V 
 
 ft 
 
 ^^ntcrican (Lnographical anb ^statistical .^ocictn, 
 
 IN Tin: riTY OF NEW YOT^K. MAY V>, IS-V!. 
 
 DAVIJ) KVKIIKTT WHEELKJi. 
 
• 
 
 AVERY ARCHITECTURAL AND FINE ARTS LIBRARY 
 GIFT OF SEYMOUR B. DURST OLD YORK LIBRARY 
 
THE 
 
 NEW YOPiK HARBOR, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE IMPROVEMENTS NECESSARY FOR ITS ACCOMMO- 
 DATION OF COMMERCE, AND THE REMOVAL OF 
 THE DANGERS AT HELL GATE. 
 
 A PAPER 
 
 READ BEFORE THE 
 IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, MAY 15, 185G, 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID EVERETT WHEELER. 
 
 NEW YOKK : 
 J. F. TROW, PRINTER, 377 & 379 BROADWAY, 
 
 CORNER OF WHITE STREET. 
 185G. 
 
1 25(Sr. 
 
PELATIAH PERIT, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir : — I take tlie liberty of dedicatiDg these pages to you. If of 
 value, the dedication is appropriate, for you have passed the meridian of 
 life in the pursuits of Commerce, and been acknowledged one of the first 
 shipping merchants of this Continent. 
 
 Accept, Dear Sir, this tribute from one who still remembers a remark 
 early made to him by yourself, that desert in this City will always meet 
 with success. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 D. E. WHEELER. 
 
 New York, May 28th, 1856. 
 
PAPER. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the American 
 Geograhpical & Statistical Society : — It would per- 
 haps be becoming in me to apologize to the Society for 
 troubling it with any remarks upon so trite a subject, 
 as that of the Harbor of New York ; but it seemed 
 appropriate to a Society, formed for the purpose of 
 collecting and dilffusing Geographical and Statistical 
 information, which owes its existence to the State which 
 has within its peculiar jurisdiction a Harbor which has 
 been and will be one of the great avenues for a nation's 
 wealth. 
 
 New York and its adjacent waters and head-lands 
 have delighted more eyes than those of the great navi- 
 gator, who first passed Sandy Hook in 1609 ; and others 
 have lived to enjoy some of the fruits of that great 
 man's discovery, while more are to be possessed in the 
 great future that is before us. The history of nature 
 is not limited to the short span of three score years 
 and ten, but keeps its onward march without universal 
 decay ; and its parts always find their fellows, which 
 
6 
 
 link the past, the present, and the near, and distant 
 future, into one long, continuous chain. 
 
 The past of New York is but a moment, and its 
 present is bound to all future time. Its yesterday is 
 its discovery, its growth has scarcely marked a day, and 
 its ultimate destiny will only have been realized when 
 our government shall have crumbled, our rivers ceased 
 to flow, and our mountains melted like wax. 
 
 This existence is to be modified by man, and its his- 
 tory, written or unwritten, the successive acts of gene- 
 rations of men. It will wash and sweeten the lands 
 and rocks which cradle it, without progress, if man 
 ceases to use or improve what the great Creator has 
 made for him. 
 
 The page of its history, belonging to this genera- 
 tion, will be such as we authorize, such as we perfect. 
 The past we may censure, while we cannot correct ; 
 the present we must improve. 
 
 It was the past and the present which induced the 
 Legislature of our State, at its session in 1855, to pass 
 " an act for the appointment of a commission for the 
 preservation of the Harbor of New York from en- 
 croachments, and to prevent obstructions to the neces- 
 sary navigation thereof." 
 
 This commission was deemed necessary to gather in- 
 formation, upon which wise legislation might be based ; 
 and the Commissioners have commenced their duties, 
 and called to their aid the best talent and ability this 
 country, and perhaps any other, can furnish; and 
 they have made their surveys and soundings, their tidal 
 
7 
 
 examinations and charts, and sent them forth as their 
 first, but unfinished work. 
 
