New York Mooring Mast Quarter of a Mile High

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7145, 17 February 1930, Page 3

New York Mooring Mast Quarter of a Mile High

Ali SMITH’S PLAN. Mr. A 1 Smith, formerly governor of New York State, has laid before the Washington Navy Department a plan for a mooring mast for airships in Central New York, whose top shall be 1300 ft.—almost a quarter of a mileabove street level . What Mr. Smith proposes would be a mast, itself 200 ft. high,-fixed on the top of the topmost tower of the 1100 feet building now being erected' on the site of the famous old Waldorf Astoria hotel. This building is to be called the Empire State Building. It will house 60,000 people in offices. Mr. Smith is the president of the company for which the building is being erected. He explained lately to the secretary of the Navy that it is the conviction of his board of directors that in a comparatively short time airships will establish trans-Atlantic transcontinental, trans-Pacific lines, and possibly a Toutefto South America from New York. To the mooring mast, to which airships could be warped, electrical winch e 3 and lift facilities would be attached whereby passengers could be landed on the ground floor on Fifth avenue and Thirty-fourth si*reet within seven minutes after the airships have been made fast. At present the project is being considered by Government experts with an eye to the possible commercial development of airships and the need that may arise for mooring them in New York. The nearest good dirigible landing place is the naval station at Lakehurst, 70 miles south from New York.