providing for rail loading, the proposed bridge being somewhat downstream from the line of transit requirements and the work already done on rapid transit tunnels to Staten Island, present plans for the Liberty bridge call for vehicular and pedestrian traffic only with space for the installation of public utility conduits. The mighty towers would "actually surpass" the Woolworth building in height and, while the vast enterprise might be undertaken either on a toll or free basis, if built by the city of New York rather than the Port Authority or a private corporation it is proposed that the Liberty. bridge be dedicated as New York City's War Memorial "Symbolic of our human bridge that spanned the seas to France."

With this cardinal connection built-a sixty million dollars structure carrying from eight to twelve lines of vehicular traffic-a direct land route would be established for the first time between (1) Brooklyn and Staten Island, (2) Long Island and New Jersey and (3) New England and the Middle Atlantic states and the chief regional traffic problem of the entire seaboard will have been solved.

From New York to Washington

Through New Jersey the Liberty plan pursues its way either via Trenton and Philadelphia or thru Camden and Philadelphia, by way of the Delaware River bridge, with an ultimate alternative route keeping to the east of Camden and crossing the Delaware by a major bridge to be built just south of Wilmington.

The final new link between the Delaware and Potomac will involve a seaward by-pass to the east of Baltimore in the form of a great highlevel suspension bridge with a 3,000 foot main span over the Patapsco river from Lazaretto Point to South Baltimore. The approach from the north would leave the Philadelphia highway at Herring Run and the southern approach would connect directly with the Annapolis road and, by new construction along the Patapsco, with the Washington turnpike at Elkridge, proceeding thence to the Capitol and southern terminus of the Liberty line.

The Coastal Concourse

Starting again from Boston, this time via Hyde Park Avenue, it is proposed to parallel the New Haven railroad's main line with at new super-highway leading directly thru East Providence to the bluffs on the Providence river at Kettle Point. From this elevation a high-level suspension bridge of some 1,300 foot main span would be built to effect the seaward by-pass for Providence and carry trunk line traffic past Roger Williams park on down thru Rhode Island toward Westerly-the line coincidentally passing thru the village. of Liberty. From here on the usual shore route to New Haven via New London might be followed but there is an alternative of colossal proportions to the consideration of which it now becomes necessary

to turn.

The Race Crossing

Briefly, this alternative is nothing less than a proposal to span the very breadth of Long Island sound itself with four giant suspension bridges, two of them equal in magnitude to the Liberty bridge, crossing the Race, so called, from Watch Hill, R. I., to Orient, L. I., via Napatree Point, Fishers Island, Race rock, Valiant Rock ledge, Gull Island and Plum Island. Along this alignment lies the ancient preglacial rock causeway which 8,000 years ago formed a land route from eastern Long Island to the mainland. Save for two submarine valleys or channels each less than mile wide the rock bottom in the six mile stretch across the Race from Race point, Fishers Island to Little Gull Island is sixty feet or less in depth and offers no especial difficulties as regards causeway and viaduct construction.

The two channels each 200 feet deep in spots will require long span suspension bridges of the Liberty type and size for their crossing while in midstream a 3,000 foot viaduct running over water only eighteen feet deep in part (Valiant Ledge) will connect the two superspans. From Stonington, Conn., and Watch Hill, R. I., approaches will run out along the sandy spit known as Napatree Point and from there to Fishers Island a three mile connection will be required which will include a suspension bridge over the channel with a span of nearly 2,000 feet. A major highway from tip to tip of Fishers Island brings us to the Race crossing just outlined and, once on the other side, the channel between Plum Island and Long Island would be spanned by another suspension bridge of the usual size.

With this herculean route established the eastern part of Long Island ceases to be a jumping off place, the traffic congestion along the Connecticut shore is permanently relieved, the lowest grade for thru traffic from New England to New Jersey is utilized and the development of Long Island is assured on a greater scale than anything ever before known in the history of land exploitation. Distance and time will be saved for all thru traffic and the value of the route will far exceed its cost. This is the age of great bridges and the cost of a project is hardly ever the primary point to be considered. On the contrary it is the worth or value to the community that should determine whether a specific undertaking should be attempted and, if so, when. We pay but once for an improvement but we pay over and over again for the lack of it. A true improvement will always pay for itself. The question then is to justify the cost by proving the value.