 Enough, however, has been done, to show that the 
 subject is one of paramount importance to this City, 
 this State, this Nation. That the great Harbor of the 
 Atlantic coast on this Continent must be protected by 
 the men of the present day, and its national advan- 
 tages improved for its own and the benefit of the com- 
 mercial world. 
 
 The practical and scientific men, connected with 
 that commission, say : 
 
 It is stated l)y McCulloch, that urgent necessity 
 led to the excavation of the first wet docks in London, 
 and that this necessity was the want of " a proper accom- 
 modation for the shipping resorting to London." The 
 port was blocked up, the quays were insufficient for 
 the business, and such was the confusion and crowd 
 that the most barefaced robberies were committed 
 with impunity. We have not yet reached this state 
 of things in New York, but if what we read and hear 
 is true, there is a great existing want of wharf accom- 
 modations; and there is also a great deal of theft 
 along the river fronts, to prevent which it has been 
 requisite to establish a separate river police. 
 
 To some extent, then, the causes which first drove 
 the people and government of London to the construc- 
 tion of wet docks in the beginning of this century, 
 have appeared here. There are now undoubtedly 
 frequent complaints of the crowded state of our rivers, 
 of delay and difficulty in procuring good berths, of 
 
8 
 
 want of accommodation for discharging cargoes, of 
 scarcity and distance of commodious warehouses. We 
 hear these complaints from our friends, and read them 
 in the daily journals. And these are the very com- 
 plaints, according to Mr. Jacob, which, reaching the 
 merchants, ship-owners and government, in 1799, led 
 to the passage of the act granting power to build the 
 West India Docks, the first in London. 
 
 It tasked all the resources of the su23reme intellect 
 and power of Mr. Pitt to triumph over the obstacles. 
 But how grand and beneficial has been the influence of 
 these docks (from the West India to the Victoria) 
 upon the commercial prosperit}^ of London ! Without 
 them, her progress must have been seriously impeded, 
 if not positively arrested. They are the receptacles of 
 her trade. Into them is poared the wealth of the 
 world, which but for them must have found elsewhere 
 a place of deposit. They are indeed the means as 
 well as the symbols of the commercial greatness of the 
 city. 
 
 Liverpool also owes to her docks her rapid rise 
 and healthy development. Bristol and Hull too testify 
 to the superior advantages of enclosed docks over 
 every other system. But all these places, London, 
 Liverpool, Bristol, Hull, differ from New- York in some 
 essential respects affecting this question of docks — such 
 as want of space, rise of tide, imperfect anchorage, bad 
 channels, &c. 
 
 Liverpool was merely a fishing town, without 
 foreign tonnage, when her docks were begun in 1708. 
 
9 
 
 Amona' the harbors of the world none exceed New- 
 York, and but few can compare with it in beauty and 
 commodicusness. Its wide-spreading bays, its roomy 
 and deep channels, its numerous, long, and well-washed 
 water fronts, are the suitable and ample provisions of 
 nature for its advancinsr trade. But immense as this 
 harbor is, there is a limit to its capacity, and to what 
 may be called its natural resources. The system of 
 wet basins must be adopted sooner or later even here. 
 
 Taking the present ratio of increase as our guide, 
 how far must we extend our sight into the future to 
 discern in New- York an amount of commerce equal to 
 that of London at this day ? And before the com- 
 merce of New- York has increased to this extent, docks 
 will have become absolutely indispensable, not only on 
 account of their economical disposal of space, but on 
 account of their economical distribution of time and 
 labor. It is desirable, then, that we, by proper pru- 
 dential measures, should prevent the evils and expense 
 to which London has been subjected, and at the same 
 time it must be remembered that the question is actu- 
 ally to be settled now, at least for a time. 
 
