■44 THE GROWTH OF NEW YORK. THE GROWTH OF NEW YORK. <' The metropolis of our country, and, twenty years hence, of the world." Lt.-Gen. Grant, ^.^ 9'^* Neuj fork: GEORGE W. WOOD, 2 DUTCH STREET. 1865. pi 2.? .44- 40368 CONTENTS. I. The Concentration of Population in Great Cities page 5 n. The Past and Coming Growth of New York 10 m. New York the Heart of the Country 15 IV. The Natural Site for a Great City 19 V. The Room for the City's Growth 21 VI. The Direction of its Growth 25 Vn. The Tendency toward Better Houses 28 VIII. The Fifth Avenue Tendency 31 IX. The Westward Tendency 34 X. The New Parks and Boulevards 37 XI. The Future West End 41 Xn. The City Railroads 45 I. THE CONCENTRATION OF POPULATION IN GREAT CITIES. The concentration of population in great cities, during the present century, is so clearly shown in the census returns, appears to be so constant and to be due to such general and permanent causes, that it may be regarded as a fixed tendency and law of growth, and have its place in calculations of future progress. Illustrations of this law are found in the census returns of this country and of France and Great Britain. Popidation is found to be accumulating more rapidly in the cities than in the country at large, and in certain great central cities than in the cities at large. United States. In the following table, the total population is divided into three classes : I. The great cities. II. Forty-one other cities, including all .which had, in 1860, a population of 15,000. III. The rest of the country. 1820. 1830. I. Great Cities : Boston 43,298 123,706 119,325 62,738 27,178 9,642 4,123 7,175 61,392 New York 202,589 Philadelphia Bfiltimore 161,410 80,625 New Orleans 46,082 Cincinnati 24,831 Chicago St. Louis 6,694 Brooklyn 15,396 Total 397,185 172,825 599,019 H. Forty-one other Cities 286,357 Total Cities 570,010 9,068,181 885,376 1 1 1. Kest of Country 11,981,244 Total United States 9,638,191 12,866,620 THE CONCENTRATION OF POPULATION IN GREAT CITIES. 1840. 1850. 1860. I. Great Cities : Boston 93.383 312,710 205,580 102,313 102,193 46,338 4,470 16,469 41,223 136,881 515,547 340,045 169,054 116,375 115,436 29,963 77,860 127,618 177,812 New York 814,254 PliilixJelpliia. 562,529 Baltimore 212,418 New Orleans 168,675 Cincinnati 161,044 Chicago 109,260 St. Louis 160,773 Brooklyn 266,661 Total n. Forty-one other Cities 924,679 516,455 1,628,779 931,590 2,533,436 1,557,357 Total Cities 1,441,134 15,628,319 2,560,369 20,631,507 4,090,793 in. Rest of Country 27,354,287 Total United States 17,069,453 23,191,876 31,445,080 During the period of forty years the population of the cities in the aggregate has increased more than seven fold, while the population of the rest of the country has increased precisely three fold. Some of the great central cities have increased in a proportion largely exceeding the rate of the cities in the aggregate. If a like comparison be made of the growth of the State of New York, a still more rapid concentration in the cities is shown. We will compare — I. New York, Brooklyn and Williamsburgh, as a me- tropolis. II. Seventeen other cities of the state, including all which, in 1860, contained over 5,000. III. The rest of the state. 1840. 1850. 1860. I Metropolis 353,933 162,903 643,165 281,101 1,080.915 375,515 n Other Cities Total Cities 516,836 1,912,085 924,266 2,173,128 1,456,430 2,424,308 in. Rest of State Total State New York. 2,428,921 3,097,394 3,880,735 The cities have increased three fold in twenty years, while the rest of the state has gained but about 28 per cent. The metropolis has exceeded the aggregate of the other cities in rapidity of growth. THE CONCENTRATION OF POPULATION IN GREAT CITIES. » These rates will be shown to have largely increased by the census of 1865, to be taken the present year. The population of the metropolis, it is estimated, will be at least 1,600,000. France. In France, the following table shows the relative growth of the capital, Paris, to the whole counti'y : 1820. 1825. 1831. 1836. 1841. Paris 760,000 29,701,875 840,000 31,018,937 774,000 31,795,220 909,000 32,631,910 935,261 Eest of France. . . . 33,312,458 Total France . . . 30,461,875 31,858,937 32,569,220 33,540,910 34,247,719 1846. 1851. 1856. 1861. Paris 1,053.897 34,346,589 1,053,261 34,729,909 1,151,978 34,887,386 1,667,841 Rest of France 35,088,030 Total France 35,400,486 35,783,170 36,039,364 36,755,871 The slow rate of increase of population in France is attributed t9 two causes — first, the emigration from the mountain and agricultural districts, and secondly, the point has been reached when the soil bears as large a population as it can support, and births begin to di- minish. The growth of the capital is rapid and steady. The great increase shown between 1856 and 1861 is because, in 1860, the city walls (" miirs d'octroi") were extended to the outer line of fortifica- tion, and, in 1861, embraced a suburban population not previously in- cluded. The suburban population of Paris has been uniformly large, owing in part to the octroi duties. The department of the Seine, in which Paris is situated, has increased as follows : From 1846 to 1851 43,635 " 1851 to 1856 303,354 " 1856 to 1861 226,241 573,230 The increase of that department, during the above period of fifteen years, has absorbed more than forty-two per cent, of the whole in- crease of France. THE CONCENTRATION OF POPULATION IN GREAT CITIES. England. The following table shows the comparison between the principal cities and the rest of the country in England and Wales : 1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. L Cities: 958,863 70,000 77,653 50,000 39,914 73,760 1,138,815 98,573 94,376 70,000 76,952 85,755 1,378,947 133,788 118,972 83,796 95,788 106,722 1,654,994 Manchester 182,212 165.195 Leeds Bristol 123,393 117,016 Birmingliam 146,986 Total, six cities. . n. Rest of country 1,270,190 7,622,346 1,564,471 8,599,597 1,918,013 10,081,309 2,389,796 11,487,001 ILL Total of England and Wales 8,892,536 10,164,068 11,999,322 13,876,797 L Cities : London Manchester. . Liverpool . . . Leeds Bristol Birmingham. Total, six cities. n. Rest of country . . . . 1841. 1,948,417 353,390 224,954 151,850 128,188 182,922 2,984,721 12,929,427 m. Total of England and Wales 15,914, 148 1851. 1861. 2,362,236 401,321 375,955 172,270 137,328 232,841 3,681.951 14,240,812 2,803,989 550,000 443,874 207,153 154,093 295,955 4,455,064 15,606,661 17,922,763 20,061,725 The- cities have increased nearly four-fold since the commencement of this century, while the rest of England and Wales has but little more than doubled. Scotland. 1801 1811 1821. 1831. 1 . Glasgow 83,769 1,524,651 110,460 1,695,404 147,043 1,944,478 202,426 2. Rest of Scotland 2,161,960 3. Total Scotland 1,608,420 1,805,864 2,091,521 2,364,386 THE CON'CENTRATIOX OP POPCLATIOX IK GREAT CITIES. 1841. I.Glasgow i 280,676 2. Eest of Scotland ; 2,339,503 3. Total Scotland ' 2,620,184 1851. 344,986 2,525,798 1861. 446,395 2,614,934 2,870,784 3,061,329 The chief city has grown more than five-fold since the beginning of this century, while the rest of the country has increased seventy per cent. Ireland. 1821. 1831. 1841. i 1851. j 1861. 1. Dublin 185,881 204,155 6,615,946 7,563,246 232,726 258,361 7,942,398 ^ 6,257,433 | 249,733 2. Eest of Ireland.. . . . 5,514,810 3. Total Ireland. 6,801,827 7,767,401 8,175,124 6,515,794 i 5,764,543 This shows the increase of the chief city in a country where, by emigration and other causes, the total population has fluctuated and rapidly decreased. Similar illustrations of this law can be found in all the chief cities of the continent of Europe. There has been an era in the history of most of these cities, in which the modern growth is so manifest that the designations of old city and new city have been adopted. This era commenced with the fall of the first Napoleon, and during the long period of general peace in Europe that has ensued, the con- stant and rapid growth of these cities, over their previously suburban area, has been as marked as it is in the region above Fourteenth street in the city of New York. Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfort, are familiar examples. This general growth of cities has been attributed to various causes, to the increase and advance in manufactures and commerce, to the development of natural productions, to the railroad and the telegraph . But one need only turn his memory back over the free cities of the middle ages, to the earlier eras of ancient history, to the days of Rome^ Alexandria, Carthage, Athens, Corinth and Sparta ; when states were merely cities with their districts to which they gave their names ; 10 THE PAST AND COinXG GROWTH OP NEW YORK. when constitutions were only forms of city government ; when the ideas of state and city were designated by the same words ; to see that great cities are as fundamental as the social principle in man, and that, as to their growth, it is true that " all causes aid and none retard it." But it is upon the especial rapidity of this growth during the past quarter-century, when cities that are centuries old are renewing their o-rowth and doubling their population, and upon the fact that we are now at the flood tide of this rapid advance, that we will fix our attention. II. THE PAST AND COMING GROWTH OF NEW YORK. Prior to 1820, the city of New York had the ordinary growth of a seaport town, at the mouth of a river giving it 150 miles of naviga- tion into an undeveloped country. In 1*156 its population was 10,381 ; in nt3, 21,786 ; in 1186, 23,614 ; in 1190, 33,131 ; in 1800, 60,489; in 1810, 96,313. The opening of the Erie canal and the construction, link by link, of the leading railroads, which gave it communication with the great lakes and the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi, marked the second period of its growth. Its progress at once betame more rapid. Population. 1820 123,706 1825 ] 66,089 1830 202, 589 1835 270,068.... 1840 312,710 1845 371,223 1850 515,547 1855 629,810 1860 814,254 29)^ This makes an average increase at the rate of 28 per cent, every five years. If it should continue at this rate, it -would progress as follows : 1865 1,042,245 1870 1,334,073 1875 1,708,613 Rate of increase. 33 per cent. 21^i 33 ^.{ 151.^ 31i.< 38K 21 3| THE PAST AND COMING GROWTH OF NEW YORK. II! The recent report from the City Inspector's Department, estimating the population of the city in 1864 at 1,080,000, shows the probability that this rate of increase will be maintained. But, in order to gain a more just idea of a city's progress, its sub" urbs should be included. It is seldom that the civil and natural boundaries of a city coincide, A growing city expands on all sides for five or ten miles. In the present point of view, New York should be regarded as including all the area within five miles of the city Hall. An allowance of this sort made in the comparisons between the growth of cities and the state, in the previous chapter, would on an average add ten per cent, in favor of the cities. If New York be regarded as a metropolis, it has progressed thus : 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 1860. New York Brooklyn Williamsburgh .... Jersey City 123,706 7,155 1,000 1,000 202,589 15.396 2,000 2,000 312,710 36,233 5,000 3,072 515,547 96,838 30,780 6,856 814,254 j- 266,661 29,226 Total 132,861 221,985 357,015 650,021 1,110,141 Increase 67 per cent. 61 per cent. 82 per cent. 70 per cent. The present population, in 1865, is estimated to be 1,600,000. The city may therefore be fairly regarded as at the beginning of its third period of advance to metropolitan greatness. The bulk of its rapid growth has been in the region above Four- teenth street. The following is the result of a separate comparison : 1840. 1845. 1850. 1855. 1860. Above 14th street Below 14tli street 33,811 278,899 54,728 316,495 113,513 402,034 212,334 417,476 344,462 469,792 Total 312,710 371,223 515,547 629,810 814,254 Of the population in 1864, 1,080,000, one half is estimated to be above Fourteenth street. 