PLAN OF NEW YORK AND  ITS  ENVIRONS
 

TRUNK LINE HIGHWAYS

PUBLIC highways still constitute the most important means of communica¬
tion between different parts of the area under study. The importance of
the public road for this purpose may have decreased with the development
of railroads, but as road surfaces have been improved, and motor vehicles, both
for pleasure riding and for transport, have come into general use, the public high¬
way has again assumed first place as a means of communication. The map on
page 15 shows what might be considered trunk line highways of the district.
It includes but a small proportion of the well-improved roads, and many of the
heavily traveled roads are omitted. It is designed simply to show main traffic
lines that connect important centers and that carry, and will always continue
to carry, a large volume of miscellaneous traffic. The plan, at first glance,
appears to be altogether lacking in symmetry and to be incapable of representa¬
tion by a theoretical diagram such as is commonly used in planning studies.
Further examination, however, will show that there is what might be called a
major axis in the Albany Post Road on the easterly side of the Hudson and
following Broadway (Manhattan), the ferry to Staten Island, the Amboy Road
to Tottenville, and, crossing to Perth Amboy, following the old New York-
Philadelphia Stage Route to Princeton, Trenton, and Philadelphia. Inner and
outer circumferential routes can also be readily traced—one across Long Island
and Long Island Sound from Rockville Center to Rye, and then through White
Plains, Tarrytown, Nyack, Suffern, and Morristown, to Perth Amboy and
Atlantic Highlands, and an outer route from Patchogue to Port JefTerson, by
ferry to Bridgeport, and then by way of Brewster, Newburgh, Lake Hopatcong,
and Somerville to Asbury Park.
 

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