25. Haights Run Thoroughfare.—Another connection to be desired is from the East Liberty center to the Aspinwall bridge. The needed link is from Stanton Avenue to Butler Street. Following Haights Avenue for two blocks the new street should extend down the west bank of the Haights Run valley, with a maximum gradient of about 3½ per cent, to Butler Street. This new street would be used for both business and pleasure traffic, and its location on the steep side of a beautiful valley, much of which is already park land, will greatly enhance its value as a pleasure drive.[16] West frontage on this street, where the bank is not too high for use, will have a peculiar value for residential purposes owing to the permanence and beauty of an unobstructed outlook toward the park.
A branch connection might easily be secured (at a somewhat steeper gradient) between this new street and the table land of the Morningside District by winding up the side of the branch valley and joining Chislett Street four or five hundred feet south of Martha Street.
26. Meadow Street Connections.—Stanton Avenue is already an important thoroughfare feeding the high sections of Morningside and cross-connecting many radial streets especially in the Highland Park District. Meadow Street is its logical extension to the southeast, and by an approach from Stanton Avenue to the new Meadow Street bridge over Negley Run these two streets can and should be connected. It is understood that this connection is already being made.
Unfortunately on the east Meadow Street comes almost to a dead-end a block or so before reaching the junction of Frankstown and Fifth Avenues. Owing to the location of the Pittsburgh Hospital, the direct extension of Meadow Street is impracticable and the outlet to Frankstown Avenue can best be secured by widening Finley Street.
27. Stanton Avenue Connection to the Lincoln District.—A viaduct should be built from Stanton Avenue, at substantially the point where it enters Highland Park, running over Beechwood Boulevard and the Brillant Cutoff tracks to that portion of Highland Park lying east of the railroad and now practically unused because of its inaccessibility.
Furthermore, if it shall be possible to acquire a considerable portion of the Highland Cemetery property (still vacant) for residential or other taxpaying use, or if simply a right-of-way can be secured through the cemetery property, a combined thoroughfare and boulevard should be built from the viaduct above proposed, running about as shown on the map and connecting with Lincoln Avenue at the top of the hill. By this line the steep gradients on Lincoln Avenue can be avoided and the high country to the east reached on a gradient of not over 4¾ per cent.
28. Beechwood Boulevard Connection.—Chiefly for pleasure traffic more street accommodation is needed between the ends of Beechwood Boulevard, at Frankstown Avenue and at Fifth Avenue. As the Pennsylvania Railroad freight yards practically prevent linking the ends of the Boulevard by a new street west of Fifth Avenue, the best plan would be to widen Fifth Avenue, from boulevard to boulevard, enough for two roadways, one for pleasure vehicles and the other for business traffic. (Diagram No. 10.) The west roadway would be best suited for pleasure travel because more than half of the west frontage is occupied by freight yards requiring access at only one or two fixed points.
Diagram No. 10. Beechwood Boulevard connection. A possible section
29. Boundary Street Improvement.—The plan to relocate and lower the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks in Junction Hollow and to construct a cross-town thoroughfare on the present railroad site, is advantageous to all concerned and, it is hoped, will soon be carried out. The new street (Boundary Street relocated), at its southern end, should connect both with Second Avenue and the proposed hillside thoroughfare (Section 14); with the former by following the present line of Forward Avenue south to Greenfield Avenue, and with the latter by going over the Baltimore & Ohio tracks just north of the present Sylvan Avenue viaduct, and extending west along the bank up to the new hillside street. At its northern end the new Boundary Street would bend to the east, after passing under Forbes Street, and, following the side of the ravine to get an easy gradient, curve westward again and join Fifth Avenue at Clyde Street. A branch to the west could connect with Boquet Street at Joncaire and with Forbes Street at the Schenley Park entrance. (See Bellefield Improvement, Plans A and B, Part IV, pages [102] to 104.)