12 THE PAST AND COMING GROWTH OF NEW YORK. At its present rate New York is growing with a rapidity largely exceeding that at which any other great city in the world has grown. If its growth as a metropolis, which is now progressing at the rate of 100,000 per year, be compared with the other cities of this country, it will be found that it could absorb the second city in the country in less than ten years, and any of the others in two or three years. It stands now next to London and Paris among the cities of the civilized world. It is as large now as Paris was in 1856. As a metropolis it is now as large as Paris was in 1861, or as London was in 1831. If the tables of population be examined, with reference to the effect produced by the periods of financial disturbance, as in 1831, 1854, 1851, the war in 1848 and the rebellion in 1861, no crisis will be found that has disturbed its progress. The history both of Paris and London teaches us, by example, that it is possible for New York to grow to double its present size, and to have periods of prosperity and magnificence beyond anything it has hitherto seen. The citizen of New York who has not seen Paris and London, who knows New York as the grandest and most beautiful city on this continent, constantly exceeding in its growth all reason- able anticipations, may easily fail to discern of how many improve- ments it is capable, and how splendid a city it may be made v/ithin another quarter-century. . The growth of Paris has been marked with strange fluctuations. In the sixteenth century it had a population of 200,000 ; by the year 1680 it had increased to 490,000. It gradually increased through the eighteenth century. In 1720 it had 500,000 ; in 1152, 516,000 ; in 1116, 658,000 ; in 1184, 660,000. During the quarter-century, when it suffered under the effect of the French revolution and the wars of Napoleon, its growth was checked. Its population became depleted under the reign of terror and the levies for the armies. In 1192 it had 610,000 ; in 1193, 530,000. It increased again to 640,000 in 1198, and to 612,000 in 1802. In 1806, the population fell to a point lower than it had been in 1193. In 1808 it reached 580,000, and in 1810, 594,000. In 1814 it became again much reduced by the destructive defeats of the armies of France. During the period from 1192 to 1814, 306,100 men were sent by Paris to the field of battle, which was one tenth of the number sent by all France. After the restora- tion of Louis XVIIL, its progress recommenced and has since been uniform. Old Paris began to undergo its changes, light and air were let into its narrow streets. New streets, places, and boulevards, were THE PAST AND COMING GROWTH OF NEW YORK. 13' opened. Markets, shops, and warehouses, were erected for the com- merce and industry of the people. Gas was introduced, omnibus lines were established, the trottoirs were improved, and amid all, the monarchical and religious works of luxury, the churches, palaces, statues, and bridges, were not neglected. The revolutions of 1830 and of 1848 but little disturbed this ad- vance. The demand of the people for labor and bread kept the public works in progress. The walls of the city have been twice extended, once by Louis Philippe, and recently in 1860. During the reign of the present Emperor these works of reconstruction have been so thorough and extensive, under the administration of M. Haussmann, prefect of the Seine, that Paris is fast becoming a new city. The vacant sub- urbs, gained to the city by the extension of its walls, have become covered with magnificent streets and houses which look like palaces. Trees have been planted along the streets, the elegant fountains have been increased, and lighting by gas has become universal. A series of broad streets, radiating from the centre through the " ruche im- monde^^ of the " ciW and the regions back of the Hotel de Ville, have been opened, and large buildings of uniform elevation erected upon their sides ; the pavements approach perfection, and are kept scru- pulously clean. These improvements have changed the face of whole quarters. The working population, which over-crowded these old quarters, have been driven out and scattered into the suburbs and there is no place for future barricades. They have carried into exe- cution their plans for the sanitary regulation of the city, have com- pleted the lines of the quays, have embellished the Place de la Con- corde and other public places, surrounded the Champs Elysees with picturesque structures, and made its course from the Palace of the Tuilleries, through the " Arc de la Triomphe de I'Etoile" to the Bois de Boulogne, the finest in Europe. They have rebuilt the Hotel de Ville, finished the Palace of the Louvre, restored Notre Dame and twenty other churches, and built hospitals, model prisons, bridges, fountains, triumphal arches, palaces of science, industry, and art, col- leges and churches without number. Paris has become attractive with everything that the most elaborate forms of modern civilization can show. Not only has the old city undergone a complete trans- formation, but these works, still progressing at a rate which makes the expenses of the city administration 200,000,000 francs a year, are filling up the vacant suburbs upon such a scale, that, in a few years, the new city will be grander than the old. 1-t THE PAST AND COMIXG GRO'^'TH OF NEW YORK. London does not show such changes and renovations in its ancient districts, nor is so much done there for external appearance and beauty. Obstructed by no walls, and constrained by no natural boundaries, its increasing population has spread out on every side, and covered a large area of country with a population less dense than any other great city. Its residences of the better class have been built at the west end, have extended over the spaces between the Thames and Hyde Park, and around that and Regent's Park, have quite filled up, with elegant and comfortable English dwelling-houses, spaces that, twenty years ago, were as empty of improvements as the regions about the Central Park are now. With these examples before it, there is room for New York to grow in extent and beauty. From similarity of climate and general public spirit the disposition here is to follow Paris rather than London ; and to make the new New York, that we are about starting to erect, a city full of all the external attractions and beauty that art and archi- tecture can furnish. New York is not behind the two cities that now exceed it, either in wealth or in public spirit ; although it may be in comprehending the plan of a great city, and in applying its best ability to the execution of such a plan. These cities owe much of their grandeur to government expenditure. New York can show proportionately more, as the result of private and individual expen- diture, than either of them ; and there is no reason, save our own indifference, why the future New York, so soon to surpass them in population, should be in any respect inferior to them. The growth of New York is not to be marked by its population alone. If any man feels that his convictions need to be reinforced let him peruse the statements of the valuations of real and personal property made by the tax assessors, of the amounts paid for income tax, of its tonnage, its exports and imports, its railroad traffic and receipts, its bank capital and transactions and its other commer- cial and financial statistics. All these show an increase at a rate much more rapid than its growth in population. They are shown by tables constantly presented in the daily papers, too familiar and too accessible to need repetition here. NEW YORK THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY. 16; III. NEW YORK THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY. New York stands in relation with the whole country as its com- mercial and financial capital. During the second period of its growth, from 1820 to 1860, a portion of its wealth was employed in constructing railroads and other works of internal improvement, over the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi and along the borders of the lakes ; an employment of capital that involved great waste and loss, and brought but small returns. The leading lines of railroad across this region, beginning to stretch up the western side of the Mississippi valley, have been so long completed that now the prom- ised results of increase of production and wealth have ripened into a harvest for the city. The rate at which this progress is maintained is shown by the following comparative table : Population. Value of real and personal property. Miles of raikoad in operation. 1850. 1860. 1850. 1860. 1850. 1860. lUinois. . . Indiana . . . Iowa Kansas . . . Michigan . Minnesota. Missouri . . Ohio Wisconsin. Nebraska. . 851,470 988,416 192,214 397,654 6,077 682.044 1,980,329 305,391 1,711,951 1,350,428 674,913 107,206 749,113 172,123 1,182,012 2,339,511 775,881 28,841 1156,265,006 202,650,264 23,714,638 59,787,255 137,247,707 504,726,120 42,056,595 $871,860,282 528,835,371 247.338,265 31,327,895 257,163,983 52,294,413 501,214,398 1,193,898,422 273,671,668 9,131,056 110 228 342 575 20 2,868 2,126 680 '■799 ""817 2,901 923 Total.... 5,403,595 9,091,979 $1,126,447,585 $3,966,735,753 1,275 11,114 16 NEW YORK THE HEART OF THE COUXTRY. Bush. Wheat produced. Acres of Improved Lands. 1850. 1860. 1850. 1860. Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas 9,414,575 6,214.458 1,530,-581 4,925,889 1.401 2,981,652 14,487,351 4,286,131 24.159,500 15.219,120 8,433,205 168,527 8,313,185 2,195,812 4.227.586 14.532,570 15,812,625 72,268 5,039,545 5,046,543 824,682 l,929ji6 5.035 2,938,425 9,851,493 1,045,499 13,251,473 8,161,717 3,780,253 372 835 Michigan 3,419,861 554,397 6,246,871 12,665,587 3 746 036 Minnesota Missouri Ohio Wisconsin Nebra.ska 122,582 Total 43,842,038 93,134,398 26.680,332 52,321,612 We are now reaping-, without further outlay, all the results of our enterprise and investment. The increasing' production and commerce of the great Northwestern country (of which but a small portion is as yet fully occupied) are now flowing upon us through channels estab. lished and paid for. But westward, beyond that region, lies a new country, which we are now, at the commencement of the city's third period, rising up to possess. Across its broad wilderness, stretching from the Missouri border-country to the Paciiic coast, the mail-coach road and the tele- graph are already in operation. Numerous exploring paths and wagon trails traverse it, and the fibres are already starting from either border, to meet and intersect each other, and cover the land ^vith a network of iron roads. The sound policy of the construction of these roads is settled. The gold to pay for them lies waiting for the miner. The true principle of government aid, by land grants, is found out, and the shovel and compass are at work. An energetic population has been employed, for two or three seasons, in exploring the eastern and western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. These ex- plorations were started in the spring of 1865 more extensively than ever, and settlers are swarming like bees upon their tracks. The agricultural and mineral wealth of this new region presents greater inducements than were ever before offered. The gold-pro- ducing area is measured by hundreds of thousands of square miles, and embraces whole territories. Its production has been constantly extending and increasing since the discoveries in California in 1848, NEW YORK THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY. 11 and now does not fall much short of |100,000,000 each year, drawn here and there from a country not yet half explored nor beginning- to be developed. Nor is the trade of the South to be lost to New York. If the events of the last four years have caused us to lose sight of its importance, they have shown how great a trade we can lose without being hindered by it. The revival of that trade will again astonish us with its ex- tent and value, when it begins its rivalry with the West, as of old, upon a more equal footing, and with a power and momentum due to its new-found freedom. In this general growth of the continent, New York will stand as the great heart of the country — the heart true to the whole country. New York is cosmopolitan in feeling. Its increase has been so rapid that of its million inhabitants but few are native born. It has re- ceived its accessions from every country of Christendom ; from the middle states, the proud-spirited South, the true grit of New England ; and these accessions have included the very best elements. All feel- ings and all opinions are represented here. We are all closely in contact. Nowhere are men more energetically intent on their busi- ness. Nowhere are opinions more fixed. Nowhere is discussion more earnest and more sharply to the point. Nowhere has it greater freedom. How rapidly these conflicting opinions have their points rubbed oiF ; and, day by day, truth appears and sound sense and for- bearance and charity. The news of the country concentrates and emanates from here. The intellectual pulsations throb instantly from Portland to San Francisco, and return instantly. No provincialism or sectionalism can secure a lodgment here. Out of this trial comes the true spirit of New York. The sympathies of all nations and all classes are fused into one common mould, and flow out, corrected and purified, for the whole country, with all its variety o^ people, interests and climate. Thanks to a permanent and systematic education, a high-toned press, and a pure religion. New York will aid this coming development of our broad domain with its sympathy, with the energy and ability of its business men, with its money ; and the results of this developement will converge here. Every new mine opened, every town built up, comes into re- lations with New York ; and every railroad, no matter how short, has one terminus here. In the coming quarter-century we are to see the effect upon this development, of rapid travel and the rapid transmission of thought. 