see the Hudson, the East River
and the railroad lines all pouring in their traffic, to be shifted and
reloaded onto the ocean vessels in a perfect fever of confusion and
delay. Far below us you could see long lines of tiny trucks and wagons
waiting hours for a chance to get into the docksheds. New York, he
said, in true Yankee style had developed its waterfront pell mell, each
railroad and each ship line grabbing sites for its own use, until the
port was now so clogged, so tangled and congested that it was able to
grow no more.

"And it's got to grow," he said. The old helter-skelter method had
served well enough in years gone by, for this port had been like this
whole bountiful land, its natural advantages had been so prodigious it
could stand all our blind and hoggish mistakes. But now we were rapidly
nearing the time when every mistake we made would cost us tens of
millions of dollars. For within a few years the Big Ditch would open
across Panama, and the commerce of South America, together with that of
the Orient, would pour into the harbor here to meet the westbound
commerce of Europe. Ships of all nations would steam through the
Narrows, and we must be ready to welcome them all, with an ample
generous harbor worthy of the world's first port.

"To get ready," he said, "what we've got to do is to organize this port
as a whole, like the big industrial plant it is."

He began to show me some of the plans in blue-print maps and sketches. I
saw tens of thousands of freight cars gathered in great central yards at
a few main strategic points connected by long tunnels with all the minor
centers. I saw the port no longer as a mere body of water, but with a
whole region deep beneath of these long winding tunnels through which
flowed the traffic unseen and unheard. I saw along the waterfronts
continuous lines of docksheds where by huge cranes and other devices the
loading and unloading could be done with enormous saving of time. Along
the heavy roofs of steel of these continuous lines of buildings
stretched wide ocean boulevards with trees and shrubs and flowers to
shut out the clamorous life below. Warehouses and factory buildings rose
in solid rows behind. The city was to build them all, and the city as
the landlord was to invite the ships and railroads, and the
manufacturers too, to come in and get together, to stop their fighting
and grabbing and work with each other in one great plan.

"That's what we mean nowadays