The East River ? Oh , we dammed that thing up and threw a young City Hall on top . The Hudson ? Filled it with dealings years ago . New Yorkers have never been unsure about changing the rude landscape painting of their metropolis , but if you dig into the archive , you ’ll discover dozens of estimation so radical , they make present - day Gotham experience like a nature reserve .
These days , the ballooning monetary value of construction coalesce with environmental and conservation issues conspire to make utmost infrastructural projects a moot power point . Hell , it ’s learn us almost a century to build the2nd Avenue Subway . But in the middle of the 20th century , a booming economic system and a renaissance in public infrastructure made it seem like anything was potential in New York — literally , anything .
Six plan from those geezerhood espouse , lay out from the grand to the gargantuan . Makes Bloomberg’sVision 2020plan look a morsel puny in compare , no ?
In March , 1934 , Modern Mechanix feature the dare plan of Norman Sper , “ noted publicist and engine room scholar ” ( perchance publicist meant something different back then ? ) , who envisioned adding ten square international mile of land to Manhattan by infilling the mighty Hudson River . Sper propose creating a monumental , multi - layered grid that would link up New Jersey to Manhattan , solving problem like housing and transit which , according to the editors , “ are threatening to go through the city ’s culture like a Frankenstein monster . ”
It ’s hard for us to imagine the optimism felt about modernistic engineering in the 1930s and 40s , and today , Sper ’s programme seems like folly . But the magazine postulate a fistful of established engineers about it , and many of them line it as visionary . “ Provided with sufficient money and time , especially money , the project could be carry through to completion with unquestionable success , ” said one engineer . “ … It would be quite in keeping with President Roosevelt ’s reclamation and N.R.A. plan and put an tremendous USA of men to puzzle out . I heartily endorse the programme , though I am fully aware of the almost unsurmountable hindrance which appear at first study of the estimation . ”
Estimated cost : $ 17 billion *
The homo who owned the Chrysler Building — William Zeckendorf — was behind this musical theme to build “ Manhattan ’s Dream Airport . ” Zeckendorf propose a 144 - closure - retentive floating airport on the edge of the Hudson River , where planes could take off on the long ceiling and gravy holder could bob at its edge .
It ’s laborious to bed how New Yorkers of the daytime reacted to the architectural plan , which was sited on the edge of what was then a still - developing neck of the woods . But asUntapped Citiespoints out , a similar ( but satirical ) design to turnCentral Park into an airportreceived over 85,000 heartfelt signatures — which should tell you something about how “ fleeceable space ” stack up against “ prospicient cab rides ” for most innovative - daylight New Yorkers .
Estimated price : $ 35 billion *
According to the editor at Popular Science , in 1924 , New York was lose $ 1.5 million a twenty-four hour period on dealings congestion . The solution ? Get rid of the East River , of course . Dr. John A. Harriss , a “ special deputy police commissioner in charge of dealings , ” was the primogenitor of this special scheme , which would ’ve require the construction of two dekametre — one at the Williamsburg Bridge , the other , near Hell Gate in Harlem . consort toGothamist , Harriss envisioned the new land supporting a broad avenue of cars and modest walker routes , centered by a massive new City Hall . Basically , Brasiliain New York City .
The mercifully unfulfilled Lower Manhattan Expressway was one of Robert Moses ’ plans to modernize Manhattan . LOMEX , as the plan is known , come in near to leveling a huge 14 - mental block swatch of Lower Manhattan to work up a ten - lane main road extend from the Holland Tunnel to the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges . Moses envisioned the highway edged on both side by gigantic public housing complexes .
We really have LOMEX ( along with the destruction of Penn Station ) to thank for the development of historical preservation in New York City . Jane Jacobs lead the fight against the project , and ultimately , it was abandon . It ’s toilsome to conceive of that anyone ever seriously entertained the idea — but we need only appear across the East River to see what could have been , since Moses was central in make the Brooklyn - Queens Expressway , the highway that required the razing of 1000 of homes in each borough .
estimate price : $ 749 million *
Buckminster Fuller ’s geodesical dome was propose with the good intention : It would ’ve created a house of cards of clear atmosphere stretch from the Hudson to the East River , between 21st and roughly sixty-fourth street . Of course , in reality , it likely would ’ve direct to strict urban separatism in Manhattan , between those “ inside the bubble , ” and those without .
Estimated price : $ 7.5 billion *
Ever wonder why there are no bridge between Lower Manhattan and New Jersey ? One of the main cause is that too many massive freighter ships exceed through the bay on their way to Manhattan ’s docks . But architect Alfred C. Bossom visualise a apparently uncomplicated solution : A bridge 200 feet above the waterline , more than enough space for ships of the twenty-four hour period to elapse unshackled .
Bossom christened his musical theme the Victory Bridge , angled as a celebration of the end of World War I. The concept never took off , perhaps because of the sheer size of it and cost ( the towers themselves would ’ve been more than 800 feet high ) , but Bossom was right on , in some ways : The Holland Tunnel was dispatch underneath the precise same path , in 1927 .
- All estimated costs have been adjusted for inflation .
[ Hudson River images viaModern Mechanix ; Dream Airport images viaPtak ScienceandUntapped Cities ; East River fancy viaGothamist ; Victory Bridge images viaAndrew Cusack ]
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