the sheds and
aerial monstrosities. Surely now is the time to link such an
improvement with the clearing up of the whole district.

The borough must within a few months either grasp or lose its chance
to start this work. As part of the dual rapid transit system the city
has issued to the Municipal Railway Company, controlled by the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, a certificate to third track its
Fulton Street elevated line from the East River to East New York. The
complications in perfecting the dual contracts, and the need of haste,
were so great that the problem of freeing Borough Hall Park and lower
Fulton Street of the elevated railroad was not solved and inserted in
the contracts, but immediately after the signing of the dual plan,
Mayor Gaynor, Borough President Steers, the Public Service Commission
and the Board of Estimate took action resulting in the preparation and
passage by the Legislature of an amendment to the Rapid Transit Act
providing for the re-location of the tracks and the making of a
contract for that purpose between the Public Service Commission and
the company. Thus the way is paved for the removal of the elevated
tracks to Adams Street, taking them entirely out of lower Fulton
Street and Borough Hall Park. Orders for the fabrication of steel for
the third track construction will soon be placed, and if the contract
for re-location is not made, the steel will be ordered for
reconstructing the elevated railroad in its present location. It would
be unfortunate indeed if additional outlays should serve to perpetuate
the railroad in Borough Hall Park. At the same time that the tracks
are removed, it is desirable that the city should do as much as
possible in opening and improving the unsightly locality between
Fulton and Washington Streets. As an independent proposition the
taking of so much land has not appealed to some of the members of the
Board of Estimate, but an entirely different question is presented if
this area can be used in part for one of the new public buildings.
Plan 6 shows the locality as it would appear after the tracks are
re-located and the plaza opened. Washington Street should be widened
to correspond to the width of the open space now opposite the
Mechanics' Bank Building. Some say, why not widen Washington Street
taking forty or fifty feet of private land along its westerly side and
do nothing to disarrange the rest of the property between Washington
Street and Fulton Street?