The Transportation Section, under Assistant Superintendent of Mails John J. McKelvey, is closely coördinated with the motor vehicle section. The duty of this section is to effect the loading of the vehicles and to arrange the schedules so as effectively to move the mails from the point at which they are made up to their despatch by train, or delivery to some station or group of stations. How great is the volume of mail handled will be understood when it is said that from the General Post-office alone the average number of pouches received and despatched daily is approximately 16,000, while the average number of sacks received and despatched is approximately 80,000. The pouches contain first-class mail and the sacks contain mail of other classes. The average number of pieces received and despatched daily, too large to be inserted in either sacks or pouches, is approximately 15,000. At each of the great terminals there are very extensive platforms; the one at the City Hall Station is a block long; that at the General Post-office two blocks long, and these platforms are under the control of the transportation department. During the hours when the mails are being despatched they are among the busiest spots in the postal system. As many as 1200 trucks commonly receive and discharge mail from the General Post-office platform daily. Other platforms are correspondingly busy.
The Pneumatic Tubes
The pneumatic tube service has now been resumed between the General Post-office, the terminals, and certain of the principal stations of the New York postal system, which was discontinued June 30, 1918, owing to the antagonism to this method of transportation on the part of the then postmaster-general, Mr. Albert Burleson. Legislation has been enacted and departmental action taken within the last year to bring about the resumption of operation of this valuable system. The pneumatic tubes form what is practically a great loop running north in two branches from the City Hall. One branch goes up the east side of the city, east of Central Park, and the other up the west side, west of Central Park, the two lines being joined together at 125th Street by a line running east and west. This loop and its extensions link the General Post-office and the following named stations: A, C, D, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, N, O, P, U, V, W, Y, Grand Central, Madison Square, Times Square, Wall Street, City Hall, and Varick Street. The City Hall Station is also connected with the Brooklyn General Post-office. The pneumatic tubes are located four to six feet below the surface of the city's streets, and through these tubes cylindrical steel containers are forced by compressed air. The containers are approximately seven inches in diameter and twenty-one inches long, and the pressure of air is sufficient to impel them at the rate of about thirty miles per hour. Containers carry from 500 to 700 letters each, and can be despatched as frequently as one every eight or ten seconds. It will be seen, therefore, that by means of the pneumatic tubes a practically continuous flow of the mails can be maintained between stations. The pneumatic tubes are not owned by the Government, but the service is leased on a yearly rental basis. Under the terms of the lease the company that owns the tube system operates it, and the Government delivers to the despatching points within the different stations and terminals the mail to be transported. Upon arrival at its destination the mail is again delivered to the postal employees, who are ready to receive it.
There are approximately twenty-eight miles of double tubes, so that mail can be despatched in both directions at the same time. During the period the system was in operation before the tubes conveyed the mails with remarkable efficiency, and it is said that as to stoppages and breakdowns, etc., their operation was 99.79 per cent. perfect. In one day 27,243 containers were despatched through the tubes, with a total capacity of more than 10,000,000 letters. They averaged for a year, though not used to maximum capacity, 5,000,000 letters a day. One advantage of the pneumatic tubes is their freedom from interruption by inclement weather. As the tubes are below the surface of the street, conditions of ice, snow, and sleet, which are embarrassing to motor vehicles, do not interrupt operation. At different times in several of our cities vehicles conveying the mails have been "held up," but with the tubes, robbery is practically impossible. It is anticipated that with the tube system resumed a large percentage of the letter mail intended both for city delivery and for despatch to other points will be materially advanced in delivery.
The Foreign Station of the New York post-office stands out among the postal activities of the country for it is the station at which are made up all the mails intended for foreign countries, with few exceptions, such as Canada. The superintendent of the station is Mr. Thomas J. Walters, who has been connected with it for many years. It is a busy place, particularly just before the departure of a steamer, when every effort is exerted to despatch all mail that can be crowded in, up to the very last minute. This station has grown in a comparatively short time and from a very small beginning. In 1885 the average weekly number of sacks made up for all parts of the world was only 1200; by 1890 the number had grown to 1900; by 1900 it had reached about 4500; in 1910 the figures were 10,000, and at the present time the average is approximately 18,000 sacks weekly. Mail is forwarded to the Foreign Station from all parts of the United States, and is here distributed for the various foreign countries and cities for which it is intended. In this distribution expert knowledge of foreign geography and political divisions is required, for a large percentage of the mail received is indefinitely directed, and only an expert could determine for what points much of it is intended. The shifting map of Europe has added greatly to the difficulties, for many correspondents in this country are still ignorant of the new boundaries.
In the equipment of this station are hundreds of distribution cases, and many of the letters which the experts at these cases rapidly sort are actually so poorly written that the average man would not be able to decipher them without much study.
Exhibits used for educational work in postal improvement campaign.