It has
magic Manhattan like a cluster of sin fired mountain peaks.
It's manmade mansions of industry rise out of the bay from the battery to the prom.
It's brightly lighted avenues are a byword it's waterfront afraid from here on this
golden Island is the greatest honor a kaleidoscope of all those who were down to
the sea in ships
and no less than ten thousand fifty here come into New York Harbor from voyages of
the seventy to rest exchange their cargoes.
And then quietly slip away from their restless wandering it's more than eight
hundred boards in all the waterfront facilities.
If put end to end would stretch almost one third the distance across the United
States
and more than two hundred thousand persons are employed daily to handle the traffic
of the harbor the tug approximately seven hundred a number are an institution under
themselves appearing like puny little water bugs hitting at break this thing are
they nevertheless analyzing the bottom of the deep with amazingly.
Innumerable other types of seagoing craft in the harbor from the most modern of it
too thick to arrest for mass the tune is reminiscent of
when jamming days of the almost forgotten time
on the Lower East River water from is a seaman's church.
Institute which Paul more than a hundred years has befriended all men of the scene
thousands of bodges carry thousands of products about the harbor an occasional line
great with freshly washed clothing is often the only outward indication
that many of these barges are the permanent homes of those who tend them.
This little girl has bought a doll and carriage up on that
and all their young lady. How are you today. All right. Madeleine good.
She and her little brother were both born on this particular bar
and it's the only playground they know
sunrise over the Lower East River always this close is long lines of sturdy little
schooner tied to the horrors
that the four supposed to be here at the famous hundred year old Fulton Fish Market
boats come here we are to clean from near
and far to unload their catch within the shadow of the towering skyscrapers of
lower Manhattan.
Some of these the human have caught their cargo as far away as the coast of Nova
Scotia
or a spa south of stormy Cape Hatteras on the coast of North Carolina the Fulton
Fish Market of which this is
but one here is the largest wholesale fish market in the world.
Each year it handles approximately five hundred million pounds of seafood of more
than one hundred different varieties.
Nothing is more characteristic of the New York waterfront them these bulldog like
the couple
that pull off push floating cargo often one hundred times their own size.
Let's go aboard one of us a lot of these river for a mid stream give
There's a famous Brooklyn Bridge for more than half a century.
It has proudly spend the broad East River and watch the ever growing skyscrapers.
First of New York's great bridges.
It has fourteen thousand miles of cable continues to defy the ravages of wear
and time and it still retains its place as one of the principals
or affairs to Manhattan
just above the Brooklyn Bridge is Manhattan Bridge considerably greater in length
and beyond
that Williamsburg Bridge the waterfront is a place of conference where the elegant
sit beside the ugly.
Graceful white Yahoo I look down upon by the smoky back to me is of industry here
and there are extravagant dwellings such as pretensions where the house was landing
float a specially designed for the race the speed boat of its affluent residence
and exuding opulence and prosperity to the very top of LA to cower and then.
There are the jungles of the less fortunate whose only homes are made of discarded
boards and bits of tin collected in the back alleys of the same atop
and whose household funny things come from ash cans
and public refuse the dead ends of Manhattan.
They wander dejectedly about their shacks on this decrepit spot of the waterfront
like an holy ghost of men who have failed in every opportunity
that life on the land of opportunity can afford
some of the back water bands
and little used clothes become the graves of harbor derelict barges tugs
and other craft which have completed their life of usefulness
and have been abandoned to sink in rough.
Even the out of water ends of some of these dams
and deliberated harbor wrecks are converted into homes for Manhattan Beach comber.
In the less repellent little days are occasionally to be found somewhat more
pretentious improvised living quarters need homes built on deserted barges.
Lifted above the mire and murky water with clean window curtains
and front porches
that look out across beach two sunken hulks of various types sizes
and stages of wreckage warehouses and sprawling factories
and the homes of other waterfront squatters
Manhattan is a city of bridges the over water roadways
that connect the metropolis with surrounding points total more than twice the
entire length of the island.
Some are mechanical swinging all if thing while others span the sky.
Well above the tallest smokestack all message.
This is one of the less lofty spans of the great Triborough Bridge a mere segment
that straddles the Harlem River high enough for tugs
and other small craft to go underneath also capable of lifting like an elevator to
permit the passing of large vessels.
Here is one of the automobile approaches on the same Harlem River crossing of the
Triborough Bridge the newest of all those serving Manhattan.
It is seventeen and a half miles in length
and its three arms extend to the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx.
There are also fourteen miles of highway approaches and the concrete alone
that were used in the construction of the bridge proper would pave appalling
highway from new we off to Philadelphia the most imposing
part of this great engineering achievement is the suspension pot over the East
River at Hellgate near the point where it spreads out into Long Island Sound the
Spanish sufficiently high to permit all vessels to pass underneath the on can be
seen the famous Hell Gate Bridge used exclusively for railway traffic.
This gives a better idea of the great length of Hell Gate Bridge looking to our.
The main span from a point. Approximately in the middle of the entire structure.
Probably the most imposing of all Manhattan's Bridges is the George Washington
across the expensive and historic Hudson.
It's many traffic arches curving a prism silver framework things of beauty its
towers rise twice the height of any of the other bridges
and this massive structure of steel
and concrete reaches gracefully almost three quarters of a mile in a single span
skirting a goodly part of the western shore line of the island is famous Riverside
Drive which looks out across well hidden away tracks under the Hudson.
Where the battleships of many navies have anchored on parade.
And where now
and then even today an occasional antiquated square regular can be seen tied to all
the industries of Manhattan's magic waterfront on many sided
and never ending the falling shadows of evening bring no silencing to its towering
skeletons of steel and fast dropping
and rising clamshell bucket unloading barges of coal sand
and gravel are its great pride are capable of lifting great ship so
that men may work under them arms Friskies from
sunrise to sunset and through the bleak drab hours of darkness round
and round the ever varying waterfront. From Hell.
Gates lofty bridges to the battery that looks out toward the open ocean.
There are sites at which to model
and sight one may best avoid nature has indeed been kind to the little island on
which the American Metropolis is due.
But were it not for the development of Maritime Transportation which has made it a
mecca of ships and merchants of the sea.
Its great harbor might be only a vacant it spans of inland waters at the edge of
the mighty Atlantic. No age. No century in history.
No place on any continent as known such amongst this melting pot of human
and industrial accomplishment as this clustered about the Manhattan water from.