18 NEW YORK THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY, All commercial and political crises will be of shorter duration. The fiuctuations of prices, financial events, will have their effect at once, universally ; opinions will settle and the bubbles disappear. The world will be self-conscious and move with more certain and measured steps. At the death of the President, the shock and the grief and the second thought were simultaneous over the whole land. No one could seek an advantage where the whole matter was known to all alike. By the very habit of telegraphing we are getting terse- ness and precision of thought and expression, condensation of word and action. We insist on the bare fact, the exact truth, without em- bellishment. We pardon no mistakes. This results in general in- telligence, in exactness of investigation, in rapidity and precision of judgment ; and puts the polish of pure logical method upon the busi- ness and daily thought of a whole people. By these agencies we can now do the business of the Mississippi valley better than fifty years ago we could do that of the Hudson. The Pacific coast is quite as near to us now as then were the shores of Long Island sound. The commercial and productive enterprises of any part of the coimtry can be directed here. Their results belong and come here. The capital and energy of the country tend to build up here. The accumulated fo)-tunes tend to settle here. The metrop- olis will ere long stand in as close business relations ^"ith every town of the United States, as, fifty years ago, it did with its own up-town wards. Briareus, with his hundred hands, will be as nothing to it. The products of the wheat fields of the prairies, the g'old mines of the Pacific coast, the coal fields and oil wells of Pennsylvania, the fac- tories of New England, and the plantations of the South, will heap up a portion of their accumulations here, just as accurately as if all these fields of labor were within the city limits. An instance of this new-found wealth will aid one's conceptions of its extent. Turn aside from one of the beautiful valleys of Pennsyl- vania into a ravine where you make your road as you go. In the midst of the primeval forest, where a year ago only the hunter found his way, you will see a tall derrick erected and a shanty by it, con- taining an oflfice and a few account books. A dozen round wooden tanks are grouped irregularly about it, into which the iron tube, ris- ing up through the derrick, bends and pours its stream of oil with the force of a Croton hydrant. The ground is trodden into deep oily mire ; the teamsters are crowding up to transport away the filled barrels. Two or three contented-looking men are checking them as THE NATURAL SITE FOR A GREAT CITY. 19 they go. Seven or eight thousand dollars has paid for it all. These few idle men manage it. Yet nature out of pure bounty pays them a daily cash dividend that they would not exchange at the end of the year for the whole dividends of the Erie or the N. Y. Central Railroad, in some cases for the dividends of hoth. They have a better paying property than any half dozen banks, or factories, or steamships. And though such a well should run out in a few years, surely it may be forgiven. Against this general growth there is no offset of decrease. The foreign commerce of New York, the statistics of which prove its progress with unsurpassed emphasis, presents no other prospect than continued expanse. If the undertakings now on foot be successful, we shall soon see telegraphic communication around the world an accomplished fact, and its results upon the commerce of the world will begin to appear. In its third period New York will occupy a strong position. It stands upon the Atlantic coast at a point that must command the bulk of the commerce between the great continents that bound the North Atlantic, and where converge from the West the great internal lines of communication. These lines extend westward over a productive continent, and at the Pacific coast strike ports ready to draw in the commerce of Asia. The telegraphic wires will fix its relations to the whole country and the world, tightening as they expand. It will be the metropolis of a wealthy, ambitious, and energetic people, of es- tablished material, political and moral strength, and at an age of the world when all things will move. This will will be a position such as no city in the world has ever before occupied. IV. THE NATURAL SITE FOE A GREAT CITY. There is no spot in Christendom where Nature has been more lavish of her gifts or promises for a great city than the site where New York stands. It is at the point where a great river flowing from the north embays ixself for two outlets to the broad Atlantic. Its wide and deep bay meets all the requirements of a good harbor, it 20 THE NATURAL SITE FOR A GREAT CITY. narrows for defence and again expands into a lower bay, just indented from tlie sea enough for good anchorage and shelter. Its eastern outlet gives another approach from the ocean, and brings in the trade from all the eastern coast. The Hudson connects it by canals with the great continental course of water navigation, and bears on its bosom the most costly and extensive river traffic in the world. Situ- ated in the temperate zone, midway between the tropics and the pole, on a coast line tending north and south, New York is within easy and rapid reach, by cheap water transit, of all the different climates of the continent, of the early fruits and luxuries of the South and the natural productions of the whole coast, as tlie season passes from south to north, whence to draw supplies for its markets. In the same manner that we gather here the citizens of every lati- tude, so we supply a climate of equal variety. The east wind brings to us, from the Banks of Newfoundland the same fog upon which the Bostonians feed. The southeast wind brings us the warm, moist, fresh and bracing sea-breeze straight from the Gulf stream, such as the invalid will go to Nassau and the Florida coast to find. The west and southwest breeze comes to us laden with the warm freshness of rich and tropical fields. From the northwest and north we have the cold dry air, such as we climb Catskill for or travel to St. Paul to breathe. Although these changes may be severe to some constitutions and to the careless, yet to the strong and prudent they afford all the advantages of foreign travel. The state of New York has, by its canals and railroads, added to its natural lines of water travel by the Hudson and the lakes on its eastern border, and by the St. Lawrence and Ontario on the north ; so that it possesses more than any other state of the great routes of travel. To the pleasure tourist, it presents Niagara and the fishing among the Thousand Islands at one end, the ocean and the sea-girt shore of Long Island on the other. It presents Saratoga, and a series of sulphur and mineral springs running the length of the state, Catskill and AVest Point, the trout streams of the Delaware, and the hunting park of the Adirondacks. The traveller finds the most fre- quented and attractive resorts concentrated within our borders. These unusual advantages accumulate as one approaches the city. It is built on a narrow island, of elevated surface, and with deep and rapid tide water on either side. Up the Hudson, on its east bank, for a hundred miles stretches a belt of elevated country, a few miles wide and sloping toward the river, recognized and occupied as the fairest tract for villa residences. The variety of its river, vale, and THK ROOM FOR THE CITY's GROWTH. 21 mountain view is charming'. It has points of prospect innumerable, each rivalling and in some respects surpassing the other. The west bank of the river passes from the shadow of the Catskill mountains * to the Highlands, by West Point, along the vine-clad bases of the Dunderbergs, to the Palisades and the hills of Weehawken and Bergen. Staten Island presents a marvellous variety of drive and prospect. Along the seashore and the bay, through its wooded valleys, the roads pass up on its hill-tops. There the view extends up the Hudson, over the city and the bay, across the flatlands of Long Island, out upon the ocean and south to the highlands of Neversink. Westward there is a broad expanse over the bays and rivers, the fertile fields and meadows of New Jersey. Long Island lies between New York and the sea, its western counties as fruitful as a garden. The East river, as a contrast, passes between low and level banks, widens into bays, is studded with islands, and reaches at last the broad waters of the sound. The environs of New York are complete in their variety. The cities of Europe, Liverpool with its tide-deserted sands ; London and Paris on their level plains, embracing with many bridges their nar- row streams ; the German seaports on flat marshes at the mouths of rivers ; or the German capitals on flat plains, or even the beautiful amphitheatre of Genoa, the bay of Naples, or the seven hills of Rome, reckoned in the light of their natural advantages, the useful and the beautiful, as seats for great cities, would not, if one should group them all together, be preferred to New York. One thing more, if the great capitals of Europe had possessed such environs, the conspicu- ous and commanding points would have been crowned with palaces, public buildings, and monuments of art. V. THE EOOM FOR THE CITY'S GROWTH. There is room for this coming growth. It has already commenced. The condition of the Metropolis, now that the rebellion is over, shows the vitality of these principles of concentration. It disappoints those who asserted that, although it might survive the disasters of the war, the return of peace would bring ruin to the city. The many, 2 22 THE ROOM FOR THE CITY's GROWTH. who in time past have demonstrated the coming- destruction, now give pi ace to the few, the few that have made sober calculations of its growth, that have not been more than equalled by the reality. The concentra- tion here of trade, population, foreign and domestic capital, energy and wealth, is now no longer disputed. This increase makes a steady demand for new buildings ; stores and offices replace old buildings in the lower wards, dwelling-houses are advancing to reclaim and cover the vacant outskirts. Before the war, the better class of dwellings, such as were adapted to the occupation of a single family, were built at the rate of 500 to 800 a year. During the four years past not more than one tenth of the usual number have been erected. Owing to this, the demand for vacant lots for improvement subsided, and prices remained stationai-y, while the price of dwelling-houses was largely increasing. The high price of labor and of all building ma- terials was the cause of the cessation of building ; by the same rule, it increased the price of the houses that were already built. Under these circumstances of supply, and a demand represented most noticeably by the exceptional cases of men who had made their for- tunes by rapid strikes of hundreds of thousands, and who spent it in the same manner, there have been repeated instances of elegant houses taken at inordinate prices the instant such prices were named ; and there have been builders who proceeded upon the general prin- ciples of their trade, rather than upon the feelings of the hour, and reaped large fortunes by the construction and sale of half a dozen houses. These facts have a constant tendency to induce new building enterprises. They who have been waiting for the fall of gold, have seen the premium reduced till it seems to float steadily in equilibrium between all causes that affect it ; others who do not count upon the speedy return of low prices, but rather that the advance will be per- manent, that it has a real basis in the increase in the production of gold, who reckon that this enormous production of gold throughout the world will press gold down to meet the expanded currency, so that, a few years hence, gold and currency will be as well pro- portioned to each other, and to the requirements of the trade of a growing and developing country, as they were five years ago, although they may be expressed in higher figures ; and that the great ques- tions of finance will settle themselves, as restoration is now doing : they who have been waiting to build houses for themselves upon lots which they have secured ; others who have bought lots to build and sail — all are suited ; the time has come ; houses are being built, and THE ROOM FOR THE CITY's GROWTH. 