An alternative method of constructing a surface or elevated boulevard link would be found in a proceeding by the city under the Local Improvement Act. The city has ample power to condemn property for widening the street and to assess the land damages against all property specially benefited thereby. Having thus added contiguous property to the street as a part thereof, the city could, under the enabling act already alluded to, if not under its general powers, construct the proposed improvement. It must be borne in mind, however, that even if the method of special assessment were resorted to in order to defray the cost, a substantial percentage of that cost would, no doubt, be designated by the court to be paid by the city as public benefits. LAKE SHORE DEVELOPMENT The treatment of the shore of Lake Michigan within the city limits involves comparatively little difficulty from a legal point of view. Ample legislation has been provided under which the Lincoln Park and South Park boards can extend their driveways and parks over the bed of Lake Michigan, subject to the consent of the Secretary of War. An Act of May 14, 1903,[66] expressly confers upon every board of park commissioners having control of any park, boulevard, or driveway bordering upon any public waters in the state the power to extend the same over the bed of such waters, and to connect two parks under their control by a boulevard or driveway over the bed of the water. Private riparian rights or titles may for such purpose be acquired by contract with or deeds from the owners, and may be paid for out of the general revenues of the park board. By Section 4, the title of the state to the submerged lands between the shore and the boulevard or parkway—in other words, the bed of the intervening lagoon—is granted to the board of park commissioners. Several other statutes on this subject were enacted on the same date. One authorizes the South Park Commissioners to extend any park under their control out into the lake over the adjacent submerged lands;[67] another conveys to the South Park Commissioners Grant Park from Randolph Street to Park Row, together with the submerged lands lying between those streets extended east to the harbor line established by the Secretary of War;[68] another grants to the South Park Commissioners title to all submerged and artificial lands between the south boundary of Jackson Park and the south line of Seventy-ninth Street extended one thousand feet into Lake Michigan, and to the land included within a triangle formed by the shore of Lake Michigan, the extension of Ninety-fifth Street and the extension of the state boundary line.[69]