Ld PORT ECONOMICS

island of Manhattan and along the frontage of this island
are situated the principal piers and jetties, forming some
60 per cent of berthage accommodation of the port.
Apart from such local consumption as appertains to the
island itself, a densely populated region, the problem is
how to transfer the commodities which arrive by sea, as
well as those destined for export abroad, to and from the
piers where they are landed or shipped. The problem has
become further involved by the multiplicity of authorities
and a conflict of interests. The actual control of the piers,
their construction, letting and supervision, is a function
of the Municipality, exercised by their Department of
Docks and Ferries under a Commissioner of Docks, but
the wider interests of the port, covering the development
of the enormous area of nearly 1,500 square miles forming
the Port District, have lately been entrusted to a com-
mission of six members, known as the Port Authority.
Of the six Commissioners, three represent the State of
New York and three the State of New Jersey, and their
particular duty is to provide means to relieve the con-
gestion of traffic in the port and to devise a scheme of
effective development. We have not the space here to
discuss this great problem, which has been touched upon
in regard to one of its aspects in Chapter VII, and it is
simply mentioned as forming one of the most engrossing
and important issues in American port circles.

A special feature of American practice at the port of
New York is the establishment of a series of private depots
known as Terminals, in which goods can be received,
stored and dispatched with a minimum of negotiation.
The most notable example, perhaps, is the Bush Terminal
at South Brooklyn. It consists of eight piers, or jetties,
served by a fleet of car floats and tugs, and with rail and
road connections. Behind the piers, within hand-trucking
distance, are multiple-storey warehouses. Into these ware-
houses are received goods which have been conveyed
thither either by water or by land ; they can be deposited

dal