The Front Street Bottleneck

The Front street grade is going ahead slowly, but we are told that a large force will be put on in a few days and the work pushed ahead faster. A number of men are now at work trimming off the bank and finishing up the cut at Denny’s block, and a large force is employed in making a cut at the foot of Seneca street, across Front. This is being done, we are informed, preparatory to constructing a bridge across the street. But it appears to us that this bridge will, when completed, be very much like the fifth wheel to a wagon, as it can serve no possible purpose. It was proposed at one time to run Seneca street through under Front, 20 feet in the clear and 10 feet below the grade, but that injudicious plan was completely frustrated by well-founded objections that were raised by the property holders. Seneca should, and of course will be, filled up so as to intersect with Front street the same as University and Spring Streets, and in this event, a bridge at the place in question would be a nuisance, and would interfere with the intersection of the two streets. The only feasible plan, therefore, is to fill the foot of Seneca street up in the same manner that the filling was made at the foot of other streets intersecting with Front.