23 vacant lots are again in demand at advancing prices. The lots on a street are increased in value by the mere process of building up the street, and when houses can be built upon lots and sold at a profit, the price of the lots will be advanced equal to their proportion of the profit. These new buildings will not soon cease. Thousands are needed to accommodate the families who have been crowding, for two or three winters, in small suites of rooms or in boarding-houses. The concentration of population will increase with a volume that it will be difficult to anticipate, and for years the demand for houses will be greater than can be supplied. It may be assumed that the population on this island is now in- creasing at the rate of 75,000 each year. At this rate, an allowance of 25 persons to a house will call for the erection of 3,000 dwelling- houses of all classes in a year. If the vacant streets below Fifty-ninth street were built up in numerical order, and each completely filled, four streets would be occupied in each year. Above Fifty-ninth street, where the island is narrow and the Central Park diminishes the space available for building purposes, five streets would be taken up in a year. But the city does not grow in that way, the houses advance rather in masses out the avenues. The river borders are taken up for business purposes, for brick, stone and lumber yards, factories and machine shops. In the streets and avenues next to them congre- gate the workmen and laboring classes, next the leading avenues on each side become the great marts for retail business ; the Eighth and Third avenues are now the illustrations. In the centre of the island, and following the line of Broadway and the Fifth avenue are found the residences of the wealthier classes, and, as the city grows, each of these columns pushes out from its own base. The growth of the city therefore extends over the ground more rapidly than if it progressed street by street. If Eighty-sixth street, which is about midway the length of the park, be taken as a line in the future growth, it is not difficult to cal- culate how soon it will be reached. A careful enumeration shows that there are below Eighty-sixth street 25,261 vacant lots, of the usual size 25 feet by 100. Since many houses are of less width than 25 feet, if 20 feet be taken as the average, the number will be in- creased to 31,410. At the rate of 3,000 houses a year, this area would be filled in ten and a half years ; without making any allowance for churches, school-houses, public buildings, and the ground on the river 24 THE ROOM FOR THE CITY's GROWTH, borders kept vacant for business purposes. Five or ten years ag'o, when our population was so much less than it now is, the number of new buildings reached 2,000 a year ; so that 3,000 for the future can- not be regarded as an extravagant estimate. If One Hundred and Fifty-fifth street be taken as a second line in the future growth, a like enumeration shows that there are, between Eighty-sixth and One Hundred and Fifty-fifth streets, 3*1,244 vacant lots each 25 by 100, These would be equal to 46,555 lots of 20 feet width, and this area would be filled up, at the rate of 3,000 new houses a year, in fifteen and a half years. At this rate, assum- ing the population in 1865 to be 1,042,945, there would be houses enough in ten and a half years for a population of 1,830,445 or in twenty-six years for 2,992,945. But 25 persons on an average to houses so narrow as twenty feet in width is excessive. In London the average is not over eight to an inhabited house. In New York in 1855 the average was 15 to a house. If 20 be taken as the average. Eighty-sixth street would be reached in seven years, accommodating a population of 1, 1*72,345, and One Hundred and Fifty-fifth street in ten years thereafter, in all seventeen years, accommodating 2,103,445. If the increase of population should be, in the future, at the rate sustained since 1820 — 28 per cent, every five years — there would then be a population here, in 1815, of 1,108,613, which would fill all the houses that could be built below Eighty-sixth street. But certain allowances are to be made in these numerical calcula- tions. The growth of the city does not move northward and fill up the streets in succession. It moves from centres in eveiy direction, Harlem, Yorkville, and Manhattanville, are such points — from the business that gathers on the river borders, and from the residences that will soon surround the Central Park, It extends also across the rivers into the adjoining counties, filling Brooklyn and Jersey City. If those districts, however, be included, the rate of progress should be calculated upon the aggregate population of the metropolis. On the other hand, any section of a city may be regarded as substantially built up when £hree fourths of its area is covered with houses ; the residue is taken up with gardens, with churches, public buildings and the blocks at the river-side kept vacant for business purposes. If the facilities of travel should be increased, and a better class of houses be constructed for the laboring classes, the upper part of the island will be built up at least as fast as the streets and avenues are THE DIRECTION OF ITS GROWTH. 25 regulated, values will become more nearly equalized, and building will become more general over every portion. The broad area will then be covered more rapidly than the calculations show. THE DIRECTION OF ITS GROWTH. The leading tendency and direction of the city's growth arises, not only from the longitudinal shape of the island, which allows expan- sion in the open direction alone, but because of the superior beauty and attractiveness of the high elevations and natural features of the unoccupied portion of the island ; and, for the reason that right in its centre has been constructed the Central Park. The five millions of dollars which have been expended on the improvement and ornamen- tation of the surface, equal to seven thousand dollars per acre, in addition to the original cost of the land, have largely added to the value of the lots bordering upon the park. They are now regarded as the most desirable locations for city residences that the country affords. During the last ten or fifteen years the crown and slopes of Murray Hill have been filled up with dwelling-houses. The region thence up to the park, between Fifth and Eighth avenues, and folding around the lower corners of the park, is the place next to be occupied. The grading of Madison avenue, now in progress, will prepare the way for the extension of the Fourth Avenue Railroad up Madison avenue to Eighty-sixth street, and afford a new access to the park. Rows of houses have already been erected, and new rows have been com- menced, on Lexington avenue. Sixtieth and Sixty-first streets ; and the autumn months of 1865 show many indications of the rapid building- up of the Fifth avenue and of the streets that intersect it. Fifteen years ago the city was built up sidewise. The east and west sides of the city were preferred before the centre was advanced. The Second avenue on one side, and Fourteenth and Twenty-third streets by the Eighth and Ninth avenues on the other, were occupied sooner than the southern slopes of Murray Hill. But most men have since found out that when they stand at any given centre, such as the Fifth Avenue Hotel, they had better go up half a mile on the line of Broadway or the Fifth avenue, the great thoroughfares, than go the 26 THE DIRECTION OF ITS GROWTH. same distance on either side ; that by keeping on the leading lines of travel they save time and distance ; that then, as years pass, the city will grow up to them, rather than pass them by. From Madison square, one of the up-town centres, there diverge two great north- ward lines of travel, the Fifth avenue passing along the eastern border of the park, and Broadway — which ought to be widened — run- ning to the southwestern corner. The first improvements will be along these lines and in the region between them. There are many monuments of this advance about us. Church spires are the milestones of the city's progress. Twenty years ago, Grace Church was removed from the lower end of Broadway to what was then the extreme upper end ; relatively to the residence portion of the city, it is now as far down town as it was then, at the corner of Rector street. The church on Washington square was erected at about the same time, and there were then but few above it. While its towers are yet unfinished, it has become a down-town church. Indeed, so rapid is the upward growth of the population, that fifteen or twenty j^ears seem to be sufficient for the tide of population to ad- vance upon, sweep by and desert a church. Of this result almost all the churches below Fourteenth street are becoming illustrations. Notwithstanding well-grounded calculations of progress, it fre- quently seems that the rate is not constantly maintained, and- that building is not, in fact, proceeding at a rate suflScient to justify the conclusions that are drawn from the statistics of the past. The prog- ress of the city in this respect will be more apparent in the future, because the section of the island now being built upon, is much nar- rower than were the sections that have been occupied during the last twenty years, and this width is diminished by the park. The lots are not only fewer in number, but the lines of growth are so well marked that the advance on each will be more apparent. The lots about the park can easily be enumerated. If we go as far east as Fourth avenue, and as far west as the Ninth avenue, including all the lots within one block on each side of the park, and take the lots within five streets below and five streets above the park, and thus get within those boundaries all that may be fairly regarded as Central Park lots, their number amounts to 9,698. Of this number there will be about one half which will be preferred because of natural advan- tages, because they are located on the lower borders of the park, or upon the more elevated, healthful and commanding streets. If an allowance be made from these numbers for the lots to be occupied by churches and public buildings, by stables and gardens, and by houses THE DIRECTION OF ITS GROWTH. 2t of extra width and depth, it is clear that not many tliousands of the coming population will be able to occupy a choice park lot. The number of lots actually fronting on the park is relatively very small. The Fifty-ninth street side has 99, the One Hundred and Tenth street 100 the Fifth avenue 408, and the Eighth avenue 3t3, in all 980 lots. If out of this number an allowance be made for churches and public buildino-s, and the probability that most of the houses fronting on the park wm be of greater width than twenty-five feet be taken into con- sideration, there will hardly be more in number than six or seven hun- dred Among these lots fronting on the park, there is great inequality of natural site. The lots which are situated on the elevations and overlook the park are not much more than one half the number. There are many that lie on a level far below the surface of the park. Below Eighty-sixth street there are but 496 lots fronting on the park, on Fifth avenue, Eighth avenue, and Fifty-ninth street, furnishing, by reason of the allowances that must be made, not more than sites for 350 residences, and among these there is great room for choice. The prospect over the park will determine the selection and add to the value as much as prospect does to sites along the banks of the Hud- son. Park lots are not, therefore, so plenty as they seem. The sup- ply can never be increased, and the demand, when it once sets m, will arise among the class who are able to pay for what they want. Under these various influences, the pressure of an overcrowded population, the gradual renewal of building operations, the wealth of the city the beauty of the new region, and the haste to secure good locations, many purchases of park property have been made during two years past. Many are held by persons who intend to build for their own use, more are out of the market, and the owners are gener- ally awake to the influences that increase their value. They are con- versant with the facts that bear upon the progress of the city, calcu- late upon its growth, believe that when the demand comes, lots on the Fifth avenue, approaching the park, and about its lower borders, will be as valuable for residences as lots upon any square or avenue on the island. j t^- i .i. In the vacant area below the park, between the Fifth and Eighth avenues, there are not more than 2,500 unoccupied lots ; between the Fifth and Lexington avenues and between Forty-second and Fifty- ninth streets, there are but 1,134 lots, many of which are already built upon. It is easy, therefore, to see that a few thousand houses, scat- tered generally over the area below and around the park, will give its vacant spaces the appearance of a city ; that, after five thousand are 28 THE TENDENCY TOWARD BETTER HOUSES. erected, it will not be easy to find a choice location anywhere in the vicinity of the park ; and that, if building should progress with any- thing- like its former activity, and a thousand such houses should be erected in a year, it will not be long before this result will be reached. If these five thousand houses were now erected, not many of them would be left over, untenanted, after supplying the demands of the present population. VII. THE TENDENCY TOWAED BETTER HOUSES. Another marked tendency of this growth of the city is toward a superior class of houses. New York is now a wealthy city in a sense that never had such meaning before. One of the forms in which this wealth shows itself is in its architectural constructions. Money is expended without limit to insure durability and the finest quality of material and workmanship. In public buildings wood has ceased to be used as a material. The new court-house in the Park, the Stock Exchange on Broad street, the offices of the Mutual Life Insurance Company on Broadway, the iron ferry-houses, and other buildings like these, display a skill and power that indicate a great advance in wealth and constructive art. Such buildings are not only fireproof, but they are substantial in the elements of strength that mark the buildings of the Old World, and of past centuries. The same advance is found in dwelling-houses. There 'is a great difference between the first-class house of to-day and one erected five or ten years ago. Strength and stability are points in which the house is made as good as it can be. Hard woods are used for interior finish, and a sum equal to the former cost of a house, is now, in some- cases, expended on the ornamentation and decoration. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, at the period where the middle- aged business man of to-day will fix the time when he first became acquainted with the business of the city, the stores in Hanover square were pointed out as a credit to its architecture ; the one standing there of stone was a pioneer of its class. The buildings now remain- ing on East Broadway, Bond street, and around St. John's Park, were the residences of the wealthiest merchants, and the upper side of Wasliington square, and Clinton place, were expected to strike every THE TENDENCY TOVAKD BETTER HOUSES. 29 stranger with astonishment. Trade now is erecting- its palaces on Broadway, and on the cross streets from Duane to Canal, and is lux- urious in its style of architecture. Buildings of magnificent propor- tions, massive carved and sculptured fronts of marble, durable walls and foundations and elegant finish, modelled after the sumptuous palaces of Italy, are now the homes of trade. Merchants will do their business in such warehouses, and have their banks and financial com- panies in buildings of equal splendor, decorated in the most elaborate and expensive style they can command. These luxurious habitations and appointments were given fittingly to trade while New York was a great trading city, and was making its money thereby. In the next stage of the city's growth, when it is becoming a metropolis, v/e shall build palaces, not only for business, but also for residences. There are beginning to appear here in large numbers, men who are above and independent of the vicissitudes of business, men of acquired and invested fortunes large enough for their independent support, and who occupy themselves in developing the resources of the country, or in more permanent investments ; men to whom the failure of the mer- cantile community, or the fall in the prices of stock or commodities would bring no personal loss ; men who find in the increasing value of land and its power of producing large rents, the way to fortune ; men who have acquired wealth in other places and come here to enjoy it. Such as these, with more feeling for the elegancies of life and more leisure for its luxury, are to be felt here in the future with more influence. Men of that class are irresistibly attracted to the great centres, and, with their aid, the houses that are destined to fill up the upper portions of the island, for residences, will be as elegant as the buildings devoted to trade, and will call upon the taste and skill of the architect for his ablest productions. When the borders of the park come to be lined with houses, with churches, hotels and other public buildings among them, they must be worthy of the metropolis of the western world and of the site they occupy, as fine a site as any city can supply. The architects are already thinking out such results. We can gather in results from the modern growth of the cities of Europe. The Parisian plan of dividing a large building into many suites of apartments, each suite comprehensive and complete in itself, indepen- dent of and disconnected from all others, and opening by its own private door upon the common and public halls and staircases of the building, is now receiving attention. In the first story of such a building there would be room for a restaurant where all the tenants 30 THE TENDE.VCr TOWARD BETTER HOUSES. could be accommodated at a table dliote, or could order supplies for their own private tables. Such a building would combine the advan- tages of a private house with the advantages of a hotel. The tenant could hire his own suite of rooms, all upon one floor, and be as retired within them as in his own house, and could furnish them himself as he would furnish the house he now hires, could avail himself of the public rooms and facilities of a hotel, and supply his table or frequent the public table, entirely free from the troubles and cares of house- keeping. If this system of living were once established, it would, without doubt, be preferred by many who spend the winter here, as well as by those who wish to have their own private residences at moderate rents and free from the responsibility of the whole estab- lishment. Such buildings, to be successful, should be so contiguous to each other or to the public thoroughfares, that the tenants might have the advantage of competition between various restaurants, and not be dependent solely upon the one in their own house. In Paris, these restaurants are as numerous as the groceries and markets in New York ; here the citizen purchases all the articles of his food as they come to market, and has them cooked in his own kitchen ; there he goes out and takes his seat at a table ready prepared for him. This competition in Paris insures a uniformity of fine quality and good style with moderate prices, to which we are as yet strangers. It has been said that the projectors of the hotel on Fifth avenue and Fifty- ninth street, propose to adopt in part, this plan. In this advance toward a superior style of houses, we shall abandon the uniformity of four-story brown stone houses, all of even width, which marked the period of the city's growth from Fourteenth to Forty-seventh street ; we shall learn the use and beauty of color and variety of material. There is no reason why we should be limited to one style of architecture. In this respect there is but little change and no advance, from the earliest houses on the Fifth avenue to those now erecting. We seem condemned to one uniform type of dwelling- house, no variation of detail is sufficient to change the style. The few cases on Fifth avenue which might seem to be exceptions are struggles out rather than escapes. There is no reason why the Anglo- Italian style should become absolute, and fuse into one common mould all the buildings that are erected, however different the purposes, banks, wai'chouses, offices, hotels, libraries, or dwellings ; good as the style may be, it is not good for everything. The merchant should not express in stone his idea of dwelling-house and of warehouse in the same form. The whole world is open to us, full of variety. The cities THE FIFTH AVENUE TENDENCY. 31 of Europe illustrate all the styles of architecture ; our architects should not limit us to one, nor can they succeed if they try. The Academy of Design have shown us the beauty of Venetian architec- ture. Trinity chapel, in its Sunday School building on Twenty-fifth street, and the churches on Forty-second street, on either side the Fifth avenue, give us samples of the Italian Gothic. The Central Park, in its ornamental structures, terraces and bridges, teaches us that the sentiment of the beautiful can be gratified with forms which show great harmony and fitness, and are still entirely novel. The average New-Yorker may walk up the Fifth avenue, and with self-satisfaction regard its uniformity as the perfection of architecture. He has seen nothing finer, there can be nothing finer. To him all attempts at originality and beauty that break the uniformity are " gingerbread." He is just beginning to tolerate the Mansard roof. But there are men enough who are familiar with the architectural magnificence of the Old World, in all its variety, who do not believe that the established style is final or eternal, and who, when they come to spend their money in expensive buildings, will go on and illustrate how many varieties of architecture can be domesticated here, each adding to the beauty and glory of our metropolis. If New York does this, it will do what the capitals of Europe have done, mark its period of peace and prosperity by the production of public and private buildings of vastly advanced size, style and ele- gance. VIII. THE FIFTH AVENUE TENDENCY. The growth of the city tends now very strongly northward along the line of the Fifth avenue. This avenue starts from Washington square, gradually approaches Broadway, passing near Union square, crossing Broadway at Madison square, and ascending the slopes of Murray hill to Fortieth street. It has for this distance, for years past, been occupied as the choicest site for costly residences. Con- tinuing northerly from Murray hill, it descends by a gentle grade, and at half a mile's distance, it reaches a summit of equal elevation at Fiftieth street. Around this locality are already placed the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the foundations and base courses of which were five years ago erected, and their Orphan Asylum. Here is the site of 32 THE FIFTH AVENUE TENDENCY, the Dutch Reformed church, whose chapel is already built ; and here St, Thomas and St. Bartholomew's churches have selected their loca- tions. At this point, on the westerly side of the avenue, arc the four blocks of land given by the city to Columbia College, now of great value, and recently leased so as to produce a large annual revenue for the purposes of the college. One of these blocks has been set apart for the grand halls of science and learning for the students and the mas- ters of arts which the college owes to the city, a duty which is shortly to be fulfilled. Passing this hill, so nobly occupied, the avenue pro- ceeds on a descending grade another half mile, passing the command- ing site of St. Luke's Hospital, until it reaches, at Fifty-ninth street, one of the grand entrances to the Central Park. Here, extending from Fifth to Madison avenue and from Fifty-ninth to Sixtieth street, oppo- site this entrance, is the block selected for the site of the first hotel upon the park. This point cannot fail to be one of the great architectural centres of the city. The avenue then proceeds along the park, on a gradual ascent for another half mile, and, at Seventieth street, reaches the summit of the Lenox hill, a point from which is seen one of the most comprehensive views of the best portions of the park that is afforded all along its borders. At Sixty-fourth street it passes the old arsenal building. Five acres of the park, including the land upon which the arsenal stands, have been placed under the control of the New York Historical Society. The arrangements between the society and the park commissioners have recently been completed, and the society will shortly be ready to proceed with the demolition of the old arsenal and the erection of the new building, wherein they propose to estab- lish their great historical lilirary and collections, and a national museum of art, natural history and antiquities. The avenue again descends for a few streets, and begins, at Seventy-fourth street, to rise gradually toward the next summit, once called Observatory square and hill, at Ninety-first street ; passing, at Seventy-fourth street, the spot designated for the Conservatory, and, at Eighty-first and Eighty-second streets, the site in the park selected for the refec- tory, an ornamental building of large size and of the same originality and beauty of design which have marked the architectural work of the park. This long upward slope is one of the most beautiful on the avenue, and in its ascent affords views along the central valley of the park, over the east end of the skating pond, to the Terrace and the Mall. From the elevation at Ninety-first street the grade of the avenue descends till it reaches the plains of Harlem, at One Hundred and Tenth street, the northeasterly corner of the park ; it continues THE FIFTH AVENUE TENDENCY. 33 on a level, surrounds and passes on both sides of the conical hill of Mount Morris, at One Hundred and Twenty-fourth street, and then under the magnificent rows of trees that were set out years ago, on the Hall estate, in another half mile, reaches the northern shore of the island and the rapid tide of the Harlem river. The general surface of this avenue, and of the avenues next to it, presents easy grades, and is more free from rocks and abrupt inequal- ities and declivities than most other portions of the island. These avenues, and the streets which cross them, have been graded and prepared for building more readily and sooner than any other uptown section. By the extension of the Fourth avenue railroad up Madison avenue to Eighty-sixth street, a new means of access will be fur- nished to the region lying along the easterly side of the park. If Madison avenue should be opened from Twenty-third street to Broad- way, at Nineteenth street, such a new and direct outlet would make the avenue a finer thoroughfare. There is now more building in progress and in contemplation on the line of the Fifth avenue than in any other portion of the city. In addition to the churches that have been above mentioned, the Jews are commencing the erection of a large and costly temple on the northeasterly corner of Forty-third street, and Dr. Chapin's church have made rapid progress at the southwest corner of Forty-fifth street. Excluding the ground thus occupied, there remain but two hundred and four vacant lots, of twenty-five feet width, upon the avenue be- tween Forty-third and Fifty-ninth streets. Between Fifty-ninth and Eighty-sixth streets there are but two hundred and five vacant lots. These will not supply sites for more than three hundred and fifty dwellings of the extra width which will be the average on that avenue, and, when these are erected, the avenue will be occupied halfway up the length of the park. Of these lots a very large portion are owned by persons who hold them for their own future residences. Above the