 What we have hitherto said concerning docks, is 
 independent of some recent changes which have ma- 
 terially altered the commerce of the seas, the business 
 of ports, and the internal trade through rivers; we 
 mean, of course, the improvements in naval architec- 
 ture, the changes in commerce which produced these 
 improvements, the employment of steam-tugs in har- 
 bors, and of steam tow-boats in rivers. All these are 
 
10 
 
 the efficient causes of a celerity and disiDatch in the 
 transmission of merchandise, in the interchange of com- 
 merce, and in the transaction of business, far exceeding 
 any thing before known. And they need wet basins 
 as their only sufficient aids, as the subservient instru- 
 ments of that expedition to which they all conduce, as, 
 indeed, complemental parts of a whole. 
 
 If vessels or freight-boats are not provided with im- 
 mediate facilities for discharging their burdens when 
 they reach their place of destination; if they are 
 obliged to wait in the stream, or to unload without 
 suitable conveniences, all the other means of haste 
 would seem to be, in a measure, thrown away. These 
 are not facts and considerations brought together or 
 invented for effect, but they are derived and deduced 
 from the practice of a great, commercial nation ; and, 
 when rightly estimated, they lead to the conclusion 
 that the business of New York cannot much longer be 
 carried on as now, but will require a system of wet ba- 
 sins, built with materials and upon a plan commensu- 
 rate with the ojDulent resources of the State and City, 
 and the stableness of their prosperity. 
 
 I have made use of these long extracts because they 
 were written over the signatures of Bache, Totten and 
 Davis, men whose opinions are authority. 
 
 An extract from Lieutenant-commanding Charles 
 H. Davis, adds another important fact for consideration 
 in this general view of the Harbor of New York, for 
 he says : 
 
 Of the sailing vessels that enter the Hell Gate pas- 
 
11 
 
 sage, it is estimated that one in fifty sustains more or 
 less injury, by being forced by the violence of the cur- 
 rents on the rocks or shoals, and the accident to the 
 Oregon, which nearly proved fatal to her passengers, 
 shows that even steamboats, with a motive power that 
 keeps them under perfect control, and guided by most 
 experienced pilots, are not secure from peril. Such an 
 improvement in the channels of Hell Gate as would ren- 
 der them navio:able to vessels of all classes under com- 
 mon circumstances, would supply to the commerce of 
 New York a new outlet to the sea, and in a different 
 direction from the harbor channels, and available when 
 these were temporarily closed by adverse winds, or 
 other causes, and would, therefore, be a permanent and 
 valuable resource, both for vessels outward bound and 
 for those returninor home. 
 
 The dangers in this channel arise from the great 
 strength of the currents, and the number and positions 
 of the rocks and reefs. The strength of the current is 
 such, that sailing vessels can only stem its force or es- 
 cape from it by a commanding breeze. 
 
 And Lieutenant-commanding Porter, who was en- 
 gaged in the same survey, says : 
 
 In a place where the interests of so many are at 
 stake, the want of attention to the navigation of Hell 
 Gate appears like culpable neglect. No one can form 
 an idea of the number of v^essels that go on shore dur- 
 ing the course of a month. Fifty went on shore dur- 
 ing the period I was occupied there (two months), and 
 many of them were much injured. I am convinced 
 
12 
 
 that if proper measures were taken to protect the com- 
 mercial interests of this great City, not one vessel would 
 be lost in five years. 
 
 The importance of these two statements cannot 
 be fully realized, and therefore I add, that the regis- 
 tered and enrolled tonnage of the port of New York, 
 in the year 1824, was 263,145 tons, and in the year 
 1855, thirty-one years thereafter, 1,1^88,234 tons. That 
 the tonnage entered the District of New York in 1821 
 was 171,963 tons, and in the year 1854, thirty-three 
 years thereafter, 1,919,313J tons. That the tounage 
 whicli cleared in the District of New York, in 1821, 
 was 154,472 tons, and in the year 1854, thirty-three 
 years thereafter, l,528,104f tons. That the vcilue of 
 the imports in the year 1854 v/ere $305,780,253, and 
 the exports in the same year, $316,403,634 ; and in the 
 same year there arrived at the port of New York by 
 our State Kailroads and Canals, 2,935,713 tons, and 
 760 canal boats, with an aggregate tonnage of 74,000 
 tons, lay in our harbor in the single month of December 
 last. To this astounding statement must be added 
 the almost countless amount of property which arrived 
 at and departed from this port through other channels 
 during the same period. 
 