The economic justification of the Race Crossing is not difficult to predict. At present it costs $6.00 to ferry a car from New London to Greenport, L. I., and $1.30 for each passenger beside the driver.

Disregarding any "betterment" assessments, when a traffic of only 3,000,000 cars per annum at $3.00 per car can be assured for the

proposed route the $9,000,000 revenue capitalized at 6% would indicate that New York state or the Federal Government (considering the military importance of such a route) could afford to spend $150,000,000 to build the Race Crossing on a 4% basis and have a sufficient surplus (2%) to maintain the works and amortize the cost.

The Stratford Crossing

The Race is not the only place, however, where it is logical to connect Long Island with the mainland and it appears entirely probable that a midsound bridgeway which we may term the Stratford Crossing will also materialize some day as part of the Liberty plan. Earlier in this article we alluded to the seaward by-pass and its application to Bridgeport among other cities along the line but neglected to discuss the Bridgeport situation. To create a route to the east of this city is not difficult to accomplish along the same lines with which we are now familiar but the interesting phase of the Bridgeport planning is its relation to the Stratford Crossing.

It is proposed that at this point trunk line traffic hailing from the Connecticut valley cities, Waterbury, and Bridgeport itself bound for New York and points beyond be diverted via Stratford Point to Port Jefferson, L. I., closely paralleling the existing ferry routeinstead of adding further to the vast volume of traffic on the Boston Post road from Stamford to New York. As in the Race Crossing there is shallow middle ground at Stratford shoal and two main channels on either side which will each require a counterpart of the Liberty bridge. On the mainland side the causeway and viaduct approaches will be easy to build but off Oldfield Point, L. I., the water runs deep for a considerable distance and it is here that modern engineering will be most severely taxed. The difficulties are not deterrent factors, however, and it will be but a few years before actual surveys are made looking toward the consummation of this important bridgeway. Traffic using the Race and Stratford Crossings will approach the Liberty bridge via Jamaica and once at the great span over the Narrows would follow the same routes as described above to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.

Some Allied Projects at New York

Ultimately to cross from Long Island to New Jersey to the east of New York there will be required several other major seaward by-pass routes. One of these has been suggested and sponsored by Col. William J. Wilgus, Consultant to the Port Authority, and takes the form of an extension of the Rockaway and Sandy Hook peninsulars to within less than a mile of each other with railway and vehicular tunnels under the main channel.

Our studies have convinced us that in the so called Lower Bay of New York, that great sheet of shallow water between Staten

Island and Sandy Hook, there exists the most unique opportunity in the world for a bridge, highway and reclamation program with seaward by-passes galore that has ever been seen. This research has been carried far in conjunction with the Liberty studies and utilizes principles of city planning successfully applied to Boston and Chicago but the scientific development of the foreshore of metropolitan New York forms a story in itself and the telling may well wait until another year.

THE NATURAL HUNGER OF HUMAN BEINGS FOR
WHOLESOME SELF-EXPRESSION

By Eugene T. Lies, Special Representative, Playground and
Recreation Association of America, Chicago, Ill.

It seems to me that every now and then it is worth while for people who are busy with activities which cater to human welfare, to pause and consider what, after all, they are trying to do, what basic needs they are serving. Certainly this is wise and the natural thing to do. for public officials contemplating the beginning of new municipal activities in any field and more especially is it the case when community recreation improvements are under consideration. For, after all, is it not true, that apart from human interests, nothing in this world has any real value, whether it be business, science, engineering, statecraft or religion?

Now, when we think of the fundamental characteristic of normal human beings, what do we find, if not that it is an ever-present groping for larger being, a hunger for growth from a present inferior state to a next step, superior state. This is what I mean by "hunger for self-expression."

Oh, yes, I know that plenty of sins have been committed in the name "self-expression." And there's the rub in talking about it. And yet, it is a basic, God-given tendency which must be understood and dealt with somehow. Let us attempt some analysis.

The physiologists inform us that at birth the babe comes along with 13,000,000 neurones or nerve cells; that they are all necessary for growth into adult, normal, body and brain status; that their imperfect development means stunted youth and manhood; that development comes from muscle activity; and that fullest development will follow all those varied, interesting and satisfying muscle activities which we label "play.'

So that here we have a natural human endowment coupled with inherent hunger for expression which, I submit, is of the utmost significance. And yet we haven't realized the situation sufficiently in our dealings with young life.