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(erielack) Assorted Thoughts

A week ago yesterday, I got to visit "ground zero".  Thanks to all of 
you who gave me information about the site.  There is an 
emptiness there similar to what I experienced last September when 
I visited the site at the Pentagon.  There was a lot of people all 
around, but not a lot of arrogant attitudes.  People respected each 
other.  Taking the ferry back to Hoboken I was thinking that it was 
just about 34 years ago on that date that I rode the "Elmira" on 
here last passage from Barclay Street.  The Imperiali ferries are 
nice and face, but they bob in the river like a toy in a bathtube.  I 
remarked to another older passenger that the old steam ferries 
hardly even rocked in any kind of weather.  Hopefully the boats that 
use the old ferryhouse, when it is restored will be a little bigger.

While all of this has been going on, I have been watching the PBS 
documentary on New York.  I usually watch it in 30 minute 
segments taking in as much information as I can.  There is a lot of 
information on Robert Moses and his views of how a city should be 
designed.  Moses's plans extended far beyond the city.  The 
documentary showed a map with his plans to provide automobile 
access to the city.  In it were outlines of Route 6 (now US 46) and 
S-3.  (I suppose most people now just call it Route 3, but back 
when I was growing up, it was S-3 for some reason).  When these 
roads were constructed, in the 40's and early 50's they took a large 
number of commuters away from the Erie's mainline, DL&W 
Boonton Line, and the Susquehenna.  This was at a time when the 
commuter equipment was at replacement age.  Only the 
Susquehenna made the effort to upgrade.  With all the new roads, I 
can imagine railroad management wondering how long they would 
have to keep the commuter trains running.  In the late 50s there 
was always the threat from the Lackawanna that all Boonton Line 
passenger service would be eliminated.

Moses seemed to have no use for any form of rail transportation.  
Even the New York Subways were being ignored.  He wanted 
automobiles and expressways all over the place.  In the 1950s 
there was a plan for the "Bergan-Passaic Expressway".  I would 
imagine Moses had something to do with this.  It originally was 
planned to run from the George Washington Bridge to Route 46 
just west of Willowbrook.  It became I-80.  

The railroad infrastructure was pretty much ignored during that 
time.  The only commuter line that came close to making money 
was the DL&W's M&E electrics.  There were no highways to 
compete with these lines.  Even the PRR's line sufferred from the 
New Jersey Turnpike.  The documentary didn't mention it, but I 
suspect Moses had some input on building that road as well. 

The documentary points out that what Moses never figured out was 
that the more roads built, produced more cars and more traffic.  It 
produced the urban sprawl and the subdivisions all over the place.  
It's a fascinating piece of video that explains why the railroads 
suffered the way they did in the New York area.  It also touches on 
the loss of industry and the development of containerization that 
made waterfront property on the Hudson less desirable.

Ed Montgomery

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