Not only will the placing of the municipal building on the Washington Street site allow the much needed widening of that street without extra cost, but the erection of the court house on the present site as provided in this plan will admit of the widening of the streets by which it is bounded, viz., Livingston, Court and Joralemon streets. This consideration is important in view of the concentration of street cars and other traffic at this center of street circulation.
No other plan presents equally good sites for the new court house and the new municipal building. This plan has the further merit that it harmonizes the four factors, i.e., court house, municipal building, bridge plaza and re-location of tracks, in a manner where each factor brings additional benefit to every other factor. The removal of the elevated tracks without opening up the bridge approach would be only a partial improvement. Placing the court house on the Clinton Street site or Flatbush Avenue Extension site would have no relation whatever to the other three factors. This plan logically, harmoniously, and at comparatively small expense paves the way for the improvement of the entire area between Brooklyn Bridge and the Hall of Records and furnishes frontages that will attract the construction of substantial and handsome business buildings.
1. The removal of the elevated railroad tracks from Borough Hall Park and lower Fulton Street, pursuant to the permissive legislation passed by the last session of the legislature as an amendment to the Rapid Transit Act.
2. The acquirement by the city of the land not now owned by the city between Fulton Street and Liberty Street on the west and Washington Street on the east, also three lots in the small block opposite Clark Street.
3. The widening of Washington Street to 110 feet, which is the same width as the throat between the Mechanics' Bank Building and Myrtle Avenue.
4. The location of the new municipal building between Fulton and Washington streets approximately opposite the Post Office.
5. The location of the new court house on the present site of the old court house, such site to include the land intended for the new municipal building, and also the rest of the land in that block on Court and Livingston streets, all court rooms to front on a large interior court.