 For this great commerce what has the United States, 
 the State, or City of New York, as such, done ? Com- 
 paratively nothing. The Harbor is emj^hatically one 
 God has given to man, and the improvement he has 
 made, or commenced, has been almost exclusively indi- 
 vidual in character, and for single personal ends. The 
 
13 
 
 Lispenard Meadows, which might have been excavated 
 and made valuable wet docks, have been filled up and 
 covered with buildings ; and the Stuy vesant Meadows 
 once the almost natural resting-place for ships, have 
 ceased to be objects for that purpose. The solid earth 
 has gone into the East River further than it should, 
 and until it has almost made a ship " race coui*se " of 
 this beautiful arm of the sea ; and the Hudson River, 
 northerly to Forty-fourth street, can scarcely claim a 
 shore ; for her channel skirts along the jDiers that 
 pierce her from her easterly border. 
 
 Ships were first moored at the mouth of rivers, and 
 the owners were obliged to load and discharge them 
 under great disadvantages. These necessary accompani- 
 ments of commerce have been gradually giving place 
 to improvements for the safety of the vessel, and the 
 saving of labor in the loading and unloading. 
 
 These improvements at the Harbor of New York 
 have not kept pace with the growth of commerce, for 
 our wooden piers and distant storehouses but illy com- 
 pare with the docks and warehouses of other com- 
 mercial nations, or even with some of our own inland 
 cities. Competition for the commercial mastery of the 
 world has found this country, youthful as she is, not 
 behind her older rivals in naval architecture or scien- 
 tific improvements in the navigation of the seas ; and, 
 unless many are very much mistaken, the time has 
 arrived when we must show the same skill, if not 
 superiority, in our docks, basins and warehouses. 
 
 The docks at London are excavations of the solid 
 
14 
 
 earth on the borders of the Thames, and those finished 
 and in progress embrace over one thousand acres of 
 land, and they are walled up with massive stone walls, 
 with an average depth of about twenty-five feet of 
 water ; and those of Liverpool cover an area of more 
 than six hundred acres, with a frontage of over fourteen 
 miles. 
 
 Artificial aids of this character are not confined to 
 Great Britain, but they are common to most of the sea- 
 ports in the Eastern Hemisphere ; but one of the 
 great elements of the success of the commerce of Eng- 
 land, is her great outlays for an economical disposition 
 of the products and manufactures of the world. 
 
 Few, if any, more vessels can lie safely south of 
 Perry street, on the easterly side of the North Eiyer, 
 or south of Corlear's Hook, on the westerly side of the 
 East River, and our steamers, ships, and canal-boats, 
 have already begun to find berths on the Long Island 
 shore, and that of our sister State, New Jersey. 
 
 These shores present many valuable advantages for 
 the building of wet docks and warehouses, and they 
 have attracted genius, enterjDrise, and capital. The At- 
 lantic Dock and GowanusBay may be alluded to, without 
 disparagement ; and the immense improvements already 
 decided upon on the New Jersey shore, show that 
 there will be other claims in our Harbor for the com- 
 merce of the world, beside the Citv of New York. 
 Nature, too, has not been partial in her gifts, for the 
 westerly shore of the Hudson, below Fort Lee, is well 
 protected from storms, and wet docks could be built 
 
15 
 
 from Hoboken to the Kill Van KuU, on a line with 
 Robin's Reef, which would enclose an immense field ot 
 water for ships, and points of land for w^arehouses — 
 points, too, exceedingly favorable as depots for the 
 productions of the Western World. There are, 
 however, some objections to these locations in New 
 Jersey, and they may be found, practically, greater 
 than the mere theorist would imai^ine. The de- 
 posit which flows dow^n the Hudson, notwithstanding 
 its wonderful formation to prevent it, is considerable, 
 and the fact that the most of that deposit is left upon 
 the New Jersey shore, and never carried to the 
 entrance of the low^er bay, is another of Nature's 
 wonderful works; for the deposit of the Hudson, if 
 carried to the mouth of the Harbor, like the deposit of 
 the great Mississippi, we should soon have to find 
 another channel to the sea for ships of large tonnage. 
 
