
east-bound, with I25 laborers, etc., and about 50 cars at the New
England transfer, with i8 laborers.
Operation of Pier E: This is used for the transfer of west-bound
freight from lighters. Freight is hoisted from the lighters and
trucked and piled on the platform, or trucked directly into the
cars. There is not much storage required here, and a large part
of the shed is devoted to track room, three tracks running the
whole length of the building, as shown on the plan. Area of platform is 8,ooo square feet.
Operation of Pier D: This is used for the transfer of east-bound
freight to the lighters. The northern part is uncovered and the
transfer is made direct, as at Pier No. i, Harsimus Cove. The
southern portion is covered and is used for temporary storage and
inspection. By a rule of the Produce Exchange, the railroad companies are obliged to give five days' storage to flour for inspection,
and therefore much space is devoted to this at all the docks where
flour is handled. Area of platform is i9,000 square feet.
Operation of Transfer House: The cars are loaded on the New
England roads with freight mixed as to destination on the Pennsylvania Railroad system. These cars are placed on each side of
the transfer sheds at this place; the freight is then taken out and
sorted on the platform according to destination, and reloaded in
the same cars. It is simply a sorting process of the freight, and is
not intended to regulate the car service any more than that the cars
are reloaded so as to go as near home as possible. There are
similar transfers at Mantua, where the main line and Southern
freight divide, and at Pittsburgh for the different Western lines.
Operation of Transfer Bridges: This is exactly similar to that at
Harsimus Cove. Eastern freight transfer is done mostly by'a
side-wheel steamer having two tracks, each holding seven cars.
Both passenger and freight trains are transferred on this boat. It
makes four trips a day with freight. The largest work done over
these bridges is transferring cars to the floats for the New York
docks-about I50 cars every day.
NEW YORK CITY FREIGHT DOCKS.-The Pennsylvania Railroad freight docks, as the accompaning plan shows,
are altogether on the west side of New York, on the Hudson
River. As shown, most of them face on West street, which is at
present of very irregular width. A general plan has been adopted
by the Department of Docks of the city for the improvement of
this water front, and is prosecuted by that department with as much




Ismv q
IImaQplirltmmenl
Olly3P


Diaz~
I f Imselko -


BULKHiEAD oR-RIVER-WALL —:ASBLILT ON-_ -
-----— 1876-18827 —      ssas


a s  lo


IS


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I


I                          '5.       o      tr  f l




; I


r.


I
i I; I


Im                   R                   LI                  I
-j        >                  w
0
~ 9      90      7Q Ft-.


LOADING WEST-BOUND CAR AT HIGH WATERt.


UNLOADING EAST-BOUND CAR AT LOW WATCR.


MEAN HIGH WATER.      1      F1 -1 a D -
MENLOW WATER


WATER IS STATIONARY FOR 30 MINUTES AT-HIGH WATER
$9,   91   "% 26   'I s  " LOW V, I


EXTREME RANGE OF TIDE AT WEEHAWKEN BETWEEN H UGH WA
AND LOW WATER FEBRUARY 20"?' 1884'L W70/ICQVFEET.




39


energy as circumstances permit; and a great improvement has
been made within the last ten years. The plan calls for a width
of 250 ft. from the east building line of West street to the bulkhead wall, and from this wall piers ranging from 75 to o00 ft. in
width extend into the water. It would seem to be impossible to
make any decided improvement in the general methods of moving
freight in the city before the docks are permanently arranged and
constructed, and West street opened throughout as designed.
The general arrangement of all the railroad freight docks is the
same, but there is no standard, and the unsettled condition of the
docks causes many changes in details of construction. The construction of the bulkhead wall is shown in the accompanying plan.
The method of construction is as follows: The mud and silt are
dredged out to a depth of about 35 ft. below low water; 8 ft. of
gravel is then thrown in and protected by riprap thrown on the sides,
as is shown. The piles are then driven, and more gravel and riprap
thrown between them. Those piles which hold the concrete blocks
are sawed off level by a circular saw rigged on a scow. A top dressing
of fine gravel is then spread, and a " poultice" of cement mortar in
gunny baga is then placed on top of each pile, and the concrete
block is placed in position by a Ioo-ton floating derrick, constructed for this service.  From this bulkhead wall juts the pier.
Piles can be got 90 ft. long, and even when they are very easily
driven, the friction is ample after the settlement of the silt around
them.
The concrete blocks are 12 ft. in length longitudinally, are made
of one part cement, two parts sand, and five parts broken stone.
Each block weighs from 70 to 74 tons.
A pier 75 ft wide, such as was lately constructed on Pier No. 27,
has 14 piles (5 ft. io in. from centre to centre) in each bent, with a
brace pile at one end. The first span from the bulkhead is about
i6 ft., then 9 ft., spans to within five bents of the end, where the
bents are I2 2 ft. between the centres. On account of running
ice and the exposed position of these outside bents, they are constructed of columns of squared timber T1 in. x 10 in., bolted together,
making a cross section 20 in. x 20 in., shod with an iron shoe, and
driven by a 6,ooo-lb hammer with a I2 ft. fall. They are protected
with an iron casing above low water. The bents are capped across
the pier and longitudinal stringers, 12 in. x I2 in., drift-bolted on
top of the caps, 5 ft. 10 in. between centres. Across the stringers
are spiked 4-in. creosoted plank, laid io in. apart and 3 in. plank
spiked over these, laid close together diagonally. A heavy fender




40
is bolted to the piles along the slip. The contract price for removing the old pier and building the new pier, No. 27 (shown on
fig. 7) was $40,000. These piers are covered with a one story
warehouse built by Che railroad company.
The bulkhead is covered with a frame shed, with offices on the
second floor.
Operation: There are no transfer bridges down-town on this side
of the river at present in operation by this company, and the general method of handling the freight is by hand-trucking to and
from the cars on the floats. On most of the piers are hand derricks
for moving heavy freight, but there is no other machinery of any
kind, either steam or hydraulic.
The following list gives the general character of business:
Main Line and Southern Freiht: Pier i.-Any quantity of
Pennsylvania Railroad and Southern freight, and car-loads from
Kensington, Pennsylvania.
Pier I6.-Any quantity of New York Division freight and of
south-bound Baltimore freight.
Pier 39.-Any quantity of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Railroal Division and Southern freight, and car loads only of United
New Jersey Division freight.
Freight to All Destinations:  Foot of Thirty-fifth Street.-Any
quantity of main line Southern and Western freight, and car-loads
only of lake freight.
Western Freight: Piers 4 and 5.-Any quantity of Western
freight, and cat-loads only of certain stations on the Philadelphia
& Erie.
Piers 27 and 28.-Any quantity of Western freight and carloads only of lake freight.
Approximate work for one day (probably more than the average):
Loaded Cars,  Cars. West- No. of Truckmen,
No. of Pier.  East-bound.   bound.   WVeighmen, etc.
1.................  70         50            80
4 and 5..........  75         50            90
16.............  40           40            40
27 and 28.........  50         75            90
39................  50         90           125
35th street.......  10        30            25
Total...........  295        235          450
Percentage.......  47         53
The general method of handling freight is as follows: Eastbound freight is trucked from the cars on the float to the pier, and
is sorted according to consignees to some extent and piled for
temporary storage. The city drays enter from the street and
drive along the track marked "wagon way" on the plan, which is




