Sixth Avenue
The importance of Sixth Avenue between Forbes and Grant Streets has been pointed out. It is the natural route from the Union Station and the adjacent freight yards and from all the Allegheny bridges to the districts fed by Fifth Avenue, Forbes Street, the proposed South Hills bridge, and Second Avenue. It ought to be widened to the dimensions of a main thoroughfare, and its grade ought to be lessened. Its stream of travel splits at Grant Street, a portion turning to the left into the other part of Sixth Avenue, and a portion turning to the right along Grant Street to Liberty Avenue and the freight yards. The latter obviously is a very important line, and the off-set which makes at Seventh Avenue is so serious that the corner ought to be cut.
Try Street Grade Crossing
The elimination of the grade crossing of Second Avenue with the Panhandle Road at Try Street is a pressing improvement. The avenue now descends toward the railroad from both directions, and the best plan appears to be to carry it over the tracks. In this way Second Avenue would connect directly (through the west side of the Civic Center) with Forbes Street; with Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Avenues, and so with the Union Station and the Allegheny Valley; with the main or upper deck of the South Hills bridge rising across the river to the proposed tunnel; and with the suggested lower deck of that bridge leading to the South Side. In order to secure a good gradient, the westerly approach of Second Avenue should start from Grant Street, rising on an incline or viaduct through the so-called park and the street on one side of it, in order to pass over Ross Street. In this way there would be no interference with the teaming through Ross Street to the Baltimore and Ohio freight yards.
Second Avenue Freight Yards
Mention should here be made of a plan, which it is understood is already being considered, to develop the area between Second Avenue and the river, from Try Street to the Tenth Street bridge, for freight purposes. Even now the connections from this region to the Tenth Street and Smithfield Street bridges, and, via First and Second Avenues, to the whole Point District, are good. But the street changes proposed in connection with the traffic center at Sixth Avenue and Forbes Street will provide greatly improved connections directly to the Point District, the East End and the South Hills. First Avenue and Water Street would enter the freight yard underneath the Panhandle and the proposed Baltimore and Ohio local tracks; and if Second Avenue is raised to go over the Panhandle tracks, as recommended above, direct entrances can be secured to the second or third floor of a freight house with car elevators such as those at St. Louis. On the whole this seems like a good place for a large distributing freight station.
The "Hump Cut"
The Sixth Avenue improvement, and others in the vicinity, are bound up with the question of the "Hump Cut." Pushing to one side all differences of opinion as to the local effect of the proposed cut,—its influence on land values, and the share of the cost which ought to be borne by abutters,—the fact stands out that the City as a whole needs the improvement in order to clear an obstruction from some of its most important general highways. Another fact, seen clearly from this larger point of view, is that the essential matter is to secure a radical reduction of the maximum gradients on the three great thoroughfare lines, Sixth Avenue, Fifth Avenue, and Diamond Street, even though the minor streets on the margins of the Hump be skimped. Detailed recommendations, as to gradients, etc., are discussed in Part V and are embodied in the accompanying plans and profiles.
Grant Boulevard Extension