 The New York Harbor has an entrance beside that 
 at Sandy Hook, and one, if Hell Gate could be passed 
 with safety, far superior for all vessels bound to New 
 York from the east, or from New York to the east. 
 But this maelstrom of destruction has always been a 
 terror to its navisfators, and must remain so, unless real 
 obstacles are removed. 
 
 These, thus far, have baffled human skill, yet we 
 may hope that science w^ill, in some form, perfect her 
 wwk, and w^e be enabled to see in our Harbor the Levia- 
 than that, we are now told, is too large to enter any 
 harbor of the Atlantic coast in the Western He mis 
 phere. 
 
16 
 
 I have thus far scarcely alluded to the immense 
 fleet of canal-boats constantly seeking a quiet resting- 
 place in our waters, and not at all to the fact, that the 
 vessels which we call boats are beginning to be equal 
 in size to the largest ships of a former age ; and that 
 they have but just begun to bring the annual products 
 of the Western World to the Atlantic shore. 
 
 These must have a quiet place of rest, and where 
 shall it be when the foreign commerce of New York 
 is doubled, quadrupled, which will be within the next 
 quarter of a century, if man does his part for its 
 growth. 
 
 Some plan for the aid of our commerce commensu- 
 rate with its importance must be commenced, must 
 be perfected ; else New York, as New York proper, 
 will find that she is not the great warehouse of the 
 Continent. Many have been suggested, but none so 
 magnificent, so appropriate as that of Mr. Clark while 
 he was mayor of the City, and changes have taken 
 place since that period which render his project im- 
 practicable. 
 
 If I suggest another plan, and it is deemed 
 impracticable, I shall only be in the position of Mr. 
 Clark, excepting that his j)i'oject had official sanction, 
 and mine will be without it. 
 
 I propose to have erected a break-water or dam 
 across the East River, from a point at or near the foot 
 of Fulton-street, Brooklyn, to the New York shore, six 
 or eight hundred feet wide, with four or more single 
 locks. Two sufficiently large for the free entrance of 
 
17 
 
 ships of the very largest class ; and others of smaller 
 dimensions, for vessels of the smaller class; and 
 another break-water or dam at the south end of 
 Blackwell's Island, of about the same width, with two 
 locks on each side of the island : one, for the entrance 
 and departure of the largest class of vessels, and the 
 other of the smaller class. 
 
 This will make a wet dock sufficiently large to ac- 
 commodate all the shipping that will seek our harbor 
 as long as this island is inhabited by man. 
 
 The distance across the river at the southerly point 
 is about thirteen hundred feet, and at the northerly 
 point, about two thousand feet including the island, 
 and the bottom of both points is principally rock. 
 The break- waters or dams would themselves furnish 
 foundations for warehouses, and the tide, doubtless, 
 power sufficient to load and unload all the vessels 
 which could lie at them. 
 
 A careful topographical survey might indicate 
 better points for these great works, but that would 
 not vary essentially the general design. 
 
 The plan should also embrace the navigation of 
 Harlem Eiver, which would probably require the 
 erection of one or more single locks, to guard against 
 the evils arising from difference in the time of the 
 tide in the North and East Eivers. 
 
