Report of The New York State and Tunnel Commission 1920; Legislative Document No. 60

Albany, NY: J.B. Lyon for the Commission, 1920. First edition. Quarto in navy blue cloth lettered in gilt. A tight, near fine example, small bump at one tip and a touch of wear at the spine ends. 82 pp + 30 plates at rear (24 of which are folding) maps and technical diagrams (NOTE: PICTURES OR SCANS OF FOLDING PLATES CANNOT BE PROVIDED DUE TO SIZE). Frontis and four additional full page photographic plates. The 1920 Commission report deals mainly with the approval for the building of the Holland Tunnel from lower Manhattan under the Hudson River to Jersey City. The volume contains the full report of C.M. Holland, the Chief Engineer (after whom the tunnel would be named). it covers information on limitations by legislation, the territory the tunnel would serve, alignment and approaches, depth, and grades. There is a section on traffic that estimates usage based on ferry traffic from 1913 forward (the tunnel was not planned to eliminate the need for any of the numerous ferry lines) as well as traffic across the four major East River bridges (the uses of which triples or quadrupled in the seven-year period 1912 to 1919). Car, truck, and horse traffic in New Jersey from Newark, Paterson and Jersey City is also exhibited. an interesting feature of the report is a chart forecasting tunnel traffic from 1924 to 1943--- the estimate was that yearly tunnel traffic in 1924 would be 5,610,00 vehicles (including horse drawn), to 12,900,00 vehicles in 1934, and 22,300,00 by 1943. There are sections on roadway capacity, the size of the tunnel (two lane, three, lane, etc or the construction of two lane tunnels (which is how it indeed turned out), street congestion, dimensions of vehicles (height and width), headroom (13 to 14 feet needed), roadway width, ventilation, various construction methods to be considered. Near Fine. Item #E35899

Price: $150.00