GENERAL   DISCUSSION   OF   PROPOSED
JAMAICA BAY IMPROVEMENT
 

Department O'F Docks and Ferries^I

PlER   "A,''   NORTH   RlVER,

New York, April 20, 1910.J
Hon. WiLLiAM J. Gaynor^

Mayor,_and Chairman of the Commissioners of the Sink-
ing Fund:

SiR—" Jamaica Bay occupies the major portiôn of the south-
eastern quarter of Greater New York. It has a water surface
of 16,170 acres, or 25J4 square miles and is surrounded on three
sides by low marshes which aggregate 8,500 acres. In addition
to this there åre 4,200 acres of marsh land lying in the Bay,
but isolated from the main body; so that, aH told, Jamaica Bay,
with its adjacent marsh lands, which in time of excessive flood
tides are completely overflowed, covers a territory 28,870 acres
in extent.    This is equivalent to 45J^ square mHes."

This vast basin wijthin the City boundaries comprises a waste
.district of marsh land and shallow water. Already the growth
of the City is impinging upon its confines and improved transit
facilities will soon make it as accessible from City Hall as the rest
of Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island. It aíĩords unique op-
portunities for commercial, industrial and recreative uses, and the
City should, without delay, impose upon it a comprehensive de-
velopment plan which shall compel the realization ojf the best
uses to which ,its natural advantages can be put. The control
which the City already has over riparian lands-—which indirectly
and in part extends tô private back lands—and the willingness o-f
both the State and National governments to co-operate, are
added reasons why the City should act without delay to provide
such a plan before land values shall have unduly increased as a
consequence of unrelated, sporadic, speculative; private enter-
prises.