How to Ease Congestion in Manhattan? Pave Over the Hudson River

Who would howl the loudest over this plan to fill in the Hudson River: Environmentalists upset over the new habitat for cars and greenhouse gases, or Manhattanites who found themselves attached at the hip with their low-rent neighbors across the water? As one commenter on Modern Mechanix put it: "[E]ww… connected to newjersey [sic]. I shudder to think."

Norman Sper was an engineer of sorts who dabbled in PR and whose Internet existence seems solely tied to this one ridiculous proposal. Reputedly concerned about traffic and housing congestion in Manhattan, Sper devised a plan to dam up the Hudson and divert its flow through a deeply dredged Harlem River into the East River. Then, for what he estimated to be a cost of $1 billion, he would build a virtual second city on top of the empty riverbed, complete with skyscrapers and an underground network of train tunnels, a four-lane highway, and pedestrian crossings. Bamn – right there is 10 square miles of virgin real estate. Who would even miss the old river?