BERLIN-SUBWAY STATION ON THE SCHÖNEBERG SUBWAY LINE. A VALLEY AT THIS POINT WAS UTILIZED FOR A PARK, THE LEVEL STREET BEING CARRIED OVER ABOVE THE SUBWAY STATION, WHOSE TRACKS ARE ON

BERLIN-CHARLOTTENBERG (BERLINERSTRASSE), NEAR THE MUNICIPAL OFFICES.

ASPHALT PAVEMENT. CRACKS AND OTHER EVIDENCES OF WEAR IN
TRAMWAY AREA; ALSO USUAL TYPE OF HEAVY

VERTICAL FACE GRANITE CURB.

On the other hand, while there is a confusion of pipes in many London streets, there is some general rule as to arrangement, the matter is controlled with more system in Paris, and with machinelike precision in Germany. The theory that the space below the footwalk should be reserved for the private owner is prevalent only in our country and seriously cramps the room available for public utilities, and finally these latter have been so poorly controlled that their charter rights often take precedence of those of the municipality, whose officers have no real authority over them.

Assuming then, that our paving authorities are given a wellplanned series of streets and avenues, on which their duty is to maintain a surface for travel, and that the needs of a great city require that the space beneath these streets be utilized to the greatest public advantage, we are now at a period when we must by some authority regulate that use in a systematic manner instead of the present hap-hazard method, which is not only wasteful of the space used, but of the total cost in money and incidental inconvenience to the public. This can be done in two ways. First, and most important, by the adoption of a general subsurface street plan, to whose principles, future installations must conform. Second, a definite overhead control, regulating all street work of whatever nature in order to harmonize its various elements. This does not exist in our usual city government to-day. Least of all, here in New York. Leaving out of consideration the subway construction of the Public Service Commission, which though it may appear endless, is nevertheless but of a temporary nature in the whole life of the City, it is absolutely unbusinesslike to have such disconnected authorities as now are vested in the Presidents of the Boroughs, the Commissioner of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity, and the various public utility corporations. Co-operation between the two former is entirely a matter of personality. The latter frequently are able to urge successfully charter rights superior to those of the City authorities. In New York, in an attempt at compromise between Borough autonomy and central control, we have elected to consider paving and sewers, purely local matters, while we profess to believe that the providing the water to run in the sewers, the lighting of the pavements over them, and the sweeping of their surfaces, are matters too great for local authority.

VIENNA-MARIA HILFERSTRASSE, MAIN

THOROUGHFARE FROM THE WESTERN

STATION TO THE CENTER OF THE CITY; DOUBLE-TRACK TRAMWAY ON ONE
SIDE, WITH FREQUENT SAFETY ISLES AT STOPPING POINTS. NOTE
GUARD FOR CURB BOX AND DIAGONAL COURSE PAVEMENT OF
HEAVY BLOCKS, NECESSITATING A COURSE OF
LARGE PENTAGONAL BLOCKS

NEXT THE CURB.

It is hardly possible for our Boroughs to "have it both ways.' They voluntarily gave up their independent municipal existence for what they deemed the superior advantages of the Greater City. There is no more reason why the sewer standards and plans or the paving specifications should differ in different Boroughs than for the adoption of various standards for valves or water pipes in different parts of the City. This is not to argue that one large sewer or highway department is necessarily advisable, but that there is needed some central authority to co-ordinate in some way the various branches of activity doing work in the streets of whatever nature it may be and in all parts of the City. Until that is done, we will continue to have our present spectacle of Borough authorities making plans, and vested with nominal power, that they cannot maintain in the face of the superior power of general municipal departments whose plans cross theirs, or of the still more powerful rights of the corporations whose officers urge with reason that they cannot be expected to subordinate their work to conform to the varying notions of ephemeral civic officials, who cannot. guarantee any permanence to their policies. As a concrete example may be mentioned the repair work of the water department in our City. None will dispute that a leak must be stopped as soon as possible. None, on the other hand, can regard the present procedure as other than wasteful from the citizens' point of view. The repair gang, after tearing up enough street surface for its purpose, proceeds to repair the leak. There its interest ends. It is not concerned (that is, there is nothing to require that it be concerned) with proper restoration of backfill and pavement any more than it was with the initial removal of the pavement, so as to cause it a minimum of damage or to reduce as much as possible the obstruction to traffic. It has not compulsory interest in having its manholes, valve boxes or hydrants of such design as to interfere to a minimum amount with traffic or of a type of construction to be integral with the pavement. There is no single engineer or officer responsible for the opening in the street from the moment it is made until it is again closed. The same condition prevails in the case of a gas or electric company hunting for a leakprobably worse in the case of gas, as the leak is more difficult to detect. As an instance, take the case of the new asphalt pavement on Fifth Avenue, where in the section from Twenty-fifth Street to Thirty-fourth Street are from five to seven old gas mains, where