4'


simply a part of the pier on which no freight is piled, but on the
same level as the rest of the pier, except at Pier i6, where the
wagon way is separated from the freight shed, and is on a slightly
lower level. The freight is loaded on the drays by outside laborers
hired by the draymen and paid generally by the piece. The
admission of these wagons on the dock often causes a blockade
and inconvenience of work to the railroad men handling the
freight. As the sheds are all one-story, this wagon way, as is
shown on the plan, occupies approximately 2I Y2 per cent. of the
total effective area (considering it as a freight house with a track
*on the outside), and consequently 2I '2 per cent. of the annual
rental is devoted to this purpose. It is thus found necessary to
spend, say, $2,000 a month for what would be considered under
any other circumstances a very awkward, inefficient arrangement, being simply a series of blind alleys, ranging from I4
ft. to i6 ft. in width and from 500 to 6oo ft. in length. The
estimate of area shows, what is very evident by observation,
that a wide pier and a deep shed on the bulkhead form the most
economical arrangement, giving the greatest relative area for
storage, and hence the least relative area for the simple operations of handling freight. This is evident by comparing Piers 4
and 5 with either Pier i or Pier 39. The east-bound freight is
delivered at all times during the day up to six o'clock. There is
no charge made for storage, but if goods remain for some time uncalled for they are sent to some private storehouse.
West-bound freight is unloaded from the city drays into the bulkhead shed, weighed and sorted according to destination if it is not
directly loaded upon the cars. The scales are placed in pairs, as
shown on the plan. After being sorted and piled, the freight is
moved on hand trucks from the bulkhead, along the platform on
the float, into the cars. The average haul of the hand trucks is.
say, o40 ft. at Piers 4 and 5, and 240 ft. at Piers 27 and 28. The
rise and fall of the tide changes the position of the level of the
platform, and, as is shown, often requires a heavy lift at a consid-,erable expense of labor. The west-bound freight is received up to
4 P. M. This rule was adopted in order to enable the freight to be
shipped promptly each night, and to induce the shippers to forward
it during the fore part of the day.
It may be well to note here one instance of the money value of
promptness and system in work. As shown by the approximate
estimate, 53 per cent. of the number of cars, and probably 50 per
cent. of the number of tons, is west-bound freight, and this is han



42
died in 24 per cent. of the total area, and, consequently, only 24
per cent. of the annual rental, considering it as a freight house, is.
applied to this movement.
The wages of the truckmen are 17 cents an hour. They generally work 12 hours in the day, as they are often kept loading until
8 p. m. One gang generally loads one car every half hour. The
cars are always carefully loaded, so that the first freight to come
out is the last to go in.
The general organization of the freight stations on this road is
similar to the one which we give below, which applies to a freight
station on the New York docks: i agent and clerks; i superintendent of freight house and i clerk.
On West-bound Freight: I weigh-master to each scale; i scale
clerk to each pair of scales, who records the number and weight of
each package; i receiving clerk to each pair of scales, who signs
the shipping bill, compares and checks it and the duplicate, which
is sent to the agent's office. The scale clerk and receiving clerk
make entirely separate records, and thus form a check on each
other. The freight is sorted and piled according to destination by
"switchmen," or by ordinary truckmen under the superintendent's
directions. Each gang loading the freight consists of nine men,
two stevedores, who pack the freight in the cars; five truckmen,
who truck the freight; one loader, who loads the trucks; one tallyman, who is stationed at the car and records in a book the number of the car, the names of the stevedores, the date, the time of
beginning and ending of the loading of each car, and the consignee,
number, weight and contents of each piece. At the fast freight.
stations, as soon as a car is loaded, the tallyman sends his book to
the agent's office, and the pieces are checked with the duplicate
shipping bills and the car manifests are made out, and on them the
number of the tallyman's book is put.
On East-bound Freight.-The same gangs are used to unload as
to load. The tallyman here also keeps a separate account of each
piece on a sheet arranged for the purpose, and sends the sheet to
the agent's office as soon as the car is unloaded, where it is compared with the manifests. The delivery clerks, who are stationed
at the gate, copy each consignee's bill in a book, and the city drayman receipts in the book, which can be compared with the tallyman's sheets and manifests. It is seen that in this whole system
there is a complete series of checks for each man's work, and he ismade to feel responsible for it. The system also enables goods to.
be easily traced.




43
The force at every freight station is organized into a fire brigade
and regularly drilled. Posters are in each building giving the
duties and station of each man and the signals; and electric
alarm signals are numerous.
LIGHTERAGE.-The effective freight lighterage equipment
of this company, according to the report of 1883, is:
i freight steamboat on "Eastern" freight.
14 tugs. Cost about $25,oo000 each.
48 car floats (carrying 8 and io cars).    Cost $13,000 each.
2 steam lighters.
17 lighters.
15 barges.
8 canal boats.
TERMINAL WORK 1N GENERAL: From the report of
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for 1883, the following statistics are obtained of the freight business of the United Railroads in
New Jersey Division, between all the New Jersey railroads operated
by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company:
Total freight ton-mileage, 1883, 542,827,918.
Average cost of transporting each ton of freight one mile,
1.167 cents.
Total expenses.
Conducting transportation........................ $3,596,927.80
Motive-power.....................................  1,489,446.06
Maintenace  of  way...............................  905.783.49
Maintenance  of cars.............................  307,152.92
General expenses..................................  33,499.27
Total...........................................  $6,332,809.54
The following separation is copied or deduced from the report,
and is given as an approximation:
-Freight expenses chargeable toHauling.     Handling.      Total.
Conducting transportation, conductors
and brakemen...... $442,598.30   $50,000.00  $492,598.30
Dispatchers, telegraph,
etc.................  357,120.11...........  357,120.11
Car service....... 303,483.99...........   303,483.99
Labor at stations.................  672,594.54  672,594.54
Agents and clerks.................  475,750.80  475,750.80
Lighterage, docks, etc.............  1.295,380.06  1,295,380.06
Total............ $1,103,202.40 $2,493,725.40 $3,596,927.80
Motive power....... 1,234,241.84  255,204.22 1,489,446.06
Maintenance of way.  805,783.49    100,000.00   905,783.49
Maintenance of cars.  344,152.92   63,000.00    307,152.92
Total........... $3,387 380.65 $2,911,929.62 $6,299.310.27
General expenses................................  33,499.27
Total........................................... $6,332  809.54
This statement shows that, considering the New Jersey railroads
as a whole, the work at stations and yards costs nearly as much as




SCHEDULE OF FREIGHT MOVEMENT AT NEW YORK TERMINI.


Movement.


Main Line and Southern
Merchandise.


Western Merchandise.


Grain.


Oil.


To and from followii g receiving stations on N. J.
shore:
Moved by lighters
to and from......
Moved by floats tc
and from.........
Moved on hand
trucks to and from


Jersey City
Freight Docks.
" Stores"
and
Vessels.
4 N. Y. freight
Docks and
N e w England R. R.
Vessels
and
Lighters.


Harsimus
Cove and
Red Star and
Netherlands
Docks.
Vessels
and
Lighters.


Harsimus
Cove.
" Stores"
and
Vessels.
3 N. Y. freight
Docks and
N e w England R. R.
Vessels
and
Lighters.


Red Star
and
Netherlands
Docks...........
' Vessels
and
Lighters.


Harsimus
Cove.
" Stores"
and
Vessels.


Communipaw.
" Stores"
and
Vessels.


Live
Stock.
Harsimus
Cove.
" Stores"
and
Vessels.


Coal.
South    Harsimus
Amboy.      Cove.
" Stores"
and......
Vessels.
New Eng -..... landR. R..........


Moved by gravity                                                                Vessels................    Vessels
or machinery to....................                                              Lighters.
Lighters.                   Lighters.




This railroad does not deliver any great amount of hay or dairy products, but it brings large quantities of perishable fruit from the South.