park, on the lines of the Sixth and Seventh avenues, under the influence of the improvements projected upon those avenues, there has been a large advance in prices ; three or four years ago these lots were so low in price that a rise was inevitable. This section, more than any, depends upon improved method of transit with the business portion of the city. It is generally level and free from rock, it can be regulated and graded at moderate expense, and will undoubtedly show its share of improvements when building is fairly recommenced. Thus far the Fifth avenue remains free from any objectionable 34 THE WESTWARD TENDENCY. occupation. The owners upon it are concerned to maintain its high character. It is the favorite route for driving to the park, and repre- sents the life, gayety and display of the city. It has now definitely the lead in the new movement toward building, and will, no doubt, maintain it till it is built up. We are now able to take pride in the park as a beautiful place to drive, or to ramble in, at a half-hour's distance from our homes. This alone has given a new phase to life in New York. When we begin to live in the midst of this beauty, to see it on spring mornings from our windows, to be there without effort in the spare half-hours of an afternoon, metropolitan life will commence. It will be for the autumn and winter what Newport is for the midsummer. IX. THE WESTWARD TENDENCY. The westward tendency on this island has the force of law, as powerful and as unobserved as the law of gravitation. The city was liiid out sixty years ago on the parallel ruler system. Parallel avenues intersecting parallel streets, without any regard to the shore line or the surface. No comprehension of the nature or wants of a city was exhibited ; no natural thoroughfare was provided, the long avenues were of equal width ; no broad squares at the intersection of thoroughfares, such as in Europe afford such splendid sites for groups of public buildings, and give to each such an extended view. The plan was as simple as a sheet of ruled paper, and was equally well or ill adapted for any and every location, and this in spite of a surface and shores that would give a great temptation to a commission who could appreciate the advantages of summits and slopes. If the city had been no farther laid out than it was built upon until the advent of the Central Park Commissioners, and had then been given over to them, the whole residence portion of the island might have been a park — a perfect pleasure-garden of delight. From the complete ruin of such a plan the old Bloomingdale road is all that has saved the city. It has, in a few instances, broken the prison bars of straight lines and right angles. At the site of the Cooper Institute, where the Third avenue springs from the Bowery, and Astor place opens from Broadway to the Second avenue, there is a natural home for public buildings, and it is well occupied. At the THE "WESTWARD TENDENCY. 35 intersection of Broadway with Fourteenth street, Union square has been opened. It is one of the finest sites on the island for public buildings, and occupied as yet with nothing- worthy of it. The next intersection at Madison square is more irrci^ular, not so broad and grand, yet it furnishes commanding sites, such as that of the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the block next north of the Worth monument. The view up from the southeast corner of Broadway and Twenty-first street is one of the finest in the city. This intersection is better than that at Union square for business purposes, because its right lines of travel pass along its store fronts and not across its spaces. The intersections above at Broadway, Sixth avenue and Thirty-fourth street, and at Broadway, Seventh avenue and Forty-fourth street have not the addition of a square, but are valuable as the few loca, tions where a large building has space and a chance of being seen- The intersection of Broadway and Eighth avenue, at Fifty-ninth street, has the advantage of being at the entrance of the park, and, if the widening of Broadway be properly attended to, will give a site that will be equal to that of Madison square. The fewness of these spots, left to us by accident, instead of being provided by design, and the magnificent use made of such places in the capitals of Europe teach us easily how valuable they are going to be in the future of New York. They are to be the great centres of value, strung along Broadway, as it tends westward on its upward course. The leading tendency of the growth of the city has been westward. Twenty-five and thirty years ago, Hanover square was the centre of the dry goods business. Step by step this business has gone through Pine and Cedar streets, past Broad and Nassau streets to Broadway, and progressed up the streets running westerly from Broadway, from Liberty to Walker street. All other branches of business have fol- lowed, until now the bulk of most of them is transacted west of Broadway. East Broadway, and the streets adjacent to it, contained, thirty years ago, the finest residences in the city, but the occupants have been removing up town for many years, and but few now remain in the Seventh ward of the many wealthy and fashionable families that once made it distinguished. From Tenth street Broad- way takes a westward direction, and the area occupied by fine resi- dences follows Broadway ; at Tenth street it extends as far east as the Second avenue ; at Twentieth street it does not pass the Third avenue ; at Thirty-fourth street it hardly passes Lexington avenue, and above Forty-second street the use of the Fourth avenue for the 36 THE WESTWARD TENDENCY. locomotive trains of the Harlem and New Haven railroads, under the thirty j^ears' gTant from the Corporation, and for the business that the railroad will bring on that avenue, wiU make it a well-defined boundary. In a prospective survey, many are in doubt whether, alongside the park, the east or west side of the island will be the finest and most valuable. The Fifth avenue has the present advantag'e. It is clear that it will be built up with the most splendid residences the city can afford. Without pretending to forecast the future, one can discern that when four or five hundred houses are built on the avenue and one or two thousand on the streets in its vicinity, and that locality is filled up, the city is not going to give up and stop. Even then there will be new men of fortune ready to build new houses still exceeding in magnificence those that have gone before them. It will then be found that this splendid Fifth avenue has reached its limits, it will not draw wealth and fashion down the hillsides that slope away from the park over the hot low plains of Harlem, nor eastward across the railroad tracks of the Fourth avenue. This Fifth avenue which has gone on surpassing itself, section by section, will, in its turn, be sur- passed by some new avenue. The lower end, from Washington to Union square, was matchless in its day ; but the next length, as it was built up along side Madison square, surpassed it ; in its turn to be put into the shade by the slopes of Murray hill ; and now the new buildings beginning to start up, near the park and along its borders, will exceed anything the avenue has as yet shown. But the Fifth avenue cannot last forever, nor will the world stop when it is built up. Then, if not before, the west side of the park will begin-to receive appreciation. It is not necessary to depreciate the Fifth avenue in order to set forth the superior natural advantages and the greater promises of the west side ; everything can be conceded for the Fifth avenue side that is claimed for it, but it is not inexhaustible. Its level is low ; from Fifty-ninth street to Sixty-ninth street the avenue is far below the level of the park ; above Eighty-sixth street it runs for half a mile along the high and near embankment of the new reservoir, and beyond that, it slopes northeasterly away from the park ; it takes the full glare and force of the afternoon sun, without being elevated enough for the westerly breezes, and this glare reflected from the reservoir will be disagreeable ; it has near behind it a railroad avenue ; and a section along the East river border now rapidly filling up with small- sized and low-priced houses, besides the two suburban villages of THE NEW PARKS AND BOULEVARDS. 3!I Yorkville and Harlem. Many of the old farms and estates have been subdivided into lots and sold in small parcels. All these circumstances are adverse to the east side of the city for the finest and largest resi- dences. There is a breadth of land through the centre of the city occupied by what are termed first-class residences, extending two to three avenues wide ; it is spoken of as the area between the Fourth and Sixth avenues ; when abreast of the park, there is not width enough on the east side ; the greater portion of these residences must extend on the west side of the park. X. THE NEW PARKS AND BOULEVARDS. The regions in the upper part of the island are to derive their character in great part from the Central Park, and the new improve- ments in extension ^f it. The park has already been proved to be too small, in fact, i1 is but the beginning. The commissioners have but commenced one of a series of great works. It has been progress- ing during one financial crisis in 1851, and during the depression of the great rebellion, and yet, while building has been generally suspended, before a single house has been erected on its borders, it is too small. The mass of pedestrians crowd its rural beauties ; its drives on a pleasant afternoon are as crowded as Broadway at St. Paul's, and the carriages at a walk in files fill their entire length. Even at the best, there is no let-out for the horses, and they are spoiled for want of exercise. It has had for years a practical exten- sion up Harlem lane and the Eighth avenue, and now this is to be adopted. Under the provisions of the recent acts of the legislature, the Sixth and Seventh avenues are to be laid out, one hundred and fifty feet wide, from the park at One Himdred and Tenth street to the Harlem river, under the direction of the park commissioners. From the northerly end of these avenues, they are empowered to lay out a road, or public drive, along the bank of the Harlem river, elevated enough to have an unobstructed view of that valley, which is one of the most charming sequestered places for a summer's afternoon. If it were a vale in England, it would have been made famous and familiar to all New Yorkers by their poets and writers. This road 3 38 THE NEW PARKS AND BOULEVARDS. will pass under the arches of the High Bridge, and then crossing at Tubby-Hook, or going round the Spuyten Duyvil, or both, as the commissioners think best, follow down the east bank of the Hudson, still at a height sufficient to overlook any building that may be placed along the river shore, until the road, following, it may be, the line of Broadway, shall enter the park again at its southwestern gate on the corner of Eighth avenue and Fifty-ninth street ; with a wide discre- tion to the commissioners as to the location, width, course, winding, and grade of the road. This public drive it is proposed to have of a width of one hundred and fifty feet or more, splendidly graded and laid, and shaded with parallel lines of trees ; its course along the river bank will give a beauty of prospect which no drive in the coun- try can surpass. With suitable cross-roads and with provisions to keep the drives free from traffic, it will form a complete extension to the drives of the park. In addition to this, the commissioners have exclusive power to lay out streets, roads, public squares, and places on the Fort Washington end of the island, extending from One Hundred and Fifty-fifth street (the Trinity Cemetery grounds) three miles to Kingsbridge, and about a mile in width between the Harlem and Hudson rivers. The high elevated and in part precipitous ridges that run through this tract, the romantic valleys and fertile meadows, make this by nature one of the most charming places in the state, with unsurpassed views and landscapes up and down each of the rivers that wash it. This will be in time another Central Park, grander and nobler by reason of its greater size and broader natural features ; it can be made, and without any inordinate expense, to possess every attraction the park now presents, but differing from it entirely in character and treat- ment. It is now, the most of it, owned in large tracts and occupied by the residences of the wealthier and older New York families. It will become a magnificent pleasure-ground, with broad drives and winding valley roads, fine points of prospect, gardens with flowers and fountains, and promenades, surrounded and filled up with the elegant villas and ornamented grounds of the residents, who will have reason to vie with one another in increasing this general beauty ; all open to the public enjoyment, and not, as now, traversed by a single road out of sight of it all. In view of what the commis- sioners have done in constructing the Central Park, out of that unin- viting rocky waste, without natural advantages except its rough- ness, imagine what the same skill and taste can do in a region full of THE NEW PARKS AND BOULEVARDS. 