face the important streets with sheet asphalt and wood. Curbs are usually 12 inches in width, largely of granite and often constructed with interlocking ends. A number of street widening operations to obviate congested traffic are under way in the older part of the city. New building operations, not content with getting the entire sidewalk and part of the street, as is done elsewhere, frequently close the whole roadway to traffic. Considerable street opening and trenching exist at the present time on account of the installation of a new system of water mains with American style fire-hydrants. Drainage inlets to the sewers have horizontal square iron gratings in the gutter over a pipe leading directly to the sewer. Sewer house connections, which are not as frequent as here, are as a rule constructed of brick. The usual thickness of pavement foundation is 8 inches of concrete made of gravel ballast, the surface being smoothed with a straight-edge. The streets are well lighted, both gas and electricity being employed. A noticeable feature in the streets is the decoration of electric light poles with baskets of flowers set on brackets at about half the height of the pole. In the wider streets the two tram tracks are usually laid at one side, protected from the remainder of the roadway by frequent safety refuges or loading platforms, the latter often having small glass and iron structures for the convenience of passengers waiting for cars. In addition to the tramways there are many motor buses similar to those in London and others of a type having a side entrance in the middle. There are also horse-drawn vehicles, somewhat like the street cars, but running on the pavement without rails and carrying passengers at a lower rate than the other vehicles. Street traffic also includes a very large number of public carriages and motor cabs. As a rule, the streets appear to be in fair condition as to surface with the exceptions noted and are very well cleaned. On a few streets having considerable grade very large blocks are used, having grooves cut in them at right angles to the length of the street, producing the effect of a small block pavement and furnishing additional roughness for making a better footing for horses. The principal drainage course in the city is the river Wien, which is a small brook from which the city derives its name, carried under the surface of the parks and boulevards to its inlet in the Danube Canal. Trains of two and three cars are operated as in other cities on tramways, some of the latest designed cars being similar to the American plan prepayment car. No other Austrian city was studied with any care, although several of more or less local importance such as Salzburg, Linz, Znaim, Kolin and Leitmeritz were observed in passing sufficiently to develop the fact that in no features were they noticeably different from corresponding towns of Germany, except in their streets probably not being maintained at quite so high a standard. Square stone blocks both for carriageways and footways and frequently for curb, or ordinary macadam, the latter sometimes combined with the stone block pavement, were almost exclusively used. In the smaller towns macadam and cobblestone are the prevalent forms of street surface. Some of the better country roads in Austria are macadamized; but, as a rule, the roads throughout Upper and Lower Austria, Moravia and Bohemia-the only portions of this country visited-were quite inferior to those of France, Switzerland and Germany. ITALY MILAN In order to see the largest and most modern type of city in Italy, an inspection was made of Milan, which is situated in the northern part of the country in a level region south of the Italian Alps and on the direct rail route by way of St. Gothard Tunnel between eastern France, western Germany and central Italy. It is the second city in size in Italy, having a population of 599,000 and an ideal situation from a manufacturing standpoint, as, while it occupies a level site surrounded by ample areas for extension, it is within a short distance of the Alpine water power which has been largely developed for its manufactures, and it lies on the navigable Olona River between two smaller streams which feed three canals. The largest of these divides the interior of the city into two equal parts and the others surround it, giving access to all parts for traffic and irrigation, and connecting with the general Italian canal system. The city is built in the form of an irreg ular polygon surrounded by these canals, the former location of its encircling forts having been converted into parks. Its site has always been on the line of the great highway across the Alps and, since the opening of the Simplon Route, is in direct communication with Switzerland and the countries to the north by two main lines. Its manufactures include silk, cotton and other fabrics, carpets, jewelry, paper, glass, porcelain, carriages, furniture and machinery. It is also the chief publishing center and bock market of Italy. It has a total area of streets of 4,451,641 square yards, having a total length of 220.43 miles, divided into the following classes: During the year 1911, the last year noted on the latest annual report, there was newly paved 12,010.23 square yards of granite pavement and 18,820.26 square yards of ordinary macadam; the total amcunt of work done on the streets, including repairs, amounted to 20.76 miles in length. The main streets are surfaced with large granite blocks, measuring 18 x 24 inches on the top and 6 inches in depth, laid without foundation and with diagonal joints, closely fitted, and therefore presenting a smooth uniform surface. Some streets are paved with very small cobblestone, and there is a small quantity of asphalt and wood block pavement. On the cobble streets stone wheelways are provided for heavy traffic. Many of the light-traffic streets are macadamized. Where asphalt is used, hard wood blocks are placed adjacent to the tramway rails. The tramway is a doubletrack standard-gauge overhead trolley system, extending throughout the entire city, its overhead wires being suspended between adjacent buildings. The streets are well lighted with electricity and gas. Heavy wide granite curb with frequent small vertical inlets for storm water drains is used. Street traffic, as in Austria and England, runs left-handed. CHAPTER V BELGIUM Very similar in appearance and also in the forms of their municipal organization are the cities of Belgium to those of France. In particular, Brussels, the capital, is largely modeled after Paris. A review of the cities of this country will parallel conditions existing in many of the principal French cities. BRUSSELS Brussels, the capital city, in the central part of the country and on the direct rail line from Paris to Berlin, as well as from London to Italy, occupies, a site partly on level ground, partly on a steep hillside and its surmounting elevation. It has a population of over 717,000, including the suburbs, and its manufactures are of considerable importance. In plan it resembles Paris in having a complete circle of broad boulevards surrounding the inner city, but is not divided by any stream, having a broad avenue across it connecting the two main passenger terminals situated at either end on the boulevards. The old city, which is partly on the hillside, has narrow irregular streets largely paved with square stone blocks, known in our country as Belgian, laid with sand joints directly on earth foundation. The principal business street of the city, the Boulevard Anspach, along which lie the main business houses, hotels and commercial interests, is surfaced with asphalt, as are many of its adjacent streets. The surrounding boulevards have surfaces of macadam, asphalt and wood. The highways of Brussels are divided into two classes: the greater highways, which are under maintenance by the national government and the lesser highways, which include all streets maintained at the expense of the city. These latter streets are of two classes according to their importance, as principal and secondary roads. The streets under the jurisdiction of the city government have a total area of 1,612,800 square yards, divided as follows: The average amounts of pavement reconstruction of different classes is as follows: Square Yards 72,000 24,000 12,000 1,800 4,200 114,000 From these figures the city engineer makes the deduction that the entire street surface paved with stone requires reconstruction every forty years; macadamized |