45
the work on the road, and as the terminal work on the New York
Division is much larger in proportion than the station and yard
work on the other railroads of the system, it is likely that, taking
this work as a whole, the cost of moving a ton of freight between
the Meadows yard and the New York city drays is greater than
that between the Meadows yard and Philadelphia. It may be
possible that this terminal work will hereafter be more completely
arranged and concentrated, and that by the introduction of some
simple form of steam machinery for hauling freight longitudinally
in the house this work can be done more cheaply than it is at
present and quite as promptly.
The conditions to be observed are so various, however, that it is
questionable if any mechanical method of moving either east or
west-bound freight on these piers can be successfully applied,
although it would seem worthy of study and experiment.
The following table is added for easy reference. It gives a
comparison of the reports of the New York Central & Hudson
River Railroad and the United Railroads of New Jersey
Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad for I883. These roads are
double and four-tracked trunk-line railroads entering the port of
New York. Each has numerous branches running through a
populous country. They differ greatly in the length of line (as is
shown) and also in the amount of coal carried, it being only onefifth of the tonnage of the New York Central to about three-eighths
on the United Railroads of New Jersey.
The difference in the proportion of the mileage of branches to
main line lessens the value of this comparison, except as between
the New Jersey system of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New
York system of the New York Central. The reports are given in
such shape that a more just comparison cannot be made. A great
deal of the information (as is shown) is derived from estimates
and not taken from accurate data, hence it is not intended to be a
critical comparison, but simply one which shows the differences in
characteristics and business. The statistics of the work of handling would be better if they could be given per ton handled instead
of per ton hauled:
N. Y. Cen. &  United RailHudson River. roads of N.J.
Fixtures
1. Miles of main line (c)...........................  441.75  90.76
2. Miles of road, main line and branches (c).......  993.29  435.07
3. Milesof track  (c)...............................  2,684.88  930.49
4. Miles of track per mile of road (d).............  2.7  2.14
5. Number of city stations (e).....................  20     8
Earnings:
6. Total freight earnings (c)....................... $21,133,766  $8,269,942




46
N. Y. Cen. &   United RailHudson River. roads of N.J.
7. Total freight expenses (c).......................  $15,171,535  $6,299,310
8. Net freight earnings (c).......................  5,967,231  1,970,632
9. Average total freight earnings per ton-mile (c)..   0.91         1.47
10. Average total freight expenses per ton-mile (c)..   0.68         1.17
11. Average net freight earnings per ton-mile (c)...    0.23         0.30
Tonnage:
12. Total tons hauled (c)........................  10,892,440  8,855,567
13. Total tons of through freight hauled (c).........  1,813,320  2,611,000
14. Total tons of local freight hauled (c)............  9,079,120  6,244,567
15. Per cent. of local freight to total tons hauled (d)  83           70
16. Average tonnage per mile of road (d)...........  2,215,764  1,247,684
17. Average tonnage per mile of track (d)..........  820,000     583,000
Mileage:
18. Average mileage or " haul" per ton, miles (d)...    202          61.3
19. Total ton-mileage (c)....................  2,200,896,780 542,829,918
20. Total ton-mileage of through freight (e)........  725,328,000 234,995,000
21. Total ton-mileage of local freight (e)............ 1,475,568,780 307,834,918
Hauling22. Total hauling expenses (e)....................  $10,226,142  $3,388,323
23. Per cent. of total expenses (e)...................  672           54
24. Average hauling expenses per ton-mile (e)......  0.46 ct.     0.62 ct.
25. Average hauling expenses per mile of road (e)..  $10,290       $7,788
Handling —
'26. Total handling expenses (e).....................  4,945,382  2,910,986
27. Per cent. of total expenses (e)...................  322           46
28. Average handling expenses per ton hauled (e)...    $0.45        $0.33
29. Average tons hauled per city station............  544,622   1,106,941
30. New York through freightCost of handling per ton (e)..................  $0.60        $0.60
Average cost cf hauling (e)..................    2.02         0.53
Average total cost (e).....................     2.62         1.13
Average cost per ton-mile (e).................    0.60         1.26
31. Local freightAverage cost of handling, all stations (e)......  0.42         0.25
Average cost of hauling (e)...................    0.75         0.30
Average total cost (e)........................    1.17        0.55
Average length of haul, miles (e)..............    164           49
Average cost per ton-mile (e).................  0.71 ct.  1.124 cts.
(c) signifies copied.
(d)   "   deducted.
(e)   "   estimated.
Remarks.-Line 4; the difference here is largely caused by the length of " turnouts" on the New York Central Division.
Line 9.-Water and other competition on the New York Central probably causes
this difference.
Line 10.-The relatively large terminal expenses (at New York mostly) on the
Pennsylvania causes this difference. See lines 22 and 26.
Line 20.-This is calculated on a basis of 400 miles average haul of through
freight on the New York Central, taking into account the Boston freight leaving
the road at Albany. This is only used to get the ton-mileage of local freight,
line 21.
Line 16.-Shows the equivalent number of tons hauled once over the whole road
(main line and branches), and shows that the New York system moves on an average nearly twice the number of tons of freight over every mile of road, and 1.4
the number of tons over every mile of track that the New Jersey system does.
See line 17.
Line 25.-Shows the average cost of the work of hauling over a mile of road,
and at 5 per cent. interest gives an average value of $205,800 per mile for the
New York system and $155,760 per mile for the New Jersey system, taking the
freight expenses alone as the guide.
Line 28.-This difference is caused by the large proportion of coal hauled on the
branches of the Pennsylvania Railroad which does not come to New York, and
also by the greater concentration of business (see line 29) caused by the less number of city stations (see line 5), and the same reasons cause the differences shown
on line 31.




47


Terminal Works and Business of the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad.
The business of this road extends over many branches and connections throughout the Western states and over a large part of the
state of New York, and also into the coal and oil regions of Pennsylvania.
Its terminal stations in New Jersey are: The distributing yard,
located just west of the tunnel through Bergen Hill; the principal
yard and freight and passenger stations and docks in Jersey City,
on the west bank of the Hudson River, opposite Canal street, New
York, which is I4 miles north of the Battery; the coal, oil, live
stock and export provision depots and docks at Weehawken, opposite Thirtieth street, New York, about 3X2 miles north of the
Battery.
In New York city are: The flour station on the East River, the
principal city freight and passenger station at the foot of Chambers street on the Hudson River; the uptown freight and passenger station at the foot of West Twenty-third street.
The Brooklyn station is in Williamsburg, near the piers used by
the other railroads.
BERGEN     YARD.-This yard is located partly in the entrance
cut at the west approach of Bergen Tunnel and partly on a light
bank over the Hackensack Meadows, and is crossed overhead by
the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad by a two-span
bridge about one-quarter of the whole length west of the tunnel.
The yard is simply a series of sidings parallel to the main tracks,
the east-bound yard on the south next the east-bound track consisting of seven tracks, and the west-bound on the north next the
west-bound track of five tracks. West of the bridge above mentioned the yard is about one mile long, and the sidings are long
and with few cross-overs. East of the bridge the yard is about
three-eighths of a mile long and each siding holds about the number of cars generally sent to Jersey City in a train. The roundhouse and coal-pockets for the road and yard engines are situated
just south of the eastern yard. There are 18 miles of available
track in the sidings of both yards.
The through fast freight trains for the West are frequently made
up in this yard, and the east-bound trains are sorted here in a general way for destination. It is also a storing yard when the Jersey
City and Weehawken yards are full, and as it is a union yard for