39 natural fitness and beauty, and the greatness of that hill at Fort Washington will begin to daAvn upon you. This improvement, of creating another park of larger area, two and a half miles above, and northwesterly from the Central Park, and con- necting with it by a series of park drives, which is so far already decided on, needs one addition. There should be a park along the river bank from Claremont, the high hill below Manhattanville, for two or three miles down along the blufi" bank of the Hudson, and extending in width from five to eight hundred feet, according to topo- graphical requirements. The high summit at Claremont rises abruptly from the valley at Manhattanville, is one of the finest points of pros- pect on the river, and is worthy of being preserved forever. The river bank is high- and bold all the way down to Striker's bay ; at Ninety-second street, it rises again into a high bluff, and continues high as far as Eightieth street, when it again sinks to the level ; it is again elevated down as far as Sixtieth street. This river bank has always been occupied by the country seats of the old New Yorkers, is lined with their old mansions, owned mostly in large parcels, and covered with hard sod, smooth lawn, and the most mag- nificent growth of park and forest trees in the country, many of them alone worth one thousand dollars for ornamental purposes. The topog- raphy fits it for a long and narrow riverside park. A wide avenue could be laid out following the elevations along the interior border of this riverside park, in curved lines, so as to command the view over the park into the river, and leaving a park ready made, with a growth of trees that could not be artificially produced in less than half a century. Transverse roads could be constructed at convenient dis- tances for all business traffic with the river. The houses bordering along this avenue would be city residences, and combine therewith all the advantages that citizens now reach by going miles up the river. Looking out over such a park, under the shade of the huge old trees, upon the Hudson, they would have all, except space, that Riverdale or Tarrytown can supply, and would be beyond compari- son the most magnificent and valuable city residences in the world. Such a park, with suitable walks and drives through it, would, for the greater part of its length, have elevation enough to overlook any buildings and vessels on the river border below, and at many points prospects of varied and broad extent. The people, generally, are familiar enough with this river bank to make these statements clear. The citizens of Brooklyn now stand at the top of the stairs at the 40 THE NEW PARKS AND BOULEVARDS. foot of Montagu street, and regret that half a mile in length of the bluff at Brooklyn heights was not preserved for them by such a park. The value of that portion of Brooklyn would have been more than doubled by it. If this bank of the Hudson should not be thus preserved, but should be shovelled down, it will be an instance of shameful self-destruction, of the wanton sacrifice of the noblest natural features of this great metropolis. If this be not within the powers of the commissioners, it should receive the public attention and be added to the plan of this great improvement at the next ses- sion of the legislature. Another great improvement that has been sanctioned, at the session of the legislature in 1865, is the new grade of the Eighth avenue, and the removal of the Croton aqueduct, where.it now crosses the avenue, at a high elevation at Eighty-fifth street. The present grade of the avenue along the park is marked by high elevations and deep valleys, is good enough as a country road, but impracticable for travel, drainage and building. This regrading is placed under the direction of the park commissioners, and will result in reducing a few feet the summits at Eighty-fifth and Ninety-second streets, in filling up the intervening valleys, and giving the avenue a more level and generally more elevated grade, greatly superior to the grade of the Fifth avenue. The commissioners have already undertaken the work of incorpora- ting into the park, Manhattan square, between Eighth and Ninth avenues. Seventy-seventh and Eighty-first streets. This land lies low, and it has been suggested that the Eighth avenue, between Seventy- seventh and Eighty-first streets, as now filled up, should be removed, and the surface of the park and the square united at their natural level. The avenue should then be carried over by a series of orna- mental arches and bridges, such as ah-eady carry the drives of the park ; this would make the corners of Eighth avenue and Seventy- seventh and Eighty-first streets salient points into the park, and add greatly to its beauty. This is within the powers and discretion of the commissioners. THE FUTURE WEST END. 41 XI. THE FUTURE WEST END. It will result from these improvements, that there will be a section of the city, extending from Fifty-ninth to One Himdred and Fifty-fifth street, about five miles in length, along a high range, elevated, on the average, from fifty to one hundred feet above the river, bounded on the east by the Eighth avenue, and as far up as One Hundred and Tenth street, by the Central Park ; for that extent the Eighth avenue is the crowning ridge of the island, the park lying on one side sloping to the east, and this section on the other sloping to the west. Abo^e the park, this crowning ridge tends westerly from Eighth avenue at One Hundred and Sixth street to the river at Claremont, One Hun- dred and Twenty-fifth street, sloping westward to the river, and eastward to Harlem plains, and rising again north of Manhattanville, into a high-shouldered hill that stretches from river to river. The westerly boundary of this section would be the proposed new avenue, and the long riverside park overlooking the Hudson, and on the north it would extend to the new park at Fort Washington. Along the slopes of this region the westerly breezes would have free course at an elevation higher than the roofs of the houses around Madison square ; its system of drainage is already under survey by the Croton Board, and will be the most complete, and it will continue as now, the healthiest place on the island. On the Eighth avenue side it would overlook the Central Park, generally at an elevation above the park, and at an average elevation of twenty to thirty feet above the Fifth avenue. The residents on the Eighth avenue will overlook the Park in the afternoon, in the cool shade, with the sun behind them, giving them that cool' distance which delights the sight ; and, at the high land about Ninety-second street, giving them that forever unobstructed view extending from the High Bridge over the Harlem valley and Hellgate up the Sound. On the river side it would begin that series of splendid residences which continues for one hundred miles along the east bank of the Hudson, and which never can be surpassed on this continent, it would be part and parcel of that range that stretches along the great and growing Broadway, an avenue that keeps its name and character through Westchester county. Nothing on the East river side, either of Westchester or New York, can ever begin to equal it. There would be a width of about three avenues 42 THE FUTURE WEST END. between the Central Park and the Eiverside Park ; and the residents there — the citizens generally, by travelling a little farther, could come out of a summer afternoon upon the Riverside Park, and, through its drives and walks, among its flowers, under the cool shade of its old trees, in its casinos and refreshment houses, could have in the city all the enjoyments of the millionaire in his one-hun- dred-tliousand-dollar villa at Irvington. Assuredly this region will be the site of the future magnificence of this metropolis. During the coming five or ten years the Fifth avenue will no doubt be soonest built up and built up grandly, but the city will not stop on that account ; it will be succeeded by an age of imperial magnificence. That will be the day for the now neglected west side of the island. The poetical prophecy — «' Westward the star of empire takes its way," and which is fast becoming historical truth, will receive another illustration. It cannot be urged against these improvements that they are extravagant, and involve too large expenditure. New York has no greater glory than the freedom with which we spend money on public institutions and for public purposes, and, in some f'^ses, including these improvements, with a judiciousness and economy which are marvellous. We are an imperial people giving freely to the public — our imperial selves — the most magnificent and costly entertainment. Judicious expenditure for public purposes is the highest sort of economy. We are beginning to see the effect of it. It will attract here the wealth and the real nobility of mind and character of the world. For all purposes and enjoyments for which men live in cities. New York will be the city of all the world to live in. This whole region on the west side of the park should be put into the hands of the commissioners, and the parallel lines and right angles of the old streets and avenues obliterated. Nor do our citizens fail to see the advantages of a wise expenditure. Our public buildings, churches, theatres, the banks and financial oflBces, our warehouses and stores, are not found in economical buildings, with merely durability and fit- ness sufficient to answer the purpose, but in buildings that exhaust our money and architectural skill in making them beautiful and attractive ; so in the laying out and adornment of the city, it is the wisest and truest economy diligently to preserve all its natural ad- vantages, to make it beautiful and magnificent for the metropolis of a THE FUTURE WEST END. 43 free and rich people. There is no danger on this score. A man need but scan our immediate future in the light of facts, and look at our great work, the Central Park, which not a single man regrets on the ground of its cost, to be convinced of the economy of this policy. To this region which we have been describing there will be one great thoroughfare and outlet, Broadway, which leaves it at its south- eastern corner, and runs diagonally two miles, to the great southern centre of the city at Madison square. Is there room for any doubt that Broadway will retain its character, pre-eminent character, as a business street from the Battery to the Central Park ? It crosses now the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues ; none of these have diverted business from it ; none of these avenues lead to the region that has just been described. It is the great and exclusive thorough- fare between that region and the whole city south of Fifty-ninth street and east of the Eighth avenue. As far as it is built, from Wall street up, it has gathered in the best of all business, its property is the most valuable and its rents the highest. No street begins to compete with it. It has a destiny as great as a business street as that of the city itself. It is absorbing the value of all other streets ; it is now and has always been the place to buy and hold property. It is the only street, including the cross streets within a hundred yards of it, where values seem capable of indefinite expansion. It is the only street of which it can be said that its advance in value is uniform with the growth of the city, of which it can be said, that no man who bought at a fair market price, and held, without being forced to sell at some temporary crisis, failed to make money largely. All other locations have risen, culminated and subsided. Hanover square, Cortlandt street, Hudson street and Chatham square are examples. Many men have attempted fortunes by investments on the east or west side, but rarely with successful results. None strong enough to hold have failed on the line of Broadway. If any one would take the list of our old merchant millionaires, and compare it with the list of Broadway property owners he would see a great coincidence, and learn a great secret. Many a one of them has made his fortune by buy- ing the store on Broadway in which he was doing business and then retiring from business. An old merchant, who could remember, in 1815 and 1820, when Broadway lots, above the Metropolitan hotel, were selling at six to eight hundred dollars, was asked the question, What would be the result, if a man, beginning business forty or fifty years ago, had carefully laid by, out of his savings, every few years. 