European cities and in some of the large cities of this country for some time. Have any small towns tried it, and, if so, with what success? We have some rather large buildings in Roanoke and I figured arcading could be done much cheaper than cutting off ten feet or more for full height of buildings on some streets and the city paying for all the remodeling of buildings. PRESIDENT HATTON: Can any gentleman answer Mr. Watkins' question? (After a pause.) Apparently no one has any information along that line, Mr. Watkins. MR. COWDEN: Mr. Fisher's paper mentioned the fact that he has had for the last ten years the difficulty of a city laying out streets. ahead of actual construction and preventing improvements. New York State is about to try that. In Pennsylvania we have had it for the last fifty years or more. It is fully settled legally and as a matter of policy. Any municipality may lay out the line of any future street and any improvements made after the adoption by the municipality is at the risk of the owner. The city may open the street at will and pay only for the value of the land and not the value of improvements erected after the street had been adopted. New York tried it several times and the Supreme Court knocked it out; but our Supreme Court has upheld it in all cases. MR. CORSON: That law has been effective in Norristown, Pennsylvania, since 1853. All streets within the confines of the corporate limits are included in that act of the Legislature. It provides for the opening of those streets according to that original plan, and it does not allow any owner abutting on the land of that street to use it in any way for any purposes. However, a jury of review is appointed to fix the value of the land according to proper court procedure. THE LIBERTY PLAN By Van Ness Bates, Consultant, The Metropolitan Improvement Association, Boston, Mass. The Liberty Line It is a geographic coincidence that a straight line drawn from Fanueil Hall, "The Cradle of Liberty," to the National Capitol passes en route within an actual stone's throw of the Statute of Liberty and but little further away from Independence Hall. From Boston to Washington via New York and Philadelphia this is indeed what we may well term "The Liberty Line." Along this Liberty line within an hour's ride on either side live approximately 20,000,000 people who own some 4,000,000 motor vehicles and travel the highways and byways of this longitudinal slice of Liberty-land to the extent of 100,000,000 miles every day in the year. There is nothing comparable to this situation in the entire realm of traffic. Add to the facts in the case the prosperity of this region, its enormous commerce, its compactness and its need for efficiency in transportation and it becomes immediately apparent that vast projects and the expenditure of vast sums are here economically justified on an unparalleled scale. The Liberty plan is nothing more or less than the result of a meticulous research into the how, when and where of certain controlling factors in the form of routes and vital links-which will ultimately be necessary to construct the several major traffic trunk lines along the Atlantic seaboard between Boston and Washington. These studies have been made with thorough regard for both economics and engineering and the following is a summarized description of the resultant conclusions. The Airline Route Leaving Boston there will be two major trunk lines created. The first to be built will be the much needed airline to New Haven via Boylston St., Needham and Milford, Mass., and Putnam, Willimantic and Haddam, Conn., with a new bridge of major proportions over the Connecticut river at the latter point. Some forty miles and two to three hours shorter than the present main lines via Springfield or Providence this new diagonal will fill a long felt want. Studies for this thoroughfare were first made as long ago as 1907 and it will be but a few years before economic exigencies will require its con struction. A secondary diagonal is also needed between Worcester and Hartford to connect the Merrimac valley and northern New England with the Waterbury-Bear Mountain bridge route to the Middle Atlantic states. This link is now being studied and parts of it are already built. Although these routes will cut across hilly country modern road engineering will eliminate any excessive grades and, as both thoroughfares will avoid large centers of population, the through movement of inter-city traffic will be greatly expedited. The Seaward By-Pass. To continue the principle of avoiding large centers of population however, we must arrange for by-passing around New Haven traffic bound for points beyond that city. This can best be done by utilizing a special feature of the Liberty plan-the seaward by-pass-and constructing a major bridgeway over New Haven harbor from Ft. Hale, East Haven to Sandy Point, West Haven. When a city faces water to the east the municipal growth is first north and south along the shore, then west as transportation is supplied to the hinterland and finally east when economic pressure upon tidal flats causes their reclamation. When north to south traffic is by-passed to the east not only are the