48


the different branches and connections of the Eastern Division
much work is necessarily done here. There are 4 engines in use
during the day and 3 at night; the best have 3 pairs of drivers
and I pair of forward trucks, with tender. They weigh 37 tons,
with 31 tons on the drivers.
There are 15 men employed here constantly on maintenance of
way.
JERSEY CITY TERMINUS. —This yard (see Plate A) has
been developed as the business increased. The city streets all cross
at grade, and the four between Grove street and the tunnel are
guarded by flagmen and portcullis gates.
The car repair sheds and shops of this division are just west of
Grove street. East of Grove street there are 45 acres in the whole
property to the bulkhead. There are about 25 miles of available
sidings in this yard, of which I4 miles are used on east-bound, 8
miles on west-bound, and 3 miles on passenger business. The yard
engines used in this and the Bergen yard are broad-gauge; hence
the tracks are all three-rail tracks, requiring additional expense in
maintenance.  (The third rail is now being removed from the
yard, and all the tracks in it will hereafter be of standard gauge
only.) The freight houses are ordinary one-story sheds; the covered area on east-bound business is I42,000 square feet, on westbound 64,000 square feet. The general arrangement of business
is sufficiently indicated on the plan.
The working force in the yard is 9 engines during the day and
4 at night, with 70 train and yard men during the day and 30 at
night, moving from 400 to 6oo cars of all kinds each way a day.
There are 25 men on maintenance of track employed in this yard
The trains moved on this division are heavy, the engines very
large and powerful and the grades steep; hence not more than 8
per cent. of the cost of maintenance of cars is chargeable to station work.
With the exception of its location (which necessitates the shifting
of all the grain cars across the passenger tracks), the grain elevator is an excellent example of the economical results arising from
the application of classification and of the use of machinery to the
work of handling freight. It was built and is operated by private
parties. I6,ooo,ooo bushels of grain were delivered by this railroad in I883.
The pier is extended -beyond the elevator for the purpose of
transferring grain directly from the cars to lighters, in case it is
not necessary to store it in the elevator.




49
In the small building marked A is an elevator, by means of
which grain is raised from boats and transferred by belt conveyors
into the main elevator building. In the latter there are ten legs,
and the grain is raised from the cars on one track at a time, each
track holding ten cars. When emptied, the yard engine backs the
loaded cars in, thus pushing the empty cars out on the pier; hence
a shift is only made when the pier tracks are full, thus economizing time.
Two yard engines are employed on this work for an ordinary
*day's work of 150 cars; 310 cars of grain have been handled here
in a day, however, requiring three yard engines to move them.
The building is well lighted and arranged. It is furnished with
two upright low-pressure beam engines, one in use and one in reserve. They are supplied with a very economical cut-off, and the
boilers are well set and the draft thoroughly regulated by an effective damper, and the consumption of coal is hardly half that at
other well-arranged elevators.
WEEHA WKEN        TERM/N1US.-A branch track starting
from the main line just east of the tunnel, and running north about
three miles (crossing the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad under grade), leads to the Weehawken docks, on the Hudson
River. This property has a frontage of 2,400 ft. on the river and
an average width of 900 ft. from the present water line, making 50
acres of land, of which io acres are occupied by the stock yards
and iT acres by the oil works.
The bulkhead has not been built, and the tracks run to the piers
over trestle-work. Altogether outside of the oil works there are 8
miles of track and sidings.
The northernmost pier, 650 ft. long and 70 ft. wide, is covered
by a one-story shed used for the transfer of west-bound freight
from lighters to cars. South of this is a slip 150 ft. wide and then
a pier 680 ft. long and 70 ft. wide, covered by a two-story shed,
in which east-bound provisions of all kinds are handled, mostly
for export.
The freight for the second floor (mostly flour In bags) is raised by
two endless-chain automatic elevators (patented) like those at the
Sixtieth Street station of the New York Central Railroad. Here,
however, each is worked by a small independent engine. The
bags, etc., of flour are delivered to the lighters from the second
floor by chutes, which are simply plank troughs suspended at the
upper end from an opening in the second floor, leading out of the
gangway door and running to the deck of the boat. The lower




50


part is hinged to make it adjustable, and it is all raised and lowered by a block and fall. This appliance saves all labor on the
first floor, and is a very simple and effective labor-saving arrangement. About I,670,000 barrels of flour were delivered by this railroad in 1883.
Similar chutes, constructed of slats of half-round iron laid in a
parabolic curve (steep at the upper end and nearly level at the


lower end), are frequently seen in warehouses in the city for lowering all kinds of freight from the street sidewalk to the elevator in
the middle of the cellars.
The construction of this shed is shown in the cut of Pier B; the
doors are hung and slide on the outside of the building, whichis a
good arrangement.
South of this pier is a slip 200 ft. wide to a proposed pier not




Oversize




51


yet begun, 720 ft. long and 80 ft. wide. Facing this slip is a threestory cold-storage provision warehouse. The freight, mostly barrels, is moved by another form of endless-chain elevator (patented),
called the Ruddell elevator [see illustration] which both lowers and
raises at the same time. Most of the freight, however, is lowered
by chutes. This elevator can also be used for handling freight
packed in bags, bales and boxes, though these latter modes of
packing require somewhat more labor.
The business at the oil works operated by the Standard Oil Co.
is barreling and shipping oil; there are three piers here.
The stock-yards have never been wholly in use, but are located
on high, well-drained land 400 ft. from the river, and are very well
built. Lying adjacent to this property, on the north, are the coal
piers of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co., and on the south those
of the Pennsylvania Coal Co., and, in fact, all the piers at this station are operated by independent corporations and firms, and the
railroad company only moves the cars. There are three engines
employed here and in running to and from Bergen yard, moving
between 250 and 400 cars of all kinds a day each way.
IN  VE EW YORK CITY.-Flour Pier on East River.-This is
next to the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad pier, a
third of a mile north of the Battery. It is a narrow pier, covered
with a shed, one-half of which is used for a roadway and one-half
for storing flour.  The freight is moved to it in lighters and
barges.
General Freight Station on the Hudson River is at the foot of
Chambers street, I j miles north of the Battery. The freight sheds
here have a frontage of 400 ft. on West street, as there are two
piers, each Ioo ft. wide at the bulkheads, with a slip 200 ft. wide
between them.
The construction of the sheds is shown in the illustration. They
are well lighted and kept neat.
The piers are very large and roomy; they are 575 ft. long from
the bulkhead line.
A wagon way, 20 ft. wide, extends all the way around next the
water, and the east-bound freight is unloaded from the cars on the
floats and piled in the centre. A large cheese business is carried
on here.
The west-bound freight is hauled partly on the piers and partly
on the bulkhead.
There is a floating sorting shed, 50 ft. wide, along the whole
length of the bulkhead, 200 ft., which breaks the difference in level




52
between the floats and the bulkhead, caused by the changes in tide
and load. This floating shed is in addition to the receiving shed,
and 50 ft. wide on the bulkhead.
The weighing of west-bound freight is done on small movable platform scales, which are run to the dray, and the freight is
weighed alone, and not on a hand truck. The total covered area
is 124,500 square feet.
The Twenty-third Street Station is about three miles north of the
-Battery. This is a pier about I50 ft. long and 50 ft. wide, used
for shipping west-bound freight from the up-town manufacturing,districts. The freight is loaded on barges and rehandled at Jersey
City.
WILLIAMSB URGH        STA TION.-The Brooklyn business
of this railroad, unlike that of the others, is done by means of car
floats. The cars are transferred from the floats over a transfer
bridge at the Williamsburgh docks by a dummy engine and run
across an important city street to a station. Considerable eastbound freight-vegetables, etc.-is delivered here, and the westbound sugar from the refineries is loaded directly on the cars, instead of on the barges. Small lots, however, must be transferred
at Jersey City to other cars.
All lighterage is done by this company with its own equipment.
Terminal Works and Business of the Delaware, Lackawanna &
Western Railroad.
Although the principal business of this company is the transportation of anthracite coal from the Lackawanna district of the
Pennsylvania coal fields, it has necessarily enlarged the character
of its business by the construction of an independent double-track
railroad to Buffalo, where it makes a western connection to Chicago, principally over the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad. It operates also a line to Oswego, on Lake Ontario, and
over it and several other branches, has direct connections to some
of the rich and fertile districts of the central part of the State
of New York. It remains, however, in its operation as far as possible only a transportation company, its whole business ending at
the station (shown on Plate A) at Hoboken, on the west side of
* ee'
* *




