page 48

Contents : Previous : Next

way, through the valley now occupied by Forbes Street and Fifth Avenue. To avoid the higher land values on these streets, various schemes were tried to get a third thoroughfare in this valley, first on the south and then on the north side, but without success. The indirectness of line and the seriousness of grade difficulties, coupled with cost of cutting new connections at either end, more than outweighed the advantages offered by the cheaper land.

One proposition, however, is worthy of special remark. That was to cut a new street from Fifth Avenue, near Sixth Avenue to the end of Colwell Street, widen the latter, carry it over the Moultrie Street valley on a high viaduct, skirt around Soho hill, partly above and partly below Beelen Street, and either join Fifth Avenue at Robinson Street, or, going over this street, follow along the hillside and meet the southerly end of Bayard Street. The cost of constructing this line, the complication of grades with cross-streets (owing to the width of the new street), and the difficulty of getting good connections with any thoroughfares leading up the Monongahela, practically put it out of the question as a solution of the main problem in hand. But it offers many advantages as a specialized thoroughfare for fast-moving automobiles for the East End. It is well up on the hill, furnishing, at times, fine outlooks over the river; the gradient need nowhere be over 4 per cent, and the line could be easily laid out so as to have very few grade crossings with other important streets. It is urged that this route be borne in mind when the demand is felt for another "Grant Boulevard," south of the Hill.

It remained, then, to consider adequate widenings of Fifth Avenue or Forbes Street. The former is now 60 feet wide throughout; it is by far the more important thoroughfare at present, land values are much higher than on Forbes Street, and new and somewhat costly buildings are already crowding out the cheap houses of an older generation. Forbes Street is also 60 feet in width, except near its westerly end where it is only 50 feet, but the buildings, on the whole, are much less valuable than those on Fifth Avenue. Lot depths are practically the same, and so are the street gradients. It is evident, therefore, that the widening of Forbes Street should be a far less costly undertaking than the widening of Fifth Avenue.

Contents : Previous : Next

Last modified on 22-Dec 1999
Design format: copyright 1997-1999 Bruce S. Cridlebaugh
Original document: Frederick Law Olmsted, 1910