easiest grades utilized but the harborfront is aided in its development and the hills and residential suburbs of the hinterland to the west of the city are avoided as well as the city proper. For thru traffic to transverse a downtown sector when it can be by-passed is an economic crime. This traffic interferes with local business, congests the streets, wears out paving and forces the authorities to make otherwise unnecessary traffic provisions at great expense in the heart of the city. It brings little or no municipal business and is therefore an unwelcome guest in practically every way while, on the other hand, such traffic would be glad to avoid the city as it is subjected therein to traffic delays and dangers of all kinds. There is little difficulty in building an adequate seaward bypass to the east of New Haven. Navigation in the harbor is not so extensive that a high-level supsension bridge will be needed and, from a study of the geological conditions along the bridge line, it is probable that a 3,000 foot structure with bascule draw, forty foot clearance and causeway approaches would best serve the plan's requirements. The construction of such a pontine by-pass would naturally have a controlling effect upon the entire metropolitan city planning of New Haven or any other city, for that matter, where such a by-pass was found to be desirable, and it is because similar conditions prevail at Boston, Providence, Bridgeport, New York and Baltimore that the New Haven section of the Liberty plan has been dwelt upon to such an extent. The Problem at New York Continuing along the Sound we now approach Metropolitan New York and it is here that the crux of the Liberty plan is to be found. is a crude southern detour via the new City Island ferry to Port Washington, L. I., thence to Staten Island by the Bay Ridge-St. George ferry and finally to New Jersey on the Tottenville ferry to Perth Amboy. Race As stated above the airline from Boston to Washington passes directly through lower Manhattan. Thru traffic must therefore either enter New York's downtown district, which is the last thing to be desired, or else by-pass to the north or south of the city. Northern detours are available at Nyack ferry and Bear Mountain bridge, and there จ The latter link will soon be supplanted by the "Outerbridge Crossing" from Staten Island over the Kill Arthur to Perth Amboy-a great high-level, cantilever bridge now under construction by the Port of New York Authority. To divert traffic from the mainland to Long Island in better fashion than by the new City Island ferry several alternatives are possible. Among these is the double-decking of the Hell Gate bridge for vehicular traffic, a project which is being carefully studied. While we consider this proposal-or a separate Triboro bridge-indispensable for local conditions a better project for the Liberty plan would be the construction of a high-level suspension bridge of the usual size over the East River some four miles above Hell Gate from Old Ferry Point, so called, to College Point, L. I. This link would take the thrust of thru traffic and divert it from the Bronx and city proper to the low value, unbuilt-up outskirts of Brooklyn. Such a bridge is essential, not only as a link in the Liberty plan but, in itself, as a direct connection between the Connecticut shore and the North Shore of Long Island. The Liberty Bridge There remains to be solved the problem of getting from South Brooklyn to Staten Island across the Narrows to the south and east of New York. The Narrows form the watergate of America-a great channel some 6,000 feet wide at its most constricted point. On the Staten Island shore a sheer bluff rises to a height of over one hundred feet-an ideal bridge approach-while the Brooklyn hinterland in the vicinity of the probable bridgehead attains an elevation of seventy feet. In 1920 it was suggested by Mr. Daniel L. Turner that a great bridge over the Narrows could best solve the several rail and traffic problems of Staten Island and metropolitan New York in general in this vicinity, and a structure with an 1,800 foot main span, 160 feet in the clear was proposed. In 1924 from original studies, impressed by the vast main spans made possible by recent improvements in the strength and design of steel cables and inspired by the plans to span the Golden Gate at San Francisco we reached the conclusion that a superspan far in excess of anything ever planned before would be economically justified to effect the passage of the Narrows. As the supremely vital link in the whole plan the name of Liberty was chosen for this structure and, under that designation, it is today being studied by several official committees and thousands in metropolitan New York are actively interested in its behalf. Tentative plans for the Liberty bridge prepared in collaboration with Messrs. Robinson and Steinman, Consulting Bridge Engineers of New York City, indicate a main span of 4,500 feet on a line between Fort Lafayette, Brooklyn, and Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island; a height in the clear of 235 feet at midspan and a length overall of some 11,000 feet. Both because of the greatly increased cost of |