53
the Hudson River, about opposite Christopher street, New York,
24 miles north of the Battery.
The handling of the miscellaneous freight at this station, the
lighterage to and from New York, and the handling in the city are
all done under a contract with a private firm; hence, in addition
to the necessary work of moving cars in the yard, the principal
work done directly by this company is simply the handling of the
coal.
Like the Pennsylvania and Erie Railroads, this railroad has a
yard on the Hackensack Meadows (called the Secaucus Yard),
but it is a small one, being simply a series of sidings parallel to the
main line, making in all about six miles of track. Thence the
grade of the road ascends 26 feet to the mile to the tunnel through
Bergen Hill, which is entered at about the same point as the Erie
Railway, but on a considerably higher level and in a more northerly direction. The eastern portal of this tunnel is only 1,600 ft.
from the beginning of the yard, and, as the grade is high, all the
city streets are crossed overhead by substantial iron bridges.
The northerly part of the yard above the ship canal is devoted
to the passenger, local freight and iron business, and is now being
rebuilt according to the plan. There are 9 miles of track in the
passenger yard and Ii miles of track in the freight yard. Five
yard engines are employed here. The southern part of the yard
has been lately built and regularly graded, and all the tracks are
in excellent line and surface, and of new material. There are 34
miles of track, of which about 23 miles are in the coal yards and
docks. Four engines are used in the coal yard and three in the
through freight yard.
Pier 5, running by the side of the long ship canal, carries a series
of high level trestle tracks, which run to it from the overhead
bridge across the street. The coal runs from the dump cars by
chutes into the vessels or is stocked on the pier beneath. It is devoted to the business of the N. Y., S. & W. R. R.
Piers 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are built in a general way on the plan indicated on Plate B. The loaded cars are hoisted by an endless wire rope
up a steep inclined plane from the tracks in the yard to the elevated trestle work on the piers, and the coal is dumped into the
bins and thence into the vessels. The empty cars are then run by
gravity down a longer inclined trestle work track in the yard; as
shown on the plan, the " empty" tracks are sometimes in the centre
and sometimes on the sides of the pier; the newest and best-arranged
pier is No. Io. The inclined planes on all these "gravity" piers are




54
furnished with "dogs," one pair to each bent. They are two sticks
of timber (about 4 in. x 8 in), hung on an axle, which is a heavy bar
of round iron running across the plane, with its ends set into the
stringers on each side. The lower and longer ends of the " dog"
rest on the cap below, and the short upper end projects far
enough above the rail to catch the axles of the cars. As a car is
hauled up the plane, each axle scrapes along the top edges of the
" dogs," and thus lowers the upper ends and passes on. The " dogs"
then-as the lower ends are the heavier-return to their original
position, and in case of accident the upper ends of the " dogs" catch
the axle of the car, and thus prevent it from running down the
plane.
The coal is hauled generally in small four-wheeled dump cars,
occupying about 13 feet in length of train weighing 7,500 lbs. and
carrying about 12,000 lbs. of coal. Gondola cars with hoppers are
also used, occupying 28 feet in a train weighing 19,500 lbs. and
carrying 40,000 lbs. of coal.
'I'he east-bound road engines haul ioo loaded four-wheeled cars
in a train to Secaucus yard, and the train is there divided, 6o cars
being hauled through the tunnel by the road engine and 40 by a
"tunnel engine."  The engines are uncoupled at the head of the
yard, and the train of cars runs by gravity down the grade on the
receiving tracks, and the engines are turned on the turntable " A,"
and haul empty cars back.
The cars on arrival are immediately inspected, the boxes filled,
and the date of arrival marked with white chalk on each car. The
yard engine then hauls them back up the grade, and with the grade
descending in the direction of the work sorts the cars.
Piers 6, 7, 8 and 9 are devoted to the business of the agents of
different mines, generally two consignees on a pier. Each agent
keeps separate and sells independently the coal from each mine,
making in all some 3o different consignments; consequently, they
must be separated in the vard, and also each mine ships several different sizes of coal, which must also be separated in order to do the
work on the piers regularly and systematically; and therefore the
yard for each of these piers is adm'rably designed for this work of
sorting into a series of small yards, as shown in the plan.
The yard of No. Io indicates a different arrangement of business.
The coal handled on this pier is mined entirely by the Scranton
Coal Co., which classes the product of all its mines alike and does
not separate them. Therefore, the sorting of this coal is simply
the necessary separation of the sizes, which is done at Port Morris




55
yard, about 30 miles to the west, and hence the trains arrive in the
Hoboken yard assorted in sizes, and the only yard work needed is
to place the cars so that they can be hauled up on the plane.
In winter two of the small cars (in summer generally three) are
hooked by a chain to a link in a wire cable of i  in. diameter,
which runs over a sheave wheel at each end of the plane to the
drum below. Both drums' one under each track-are fastened to
the same shaft and revolve in the same direction, but the cables
being wound in opposite directions, the cars are raised on one
plane at a time. The drum shaft is geared directly to the driving
shaft of a pair of i6 x 30 in. cylinder horizontal engines, which,
with the boilers, are operated by one man, and use about Iy2 tons
of coal in a day of io hours.
On arriving at the head of the plane, the cars immediately pass
over the scales and are weighed, and they are then easily placed at
any bin on the pier, as the tracks are well arranged.
The bins are arranged as shown on the plan; they are lined with
sheet iron, and the coal is dumped from the cars, runs over the bar
screens (the sizes of which are stated), and thence runs over the
iron apron into the vessel. These aprons are hinged at the trestle
end, and are raised and lowered by means of chains running to an
ordinary hand drum gearing at the top. The dust and screenings
are wheeled back on the pier and shipped separately. The bins
are of different sizes, and the aprons at different heights to accommodate the different vessels. The sailing vessels running to Boston and other points on the coast carry from 700 tc 800 tons, and
when they are empty the coal is run into them from the high bins.
The coal for New York City is carried in canal boats of 230 to 250
tons capacity, and with them the larger and deeper bins are used.
These latter bins will hold 50 tons, and hence the movement of
the cars need not wait on the work of "trimming" or spreading the
load and moving the boats.
The dumping of the cars (which is done by opening the hinged
doors in the bottom) and their movement on the pier is done by
men employed by the company. Thirty-five men on Pier io can
handle 3,000 tons in a day of Io hours, for there is but little shoveling required, either in the gondola hopper cars or the small dump
cars.
At the river end of Pier No. io is a coaling station for tug boats.
The coal is dumped directly on the dock and is delivered to the
boats by a contrivance worth mentioning: It is a small car, carrying a sheet-iron hopper, holding about a ton of coal, which is




