Excerpt from Rand McNally Hudson River Guide: With Maps and Illustrations, Including Reference Lists of Hotels, Places of Amusement, Steamship Piers, Etc;, In New York City

The Upper Bay is a circular basin about five miles in diameter. It is connected with the Lower Bay by the Narrows, the deepest part of the harbor. The Lower Bay is shaped like an Indian arrow head, the sides being the southeast shore of Staten Island and the north shore of New Jersey, the point being Raritan Bay and the barbs, Gravesend Bay, just north of Coney Island and Sandy Hook Bay just west of Sandy Hook. It is about thirteen miles long and about the same width at the barbs. Its channels are marked by an expensive system of lightships, lighthouses and steel buoys, charged with supplies of illuminating gas under pres sure, which permit them to be seen at night as well as in the day time.

Notable Skyscrapers. On the right hand as the steamer slowly gathers way among the myriad smaller craft, New York's unique skyline rises against the blue. In the foreground are piers devoted to railroad sta tions and piers occupied by the great transatlantic liners.

Notable among the great temples of commerce which cover the southern part of the island are the three towers, the Singer, furthest south, 612 feet high; the Gothic spire of the Woolworth Building (close by the turrets of the towering Municipal building), 58 stories and 750 feet high, the tallest building in the world, and two miles further north, the campanile of the Metropolitan Life Building, 700 feet high.

Harbor Activities. Moving about the steamer are many types of vessels not likely to be seen elsewhere. There are floating grain elevators, giant steel and wooden barges bearing trains of cars, and many types of lighters. In addition, there are numerous two-decked, screw ferry boats and tugs bearing the insignia of the great trunk railway lines. The names of the railroads also are to be seen upon the ends of many piers on both sides of the river. New York City is unique among the great ports of the world in that railway freight cars cannot be moved upon the piers on their own tracks. Only one railroad has an all-rail freight route into Manhattan. This absence of all-rail connection is the one handicap of New York harbor and city. The railway lines have been obliged to spend millions of dollars on floating equipment in order to transfer their passengers and freight to the great city. The problem so far as passengers is concerned has been solved for some of the lines through the construction of tubes for the accommodation of passenger trains beneath the bottom of the Hudson River. It will be a long time before there are any additions to the railroad yards on Manhattan Island. Land is more valuable for other purposes.

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