Santiago Calatrava's proposed tram to Governors Island (courtesy of Santiago Calatrava.)

River City
Who needs the Second Avenue Subway? New York Water Taxi owner Tom Fox envisions a north-south route with regular stops at the piers on the east and west sides of the East River. “You could have both locals and expresses connecting 90th Street, 65th Street, 23rd Street, and Grand Street on the Manhattan side, and stops at Roosevelt Island, Hunters Point, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, and Dumbo on the Brooklyn-Queens side,” Fox says. “Having the major retail presence of Ikea and Fairway and passenger-ship terminals in Red Hook could support a stop; you could have a stop at Atlantic Avenue and a stop at Governors Island.” When the waterfront is home to the projected tens of thousands, the city may turn back the clock and become a ferry operator again.

Cable Vision
Taking the tram to Roosevelt Island has never been a romantic trip (notwithstanding its starring role in Spider-Man). But the technology may soon be put to more dramatic use. Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff imagines the spine of the harbor district as a tram running from Battery Park to Governors Island to Brooklyn Bridge Park, feeding the development of lower Manhattan as a residential area (more park) and restructuring the geography of the city to reflect east-west adjacencies as well as north-south ones. Another tram possibility is a West Side loop, linking the new Javits Center (and anticipated Eleventh Avenue skyscrapers) to Eighth Avenue and Moynihan Station.

Related:

• Archive: “Features”
• Articles by Alexandra Lange
• Table of Contents: June 5, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!