56
weighed by scales rigged on the car itself; by this means the coal,
wherever it may be, is weighed immediately and run to its destination. Its possible application to other work is the reason this car
is noted here. Commercially speaking, the most active time in the
coal trade is in the fall and spring of the year; in summer the coal
is not so quickly sold, but it is the best season of the year for its.
mining. Therefore, during the summer much more coal arrives at
the docks than is shipped from them, and consequently it must be
stocked. This is done in great piles running back from the bulkhead, sometimes 400 ft. long and 25 ft. high, and in the autumn,
when this coal is shipped, the vessels lie at the bulkhead and the
coal is wheeled to them in wheelbarrows. Each wheelbarrow delivers 224 lbs. of coal, which is screened, loaded and wheeled by
hand and the weight tested and corrected on a small platform
scales, placed wherever convenient. If cars such as are mentioned
above could be applied to the work of moving stocked coal, their
use would lead to considerable economy in the work of handling
coal in certain conditions of the trade.
It is evident that the chief advantage in expense of operating
which the coal-carrying road has over a road doing a general
business is in the handling of the freight, for while the proportion
of paying to dead load per car is much greater-perhaps twicein the case of a coal car than in a merchandise car, still the coal
car is always hauled back empty and also it runs back against the
grade of the road, hence, although its movement is very prompt and
regular, its practical working and paying capacity is diminished to.
perhaps one half of what appears on the face.
Terminal Works of the New York, West Shore & Buffalo and New
York, Ontario & Western Railways at New York.
The West Shore Railway runs east from Buffalo (where it connects with the Grand Trunk Railway and its Western system) by
following the general line of the N. Y. C. &- H. R. R. R. across
the State of New York, though on opposite sides of the principal
streams; and the Ontario & Western Railway runs in a southeasterly direction, crossing the mountains of Sullivan and Delaware
counties, from Oswego, on Lake Ontario.
They connect about 50 miles north of New York at Cornwall-on



Oversize




Oversized
Foldout




57
the-Hudson, and run into New Jersey back of the Palisades, and
end in one union terminal station at Weehawken, N. J., on the
west bank of the Hudson River, opposite Fiftieth street, New York,
5 miles north of the Battery.
About two miles to the west, near the Hackensack Meadows,
but on high, well drained land, is the New Durham yard for sorting
and storing trains. This consists of a series of 20 or more sidings,
parallel to and on one side of the main line. Most of these sidings are about 3,000 ft. long, and extend altogether a mile in length.
The yard contains about 22 miles of available track when finished.
Between this yard and the Weehawken terminus is the tunnel, nearly
one mile long, under Union Hill.  The river side of this hill is a
steep, rocky bluff, forming the beginning of the Palisades, and the
eastern portal of the tunnel is only 8oo ft. back from the original
water line of the river. The strip of land of about that width, extending for nearly 6,8oo feet along the river, was laid out as shown
on the plan, and the construction work, begun in i88i, is still being
carried on to some extent.
As the line of the bulkhead was fixed (a portion of the way) 300
feet back from the original water line, a canal was dredged from
the river, and the dredging machines were then turned and a trench
was excavated for the cribwork, from 30 to 40 feet in height, which
forms the bulkhead.
The yard was filled in with good material and some ashes behind the bulkhead, but the rocky bottom dipped so rapidly toward
the river that considerable trouble was caused by the movement
of the silt as it was loaded with the new material.
The piers are 200 feet wide, which necessitated the.style of construction of the two-story freight sheds shown on the plan.
The yard engines used here are tank locomotives, weighing complete 50 tons, all on three pairs of drivers.
In New York City: These roads have four freight stations on
the Hudson River: A flour station on Pier No. i at the Battery,
and the principal general freight station on Pier No. 5, a short
distance north, half of which is used by the Pennsylvania Railroad; and another at Harrison street, near the dry-goods district,
where west-bound freight is loaded on a barge.
The up-town station is at the foot of Thirty-sixth street. Trhis is
the only station in New York City at which cars from the New
Jersey shore are run over transfer bridges from the car floats to
tracks in the city.  This enabled the establishment of freight
houses on the city streets and allows the convenient and direct




58
transfer of some freight between the cars and drays. The eastbound freight handled here is largely hay and provisions, and the
west-bound freight miscellaneous manufactures.
These companies own and operate their own lighterage equipment.
New Jersey Central Railroad,
This railroad is operated by the Philadelphia & Reading R. R.
Co., and by this connection its business extends to Philadelphia and
throughout most of Northeastern and into Central Pennsylvania,
and especially into the anthracite coal fields of Schuylkill, Lehigh
and Luzerne counties.
Its principal termini on the New Jersey Shore are: The general
freight and passenger station and yard at Communipaw, about
opposite the Battery, and the coal yards and piers at Bergen Point,
or Port Johnson, and also at Elizabethport, the former opposite
the north end of Staten Island, and the latter just below the entrance
of Newark Bay, on the Kill von Kull.
The approach of this railroad to New York is from the south
crossing, Newark Bay, avoiding Bergen Hill, and is altogether in
open and level country.
The yard at Communipaw, Jersey City, is long and level, and
an elevated track on the coal dock here at the south of the yard is
approached by a steep grade on trestle-work operated by a locomotive which pushes up about 20 small cars. A large business is
done here in coaling coastwise steamers and tugs, and coal is also
hauled from this yard in wagons over the ferry to supply the southern part of New York City.
The works at Bergen Point or Port Johnson are chiefly devoted
to handling the coal mined by the Lehigh & Wilkesbarre Coal Co.
The coal is handled in much the same way as at Hoboken, except
that the cars are delivered on the high trestles on the piers directly
by the locomotives, the location allowing this without the use of
heavy grades.
The stocked coal, however, after being dumped from the high
trestle for storage, is hauled up a heavy grade, being reloaded on
the standard cars at about 6 ft. above the level of the bulkhead,
and hauled by locomotives up into the yard and thence to the pier,
being weighed, dumped and screened as though it came directly
from the mines.




59
Elizabethport is the old coal depot, where there are several short
piers on which the Schuylkill and Luzerne coal is handled in the
same or similar way as at Bergen Point.
This company has a general freight station at the foot of Liberty
street, New York, on the Hudson River docks, operated in the
usual way by means of car floats.
Lehigh Valley Railroad,
The freight business of this railroad enters the port by way of
the Easton & Amboy Railroad, with a terminus on the Kill von
Kull at Perth Ambov.
It carries on a large coal transportation business from the Lehigh
Valley and Wilkesbarre regions. This company has a general
freight station in New York on the Hudson River, on Pier No. 2,
near the Battery.
Its coal docks and piers at Perth Amboy are similar to the others
mentioned, except that the approach is on a high level, and the cars
are delivered on the high trestle tracks on the piers by gravity, the
shifting and movement of empty cars being done by horses.
Here also are located the great storage grounds for " stocking"
coal. The cars, both in-bound loaded and out-bound empty, are
moved entirely by gravity over light trestle work, 20 or 30 ft. high,
above the flat lands lying between the hills on which the road is
located and the water. About 15 acres of land have been covered
with bins from 20 to 30 ft. deep, divided by timber walls, and holding about I,ooo tons each, and altogether storing about 250,000
tons of coal, which is dumped from the high level trestle tracks.
Underneath each row of bins is a tunnel into which are run trains
of standard four-wheeled cars, handled by powerful tank locomotives, similar to a mine locomotive. The tunnels were open cuts
in the gradually sloping ground, and were lined with timber, like a
mine gallery.
The coal is loaded into the cars from the bins without shoveling
through trap-doors in the bottom of the bins, as is generally done
in an anthracite mine from the "breasts."
The loaded cars are hauled up a heavy grade and handled in the
usual way on the piers.
This large storage capacity enables this company to operate its
mines and railroad regularly, thus giving steady work to the men
it employs.




