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October, 1925 loading platforms at the railheads, or to steamship piers, by the tractor-trailers or trucks that maintain the con- necting shuttle service. How To Finance Them Naturally, inbound shipments will be handled in the reverse order. Un- loaded from the cars at the railhead, or from a ship at her pier, the dif- ferent lots will be consolidated and sent immediately to their respective zone stations. Here they can be stored, if desired, or held till called for by the consignee, or possibly de- livered direct to his door. The “pick- up” and “delivery” of small shipments is a take-it-or-leave-it service that can easily be furnished. Many mer- chants will collect their inbound freight on the return trip of the truck that takes their outbound ship- ments to the union station. Union freight stations must be where tonnage comes and goes. They will require a good deal of area for their platforms and plenty of tailboard space for the trucks. That means they will cover a lot of ground, and ground costs money in the locations where they are needed. The freight service can be handled on two levels, one for inbound and one for out- bound shipments. These levels can be reached from the streets by ramps. The question now arises concerning the best use to make of the space above the platforms and driveways so that it may help to carry the expense. Terminal buildings erected here can serve many useful purposes. They can provide storage space that will be invaluable in connection with the freight movements carried on_ below. In addition, loft space in such a build- ing has unusual advantages. It par- ticularly lends itself to light manu- facturing and to use by merchants whose business involves the handling of goods in transit. Manufacturers ean receive their raw materials and forward their finished products with a minimum of delay and expense. No better conditions can be found for work which requires the storage of stocks that are held in reserve for a quick delivery or that are constantly drawn upon in filline orders. The carriers and the shipping public are not the only ones to benefit from a solution of the terminal problem. The whole community has a stake in the matter. Nothing so greatly af- fects the business and living condi- tions of all the people. Remove the tribute now paid to waste, de- lay and bad methods generally and industrial and household budgets will show the result. Not only will all costs chargeable to transportation be MARINE REVIEW lowered, but cities will be better places to live and work in. There will be less street congestion when you local- ize truck movements. The reduction of truck mileage due to fewer trucks, heavier loads and _ shorter haulage distances will work wonders in im- proving street conditions. The growth of a city can be stimulated and new industrial districts developed by the erection of additional off-line union stations wherever advisable. The metropolitan district now labors under many disadvantages. Adequate belt lines for the interchange of rail- road cars are still lacking. The plight of Manhattan island is the worst of all. Much of its tonnage is carried by railroads that terminate on the New Jersey shore. There is no track connection. Cars are carried by rail as far as the waterfront; there they are put on carfloats and towed across the Hudson to pier stations on the island. A few cars are brought ashore to team tracks. As there is no room there for the rest they are unloaded and reloaded while on the floats. This means that a large part of the waterfront is taken up by the railroads, and all freight has to be hauled to and from this section. New Jersey also suffers, for much of her shore line, instead of being available — to shipping, is given over to yards and floatbridges incident to the serv- ice. The railroads assume the car- float and lighterage costs, as well as 359 place to put the cars were they brought over. As the present time several of the railroads are un- loading some of their cars in their New Jersey terminals and having the freight brought over by trucks on the ferries. Part of it is taken to freight stations and warehouses. Part of it is taken direct to the con- signee. This is a step in the right direction but it does not go far enough. New York Port Authority’s Plan The Port Authority has in con- templation the division of Man- hattan Island into about a dozen zones as indicated in the accompanying diagram each of which has an in-and- out tonnage total about the same as that of the others. Nine of these areas of equal traffic density have been mapped out in the section below Fifty- seventh street. Each zone will be provided with a union freight station to be used jointly by all the different railroads. The stations will be located so that the hauls to and from them will be a minimum, and the traffic will not move through busy streets. Termi- nal buildings, as shown in the ac- companying illustration, attractive in appearance and modern in every de- tail, will be erected above the freight platform levels. Space will be rented in subdivisions of any size for ware- house, loft and industrial purposes. It is felt that the unequaled shipping PROPOSED TYPICAL “OFF-LINE” UNION FREIGHT STATION AND INDUSTRIAL TERMINAL the pier rentals. It is a costly proc- ess and one that has about reached the limit of its capacity. It has been proposed that tunnel or bridge connection be made _ between terminals on Manhattan and the vari- ous trunk lines for the use of stand- ard cars. It can’t be done because it would call for too heavy a capital investment. The operating difficulties would be very great. There is no and other facilities which a tenant will possess will make this space eagerly sought for. It is planned that the break-bulk - platform at railheads will be provided and operated by the carriers as part of their service. Their tariffs will include transporting their freight be- tween railhead and zone stations and its handling on the zone station plat- forms. Estimates show that this can