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Steamer Sunotco, caught with 31 sister ships in the post war depression and threatened with a long term of idleness, coming into Port Newark } with a full cargo of lumber after her owners had solved the task * JIMA ‘of finding a profitable trade route aw” / | EW YORK, the metropolis of N the western hemisphere and the greatest port in the world, is favored by a wonderful natural harbor and an extensive waterfront on deep water. Inherent in the very character of the natural advantages, however, lies a weakness which has long been felt and which is now a serious menace to the growth-and even to the maintenance of New York’s present pre-eminence, un- less steps are taken to relieve the sit- uation. To reach this major gateway for the shipment and receipt of the products of commerce with all the world, the larg- est rail systems of the country naturally converge on New York and get as near to the heart (Manhattan island) as nat- ural restrictions will permit. Separated as Manhattan island is by barriers of water and in itself of a limited area thoroughly congested by the life and activities of a large population, these railroads have been forced to locate their terminals for the most part on the main- land in New Jersey. The greater part of the shipping by water is done from piers on Manhattan and the Brooklyn water- front and consequently it is necessary to connect the main line rail terminals with the ships lying at these piers, by a vast system of lighterage, both from rail to ships and wice versa. When it is considered that the population of the metropolitan district alone is more than 6,000,000, three-quarters of the entire population of Canada for instance, and recalling the tremendous home produc- tion and consumption of so large a body, it is economically overtaxing excellent natural advantages also to try to ship and receive the greater part of the prod- ucts destined for other places in this country and to foreign countries from this same narrow congested bit of land. These intolerable conditions of today are the results of the continuation and expansion of a system sufficiently prac- tical and workable years ago when the volume of trade and population was comparatively small, but this system is now entirely inadequate, economically unsound and the direct cause of con- gestion. Unless some relief is sought in eco- nomical methods suitable to unlimited growth, shipments will be forced away from the port of New York to seek outlet and ingress at other ports. Cus- tom and tradition and the great physi- cal properties and organizations which have grown up around the present sys- tem are forces of tremendous power op- posed to any change. The Port of New York Authority, a joint commission of the states of New York and New Jer- sey is the agency which must repre- sent the intelligent will of the people in directing, initiating, leading the way and co-ordinating clashing private in- terests in a gradual adoption of a rea- soned, practical, and economically sound solution of this extremely important, complicated and vexing problem, so that New York will be able properly to re- ceive and accommodate the vast vol- ume of goods which pass through. Solving a Problem Individual shipping enterprises can help out in the solution of this prob- lem by utilizing as terminals, water- front property in close proximity to the main line rail terminals, where goods in transit may be moved directly from ship to rail or rail to ship and by this much save the time and expense of lighterage and relieve the congestion on the piers in the port proper. _This is what the Transmarine Lines are doing in operat- ing some 19 vessels in Gulf and West Coast services out of Port Newark. A brief review of the events leading 418 Binds Work Le bke up to the organization of these lines should be of interest and will show strong economic reasons for the utiliza- tion of this particular location. When the shipbuilding facilities of the country were taxed beyond limit to meet the de- mands of the war it was soon recog- nized that it would be necessary to go to mass production or fabrication of ships, in order to obtain them quickly and in sufficiently great number. The Subma- rine Boat Corp., having with notable success applied methods of fabrication or mass production to submarine chas- ers, offered to undertake the building of standardized steel cargo ships using sim- ilar methods. A contract to build 150 standardized steel steam cargo vessels was awarded to this company. In looking about for an ideal loca- tion for an assembling and erecting ship- yard, Port Newark situated on the west shore of Newark bay and less than eight miles from New York bay, was chosen. A consideration of primary importance in this choice was the fully equipped, direct rail transportation facilities en- joyed by this site, served by the Penn- sylvania, Central Railroad of New Jer- sey and Lehigh Valley railroads and through these systems with all of the principal trunk lines of the country. In developing this property of over 130 acres to the highest possible point of efficiency for the purpose intended, there was constructed at this site a rail- road with 26 miles of track equipped with its. own rolling stock and locomo- tives and classification yard, and con- necting with the main trunk lines, of a capacity to handle 1000 freight daily, a dock 4000 feet in length with three sets of railroad tracks and an overhead crane system along its full length with electric and steam cranes of from 60 to 90-foot outreach sufficient to reach from beyond ship’s hatch on one: erent yt carloads of