60


Without information and figures to determine otherwise, it would
seem that the best arrangement for the terminal works of a coal
*transporting railroad would be a combination of a well-planned
sorting yard with the Hoboken method of delivering and handling
and the Perth Amboy method of storing, and the site which would
naturally allow of this arrangement would be preferable to others.
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad and New York & tlarlem Railroad.
The through Boston and Eastern freight is handled at Pier 50,
foot of Montgomery street, East River (i 2 miles north of the
Battery), by means of car floats running between that pier and the
transfer on the Harlem River.
The local freight of both the New Haven and Harlem Railroads
is handled at a union station bounded by Centre, White, Elm and
Franklin streets. It is a brick building, built about 40 years ago,
with factories on the upper floors.
The cars are moved night and day between here and the Grand
Central Depot on Forty-second street, 24 miles north, by horses.
The movement of freight at this station is prompt, oo00 cars being
handled here daily on a space about 200 ft. square, containing 8
tracks and the necessary platforms.
New York City & Northern Railroad.
This railroad has a direct connection with the New York & New
England Railroad. Its business is done by means of car floats
between its transfer station on the Harlem River at High Bridge,
and its city station at Pier 40, East River, foot of Pike street, i4
miles north of the Battery.
Long Island Railroad.
This railroad extends throughout Long Island. Its principal
in-bound freight is the product of "truck" farms, and its only
freight station in the city, operated by car floats from Hunter's
Point, is at Pier 35, East River, foot of Catharine street, i mile




6i


north of the Battery. Two thousand barrels of vegetables are
handled here in a night.
Most sincere thanks to the officers and men of all the different
roads must be added to these very incomplete notes, for the kindness and readiness with which the information desired has invariably been furnished.
GENERAL SUMMARY.
It is seen that there are two general systems of terminal work
illustrated at New York-one in which separate stations and yards
are used for local and for through freight, and as far as possible
for car-load lots, as on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the other
at which all freight is handled at a common station and sorted,
both in-bound and out-bound, in one great terminal yard like the
Sixtieth Street Yard of the New York Central & Hudson River
Railroad.
While the first system is probably quicker in its operation, the
second is sometimes more convenient; but what is most striking
in both systems, is the amount of work and room expended by the
railroads for very uncertain and irregular compensation.
The description of the works of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad shows the great amount of room occupied, and,
owing to competition among the railroad companies, it is the case
with all the other roads, in handling east-bound freight (such as
flour, cheese and many other kinds of merchandise), and that this
item of room and storage in a city like New York leads to great
expense both in itself and in the additional labor required in its
operation. The details of this work are certainly worthy of serious consideration, for it is well established that one of the most
important principles in the economical operation of railroads is the
care of those little things which are thousands of times repeated in
practice.
The description of the Pennsylvania Railroad work shows the
inconvenience of operating works located on narrow piers at tidewater.
The description of the D., L. & W. R. R. terminal work is in



62


tended to show the advantage of designing the yard for the work
to be done in it (as is also shown in the Sixtieth Street Yard of the
N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R.), and also the advantage of having works
specially devoted to one kind of business, insuring promptness and
system, and possibly leading to the use of machinery.
This consideration becomes important, as in the transportation
business, especially of through freight, the proportion of " staple"
freight shipped in car-load lots seems to be increasing, and its separation and classification will be constantly more closely watched.
In the description of the Erie R. R. works, some interesting
labor-saving appliances are mentioned, and the sketch of the works
of the West Shore Railwayis given chiefly to show their location
and arrangement; while the whole is intended to emphasize the intimate connection between the work and expenses in the yard and
those in the freight house, as distinguished from those on the road.
That these works have been located over a large area is natural,
on account of the great extent of available water-front; but it
would seem that the work, as a whole, can only be cheapened by
rearranging and concentrating it, and by applying system and
promptness throughout; and as it must always be made convenient
to the merchants, much study and consultation will be necessary
before any general permanent plan can be determined, in case it
should ever be considered desirable.
The accompanying table is an unofficial approximate estimate of
the actual capital represented in the terminal work of moving and
handling freight by the trunk line railroads at the port of New
York.
It includes the work of handling coal on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, but on no other, and only includes a
small part of the expenses of handling and lighterage of grain, oil
and live stock, and none of the expenses of clerical work and management on any of the roads.
The only direct return received from the merchants by these
railroad companies for this work, the plant of which represents an
aggregate actual capital of at least $35,000,000, and the power an
annual expenditure of at least $3,500,000, are the charges collected
for long-distance lighterage.
Assuming 6 per cent. interest, this shows a total annual expense
of $5,500,000, and taking into account clerk hire, management, repairs, taxes, light, stationery, insurance and all other expenses, the
total is probably not far from $o,00oo,ooo, or an average burden
on each road of $2,000,000 every year.




Oversize




TABULAR SUMMARY OF THE RAILROAD FACILITIES FOR HANDLING FREIGHT AT THE PORT OF NEW YORK.




Plant.




Fixed.


Termini on Hudson River.


NAME OF ROAD.


N. Y. C. &   H. R. R. R.....
Penna. R. R................
N. Y., L. E. & W. R. R....
D., L. & W. R. R.........
N. Y., W. S. &    B. Ry. &
N. Y., 0. & W. Ry..... f
Total....................
Cost per unit, dollars......
Representing millions of dollars capital...............


Total
Track
in all
Yards.
Miles.
28
39
49
50
34
200
10.000
2.000


Track
in
Yards.
Miles.
28
20
2C
30
44
12
134....


Area of
Yards.
Ex. of
Piers.
As.
83
71
70
74
80
378
52.000
g 20.000


Area of
Piers.
Sq. ft.
450,000
300,000
250,000
600,000
c 600,000
2,200,000
1.00
2.?00


Covered
Floor
Area.
Sq. ft.


o z
Sq. ft.


Locomotive.
a.q W
No.   No.    No.
14     12    40
15     16    80
16      8    55
15  b....  b....
d 9      8    55
69     44   230
8.700 25.000 9.000
0.600  1.100 2.100


I
I


Power.


350,000
360,000
300,000
a 540,000
450,000
e 2,000,000
0.80
1.600


350,000
290,000
150,000
b......
100,000
890,000
f 6.00
5.400


Average Laborers, etc., employed  daily
at Yards, Stations    and
Lighters.
No.
1,300
1,300
1,000
b 300
800
4,700
2.00
) @ 6 per cent.
47.000


Average Coal
used daily.
Tons.
110
120
100
b 50
50
450
4.00
@ 6 per cent.
0.000


----


a. Includes coal trestles.  b. None of the expenses of handling and lighterage of miscellaneous freight on this road are included, as that work
is done by contract. c. Proposed total, 1,500,000 sq. ft. d. Most of the freight on these roads comes in large lots, hence there is less sorting
of cars required in the yards than would be required otherwise. e. Includes area of both 1st and 2d floors, but not the track room. f. Includes
both land and structures. g. Includes land grading, etc., at all yards and stations except in the city proper.




