New York has biennial elections. The road could not be completed in
two years, and the attitude of one administration might not be the
attitude of its successors.
The engineering difficulties were well-nigh appalling. Towering
buildings along the streets had to be considered, and the streets
themselves were already occupied with a complicated network of
subsurface structures, such as sewers, water and gas mains, electric
cable conduits, electric surface railway conduits, telegraph and
power conduits, and many vaults extending out under the streets,
occupied by the abutting property owners. On the surface were street
railway lines carrying a very heavy traffic night and day, and all the
thoroughfares in the lower part of the city were congested with
vehicular traffic.
Finally, the city was unwilling to take any risk, and demanded
millions of dollars of security to insure the completion of the road
according to the contract, the terms of which were most exacting down
to the smallest detail.
The builders of the road did not underestimate the magnitude of the
task before them. They retained the most experienced experts for every
part of the work and, perfecting an organization in an incredibly
short time, proceeded to surmount and sweep aside difficulties. The
result is one of which every citizen of New York may feel proud. Upon
the completion of the road the city will own the best constructed and
best equipped intraurban rapid transit railroad in the world.
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