View report page

29
may result from mismanagement or want of proper precautionary
measures.
11. The Contractor shall supply for the rowing of the ferry
boats three gangs of four men each, and they are to relieve each
other in the manner that may prove to be most convenient.
12. An additional boatman shall, during the continuance of the
daily service of ferry boats, be constantly in attendance upon each
shore to assist the arrival and departure of the boats.
13. A policeman shall, during the working hours of the ferry,
be stationed at the expense of the Contractor near the moveable
stagings upon each shore for the maintenance of order and the regulation
of traffic.
That your Memorialists have caused to be registered certain
statistics, and desire to call the attention of your honourable Board
to the large amount of traffic now passing over the Bridge.
That during the seven days, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th. 14th, 15th
and 16th September, there passed over the Bridge, between the
hours of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., 86,595 foot passengers, and 11,090
vehicles of all descriptions. This includes one day (15th) when
there was an important Boat Race rowed, but even if that one day
be entirely eliminated from the return it is found that the day
traffic for six days only amounts to 54,434 foot passengers and
8,705 vehicles; while the return for two days (24 hours each),
Wednesday, 13th, and Thursday, 14tl, give 13,830 foot passengers
and 2,965 vehicles.
Taking the working hours of the Ferry Boats at 12½ hours per
day, that being the period from sunrise to sunset, they would have
conveyed in the six days above referred to, 10,800 foot passengers
only, leaving 43,634 persons unprovided for, and no provision at all
is mace for the 8,705 vehicles passing during the same period-
Your Memorialists believe that it is only necessary for them to
draw the attention of your honourable Board to the foregoing
figures in order to secure a reconsideration of the matter, with a
view to the construction of a Temporary Bridge capable of accommodating
the large traffic now using Hammersmith Bridge.
Your Memorialists therefore pray that your honourable Board
will take the necessary steps for causing the erection of a temporary
bridge for the accommodation of vehicular and pedestrian
traffic before stopping the public highway over Hammersmith
Bridge.
The Metropolitan Board at once acknowledged the importance
of the matter, admitted the necessity of providing accommodation
for such traffic, and resolved to promote a Bill in Parliament