 These suggestions will not be fully apprehended 
 except by an examination of the map of the city, and 
 that portion of land or water adjacent to it.* 
 
 * To aid the reader ia at once apprehending these suggestions, I have 
 
18 
 
 This improvement will give a Basin as quiet a» 
 the bosom of a small inland lake, of about four miles 
 in length, with an average width of nearly three 
 quarters of a mile, and a depth sufficient for any vessel 
 ever built or supposed possible to be built. 
 
 It will also contain within its area the Navy Yard, 
 and furnish a quiet anchorage for all the navy the Gen^ 
 eral Government will ever build. 
 
 It will be an enclosure of a river of the sea, and receive* 
 no washings from mountains or deposits from valleys. 
 It will be an enclosed body of pure salt water, and be 
 devoted to a commerce which makes New York what, 
 it now is, and which will make New York the greatest 
 commercial city of the world, if man completes his part 
 of that great work which a wise Providence has left 
 him to do. 
 
 This work completed, will at all times give vessels 
 comparatively quiet berths north of Buttermilk Channel, 
 and enable the Ferry Boats to pass to and from our 
 easterly neighbors in much less time than is now occu- 
 pied, and without danger. 
 
 It will take away all real danger in passing Hell 
 Gate, and enable steamers to pass through that " marvel 
 of waters " with as much ease and safety as they navi- 
 gate any portion of the Sound, and vessels propelled by 
 wind will only be troubled by a narrow and winding 
 channel. 
 
 It will enable steamers or ships of the very largest 
 
 appended to these pages a small map, but a large chart would be much 
 better. 
 
19 
 
 class to enter Long Island Sound east of Montauk Point, 
 pass by an inland sea for a distance of one hundred and 
 fifty miles, which may be lighted almost as perfectly as 
 the streets of a city, and find a berth at the side of 
 warehouses, if necessary, in water thirty feet deep. 
 
 It will also enable these same steamers or ships to 
 pass from those berths outwardly, on the west side of 
 Blackwell's Island, with forty-eight feet water, and by 
 the Gridiron at Hell Gate with thirty-five feet water, 
 and the Frying Pan with thirty one feet water, and 
 thence through the same sea to the haven where they 
 would be. 
 
 The removal of rocks in Hell Gate would give a 
 wider channel, but, if the furious and conflicting cur- 
 rents of the waters are not checked, the danger will 
 scarcely be lessened. The currents are the real cause 
 of danger. 
 
 These improvements are not to be made by a mere 
 will, or without great outlay of capital. Both are re- 
 quired, and both maybe found if the project is feasible^ 
 and wise. ~ 
 
 The commission to which I have alluded is evidence 
 of the first ; and the expense, great or small, may be 
 borne by a people whose government extends from the 
 shores of the Atlantic to the shores of the Pacific, or by 
 a people who have made the State of New York ]ne- 
 morable by her canals, or a City which has projected, 
 and partially completed, the most magnificent water 
 works known in ancient or modern times, and which 
 has planned for the outlay of many millions of dollars?j 
 
20 
 
 for fancied pleasure grounds or a place for healthful 
 recreation ; and to either of them it will not appear too 
 vast or too costly. 
 
 When, too, we add that the nation from which we 
 sprung, since the formation of our Government has ex- 
 pended in docks for the benefit of commerce over two 
 hundred millions of dollars, and is still adding to that 
 enormous amount, we may be satisfied that the children, 
 if necessary, can accomplish as much as the fathers. 
 
 But there is a vast difference in the position of the 
 work I propose and the great works to which I have 
 alluded. The Harbor of New York is large and com- 
 modious of itself, and the Basin I propose nature has 
 already excavated, and made her sides, leaving only to 
 be formed two narrow ends, and these ends she has 
 provided with a foundation. Nature has also given to 
 New York an abundance of material for building any 
 permanent docks which may be necessary. 
 
 With these bountiful provisions and the discoveries 
 of science, the work may all be done in a short time, 
 and comparatively at a very small expense ; an expense 
 even within the means of individual wealth, if a small 
 portion of the direct advantage should be received as a 
 partial return for the outlay.