64


Terminal work in general, then, is the connection between the
operations of simple transportation and those of sale and delivery,
and if it were found possible in the latter to adopt the rule of giving at the time of shipment of all freight its specific destination (a
warehouse, storehouse or factory, as the case may be, and not a
railroad freight house), it would ultimately lead to greater promptness in the work of handling, which would undoubtedly prove
beneficial to both the merchants and the railroad companies.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.
It would seem that the subject of terminal work is well worthy
of study in this country. In large cities, and especially in New
York, it appears to be the key to the solution of many of the problems relating to transportation, and the principles on which it is
conducted control the business of production and sale in some of
the great industries of the country.
It may be true that in certain stages of development the competition of similar interests which are naturally situated alike
is most conducive to the public good; but after these individual
interests have proved their worth and become firmly established,
their proper and regular growth becomes a part of the good of the
State, and is inseparably connected with its progress.  At such
times the indiscriminate application of the principal of competition
sometimes results, as in this case, in one industry bearing the burdens which legitimately belong to others. There will probably be
presented, some time in the future, then, the following question:
How can the terminal work at New York best be consolidated into
a well-regulated and progressive combination?
This combination would seem to be best regulated by a law
which should enforce a full, clear, detailed public statement of
accounts; and, with this fundamental principle established, there
need be little fear of serious abuses in its management. This system of accounts could depend for one thing upon a thoroughly
classified diary of all kinds of labor and material furnished, and to
what special freight and work applied.
The progressive and effective operation, resting as it should on
the principle that the foundation of the economical handling of
freight ispromptness, is a complicated question, which can only be
determined after thorough study and experiment. It can be said,




65


however, that New York, by its location, is peculiarly fitted for the
establishment of great public works for this purpose. The great
transportation companies possibly might themselves form a Union
Terminal Company, which could establish a connecting railroad
and one or more union terminal yards on the Hackensack Meadows, where most of the freight, both in-bound and out-bound, could
be thoroughly and systematically sorted according to its character
and destination, thereby greatly reducing and consolidating the
present termini on the Hudson River.  These yards could be
designed, perhaps, after the plan of some of the great English
gravity yards, as may be seen illustrated in Volume XLI. of Transactions of the Institution of Civil Engineers for I875. A rough
sketch of a yard, copied mostly from the Sixtieth Street and Hoboken Yards, is given in the accompanying cut, but it does not include
the English system of secondary yards, which might be advantageously applied to the sorting of local freight trains. In connection
with this might be established, especially for goods for local supply and storage and interior shipments, a few great depots in the
city, and again its peculiar location seems to make this possible.
The main part of the city is on an island about ten miles long and
only two miles wide; hence its growth is confined and is mostly in
one direction, and, as only a certain number of persons can live on
an acre of ground, the amount and location of this growth can be
determined. Certain portions of the city have been and can be, with
much certainty, set apart for factories, others for wholesale and retail business, and others for dwellings, and around the whole are
deep waters, which are navigable even during the severe winters...The most populous and busy part of the city is naturally dividedi
into four districts, being respectively above and below Fourteenth,
Street on the east and on the west, and hence the number of depots
need not probably be more than six. At these depots the business
of handling certain freight could be separated from the business
of storage, which could be put on a paying basis, while the handling might be done largely by machinery, one suggestion in regard.
to which is shown in the accompanying cut.
The conveyers there proposed would be constructed like a horse
tread-mill, flush with and forming a part of the floor about 4 or 5
feet wide, propelled slowly by steam machinery, and controlled by
a brake. If a similar contrivance could be applied to out-bound
freight on the car floats, it would introduce both economy andl
system into the work, but its practical application to any work of
the kind can only be determined by experiment.




66


The principle, however, of continuous vertical elevators, combined with continuous horizontal conveyers, weighing and automatically recording the number of pieces at the same time the
freight is moved, may prove applicable to the handling of freight,
both bulk and merchandise, in many cases; in unloading vessels as
well as in freight houses and on docks.
The hauling in the city also might be properly regulated and
more systematically carried on, thus adding economy, convenience
and promptness to the work of the merchants, and the work of
weighing miscellaneous freight perhaps done more economically
than at present.
Improvements might also be made in the methods of handling
-coal, as may be seen in the operation of handling a considerable
part of the coal supply of New England.
After good information on all these subjects has been obtained,
na general plan could be determined, which would probably give
better results than to adhere to the present plan of allowing each
road to answer the questions arising each day for itself alone;
hence, whatever may be the value of these suggestions, it can be
expected that this whole question in its broadest form will ultimately receive the attention of some practical men, and that the
combined efforts of a Railroad President, a General Superintendent, a General Freight Agent, a Chief Engineer, a Mechanical Engineer and a Railroad Auditor, working in co-operation with the
merchants, will finally result in decisive improvement in this work.
Even if the radical changes proposed above should be found
impracticable, some useful modifications of the present arrange-;ments can probably be agreed upon; and with this end in view it
would seem proper to determine as correctly as possible the approximate cost, both to the merchants and to the railroad companies, of handling and storing different kinds of freight by the
present methods, investigating separately the important articles of
commerce, such as grain, flour and provisions, and classifying
general merchandise according to the different modes of packing.and handling.
It may be well to state in closing these notes, that the faith in
their value arises not so much from a belief in their intrinsic
worth as from the opinion that, at least in portions of this country,
the era of rapid railroad construction is steadily giving way to the
*era of thoughtful railroad improvement, and that, whatever interest
-they may excite will largely be due to an appreciation of this fact;
and also that there is probably no one thing which would be more




67


likely to give stability to the values of American railroad properties than the striking example which would be set by the adoption
of a broad-minded, well-considered plan for the terminal work at
New York.
Schedule and Explanation
OF THE ACCOMPANYING
MAP OF NEW YORK CITY AND SURROUNDINGS.
The City of New York is divided into six districts, as follows:
District No. i, or Southwest.-All of the city south of Fourteenth street
and west of the Bowery, and also all south of Liberty street from river to
river.
District No. 2, or Southeast.-All south of Fourteenth street to Liberty
street and east of the Bowery.
District No. 3, or Northwest.-All north of Fourteenth street to Eightysixth street and west of Sixth avenue.
District No. 4, or Northeast.-All north of Fourteenth street to Eightysixth street and east of Sixth avenue.
District No. 5, or Harlem.-All of the city north of East and West
Eighty-sixth street to Harlem River.
District No. 6, or Annexed.-All of the city north of Harlem River to
Westchester County.
Property colored red shows location of railroad termini.
Property colored blue shows location of wholesale dealers in manufactures.
Property colored yellow shows location of wholesale dealers in food.
Property colored black shows location of markets and storehouses.


TABULAR STATEMENT OF POPULATION.
-Estimated aver —
age population  — Estimated total —
Area,       per acre.           population.
District No.        acres.  Y'r '85. Y'r '95.  Year 1885. Year 1895.
1...................... 1.302   181      190      236,000      247,000
2..................... 1,106   321      325      353,000      360,000
3..................... 2,322   124      200      288,000      464,000
4...                  2,342     147      200      344,000       468,000
Totalsouthof86thst.. 7,072     172     *217    1,221,000    1.539,000
5......................  5,504   22               123,000
6..................... 12,317     4                52,000
Grand total.......... 24,893   56              1,396,000
* This is about the present average population of the Twentieth Ward.




68
ESTIMATED POPULATION OF SURROUNDING CITIES.
Brooklyn., —Population 1885. ---Area,          Average
District.                      acres.          per acre.         Total.
Greenpoint district................  729          50             36.000
Williamsburgh district............ 6,983          46            317,000
Central Brooklyn.................. 3,509          71            248,000
South Brooklyn................. 2,086             23             50,000
Total........................... 13,307          49             651,000
In New Jersey.
Jersey City, Hoboken and adjacent towns............................. 160,000
Newark  and  adjacent towns............................................ 160,000
Total...............................................................  320,000
APPROXIMATE ESTIMATE OF LOCAL SUPPLY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Tabular statement of the average daily tonnage of freight delivered direct to
consumers south of Eighty-sixth street.
In the Year 1885.
---------         Daily average, tons. --- —---
V ---  est side. --         East side. ---            Total.
From      Food,                  Food,                  Food,
14th st. clothing, etc.  Coal.  clothing, etc.  Coal.  clothing, etc.  Coal.
South.... 1,200      2,500       1,000      2,500      2,200       5,000
North..... 1,000      2,000        900       2,200      1,900       4,200
Total... 2,200      4,500      1,900      4,700      4,100       9.200
In the Year 1895.
South..... 1,250      2,700       1,000      2,800      2,250       5,500
North..... 1,750      3,300       1,200      3,200      2,950       6,500
Total... 3,000     6,000       2,200      6,000      5,200      12,000




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