44 THE FUTURE WEST END. enough to buy and pay for a lot or two on Broadway, had never sold any nor made any other investment ? The answer was, " An incal- culable amount, millions." He had never known of any way in which money could be made in the long run so surely, safely and rapidly. It could not have been done on any other street. Many of the wealthy families to-day are so because their ancestors saw this principle. On the contrary, with but few exceptions, here and there, property in the rest of the city, south of Fourteenth street, has remained stationary or receded. On the uptown cross streets, at the distance of an avenue east or west of Broadway, property reaches a certain value and remains stationary ; after the street is built up the advance ceases. Eighth street or Tenth street is not worth more now (allowance being made for the present exceptional currency price) than when the street was built up. They are not worth more than Thirtieth or Thirty-eighth street. When Fiftieth to Fifty-seventh streets are built up they will be worth as much as any street, and Thirtieth and Thirty-eighth streets will not advance. Broadway remains, with the Fifth avenue above Twenty-third street, the great exception. Broadway above Union square is not of suflScient width for the business that will, before many years, be crowding upon it ; its diag- onal course, running in the direction of the city's growth, will neces- sarily make it a great thoroughfare for travel. From Union square or Madison square it should be widened to the Central Park, to con- nect there with the new Broadway which the park commissioners are already empowered to lay out. The drive, or the great Boulevard, as as it is termed, could then extend from the park through the Seventh avenue northward to the Harlem river, through the park at Fort Washington, around on the banks of the Hudson through the River- side Park, down Broadway, touching at the Eighth avenue and Fifty- ninth street entrance, and continuing down Broadway, as widened, into the heart of the city at Union square. The system of parks and connecting drives would then be complete. The future west end would then have a fitting avenue of approach. CITY RAILROADS. 45 XII. CITY RAILROADS. The city's growth during the last ten years is due in a great measure to city raih'oads. This is well illustrated by the improve- ments on and by the Third and Second avenues. The roads on these avenues have been built the whole length of the island, and the population and business there have been increased, as well as the value of the property. Railroads extend their lines and travel into the outskirts beyond the houses, and thus draw population after them ; stage lines have always fallen short. The railroads give ready access to cheaper land, the population settles there, the travel on the avenue is doubled and the business reaps the benefit. Boston by its radiating lines of steam railroads, has built up its back country, for miles into continuous towns and villages of elegant residences. New York owes the same duty to its suburbs. The Hudson River and Harlem railroads every day carry thousands ten or twenty miles into the country, but on their plan the immediate outskirts of the citv are passed by and neglected. Some rapid means of transit along the length of the island is of vital consequence to the growth of the city. The subject has received some attention, but not such able and practical discussion as it merits. It is, in fact, the great city prob- lem. The growth of the city in one direction, now equal to more than an hour's walk, renders the solution of this problem necessary. One or two routes of rapid transit through the inhabited portion of the island, along the Central Park, and to the Harlem river, would shorten distances and equalize values, would draw the population and deposit it equally all over the northern end of the island. The million of people who live here, and whose duty it is to prepare the place for the million more who are coming, are entitled for them- selves and their successors, as well as any people, to save an hour in travel every morning and evening. They are also entitled to prefer New York before Brooklyn, or New Jersey, and to build up the city in the direction which affords the pleasantest residences : and if a railroad travelled by steam be the necessary means, then they must have it. Ten miles of rapid transit northward from Wall street is as important to the million who live here, and to the many millions who visit here, as rapid travel is to the million who live along the line of the Central Railroad. If it be necessary in order to accom- 46. CITY RAILROADS. plisli this to open or widen streets, or acquire a right of way through the city, why not do it here as well as elsewhere ? Injury to local interests must give way to the advancement of the general good. The narrow views of the men of the past, and of property owners whose vision is bounded by the angles of their own lots, are not con- trolling. The most useful and indispensable improvements are the ones which encounter the strongest opposition at the outset. The property which was to be ruined absolutely, turns out to be the most valuable. It is a part of the history of every public improvement that local prejudice pitches into a fight with the windmill, and yet, from the time of the Erie Canal until to-day, the growth and wealth of New York are due to the public improvements which have been carried through by men of large ideas and superior energy. No plan that has been as yet proposed seems to win sufficient public favor. The underground road has found many advocates. The large quantity of earth and rock to be excavated from a great depth, and the passage of the valley at Canal street, for so long a distance beneath thje tide level, are serious engineering difficulties. The samples along the Fourth avenue are not impressive in favor of the pleasantness of underground riding. At all events, the experiment, so successful in London, could be made, and science be allowed to combat with the acknowledged natural obstacles. Even should the projectors lose their investment, the road would remain for the public use and benefit. Various forms of an elevated road have been suggested. It has been proposed to add a railroad second story to Broadway ; or to take some central side street, of IfTtle use as a thoroughfare, and appropriate it for an elevated road ; or to carry such a road along the river side on the eastern and western exterior streets. Another plan has been suggested, to acquire by purchase, or appraisement under a legislative power, a right of way, twenty-five feet in width, right through the houses commencing at the Battery and running westerly and not far from Broadway to and above Man- hattauville ; upon this to construct an elevated road about twenty feet above the street level, crossing the intersecting streets upon light iron bridges of a single arch. Where the road crosses the block to build up, as a support for the road-bed, a one-story arched building of stone or brick extending from street to street. Within this would be a room twenty-five feet wide and opening upon each street, which would be available to rent for all sorts of business pur- poses, and especially for such as would seek a location on the line of CITY RAILROADS. 41 a great thoroughfare. Upon this road-bed, running in a direct line over solid masonry through the blocks, and across the streets on high iron bridges, two wide tracks might be laid, upon which cars could be propelled at a rapid rate by stationary engines, and commo- dious waiting rooms, and staircases for ingress and egress, could be afforded from the space below. Another track might be laid, elevated on iron framework ten or twelve feet above this road-bed, for additional trains ; so that up and down trains, through and way, fast and slow, might all be accommodated. Then travel from the Battery to the Central Park in fifteen minutes would be an accom- plished fact, in a style as free from every discomfort as travelling could be. Such a road might branch off and extend along the upper end of the island, on each side of the park ; or there might be an independent road from the South Ferry to Harlem, on the east side of the town. It has been claimed that the expense of such a road would not exceed that of an underground road ; it would have the advantage of enlarged capacity, capable indeed of indefinite exten- sion, and also of the revenue from the rents of the spacious first-story stores, warehouses, shops and public rooms under the track. Whatever plan be adopted, it is due to the wealth and enterprise of New York that the result be compassed and carried out. The peculiar long and narrow island demands an original plan. The road would be the best paying road in the country. Its result on the growth of the city would surpass the effect of the opening of the Erie Canal, or the general construction of railroads over the country. There remains in the heads of some people a notion that such a road would greatly injure the property nearest to it, and here will be found its greatest obstacle. No doubt this notion is kept alive by certain false impressions, derived from the arguments recently before the public in regard to the proposed railroad in the leading thorough- fare. Broadway is great, because it is a broad, bustling, thronged, and over-crowded way. This makes its business large and profitable, its property and rents high ; from up to down town the nearest route passes over it. Every man's way lies through it. As the city has grown northward on its line, and on the avenues that branch off from it, its travel has increased. When the vacant area west of Broadway, and on the west side of the island between the park and the Hudson, shall be filled up with four or five hundred thousand who will still make Broadway their thoroughfare, its business will follow the popu- lation, and be as good at Forty-second as it is now at Tenth street. 48 CITY RAILROADS. Any one who is acquainted with the westward progress of London for the past ten or twenty years will call these solid facts. Nothing can be plainer to the naked eye than that the prosperity of such a street is enhanced by measures which will extend it outward, and fill up its outskirts with a wealthy and elegant population. This is es- sentially true of Broadway, and has been its unvarying history. The maxim for the Broadway property owner is to extend the popula- tion northward along its line, and to give them the best means of get- ting there, then concentrate the travel on Broadway, and afford the best facilities for it. Yet there are men who look upon this crowd as a great evil, who would relieve it by depleting it, who would tap it at every corner by railroads branching off from Broadway, who prefer to travel through the purlieus of Crosby and Greene streets ; some of them rich, be- cause they have bought Broadway property by tens which they now count by hundreds, and who neither understand the reason why, nor see the conditions under which they may find further increase. If Greenwich street were widened from the Battery, through West Broadway, and that extended to meet the Sixth avenue, connecting with the Seventh and Eighth by Greenwich avenue, there would be an avenue in the westward course of progress which characterizes New York ; it would draw from Broadway the business trafiic that does not originate there, as the Bowery does on the eastern side, and leave it more for its own elegant uses. The construction of some such road is essential, and whatever cen- tral location is selected, it is certain that the bulk of the travel of the city will be upon it, and that it will increase and press it up to its capacity. Property upon its line will advance in value, and in avail- ability for the best business uses, for all the broad and general rea- sons that concentrate business and value on great thoroughfares, the same reasons that have made Broadway what it is. Steamboats plying along the shores of the rivers to the upper end of the island would convey population there, after they were estab- lished, just as now they convey it to the opposite shores. Access to the boats at the down-town piers should be facilitated by elevated bridges over the exterior streets and along the piers. In this view of the approach of New York to its third period of metropolitan greatness there are many suggestive topics that cannot be more than alluded to : The axioms of wise investment in real CITY RAILROADS. 49 estate, so as to discriminate between spots of increasing- and those of stationaiy value ; the strong- contrast shown by the historj^ of prices ; the places where tlie price has remained stationary for twenty years ; the places where in the same time the advance has been one hundred fold ; the instructive illustrations that enforce this science of spots. That vacant property on this island is not generally at a high or ad- vanced price. The importance of the fact that it costs no more to build on a good lot than on a poor one, and the difference in the results. The lessons that may be learned from the capitals of Europe to impel us to better methods of building hotels, markets, piers, ferry-landings, sew- ers and other public structures. The effect that would be produced by removing' the plain fence from Madison square, and completing it and other squares in the style of Trafalgar square or the Place de la Con- corde. The institution of companies for the improvement of real estate in the manner of the " Credit Mobilier" and " Credit Foncier," and similar companies in London. The necessity of a grand hall for public meetings and receptions. An outline for the foundation of galleries of art, schools and museums, not general, but devoted to special subjects, to complete the list begun by the Astor library and the Cooper Institute, as aids to the intellectual leadership of the metropolis. The commercial and financial progress of the city, and the effect upon it of the location here of the United States Treasury, which is, step by step, assuming the management and control of the government finances, until it will perform here all the beneficial services that the Bank of England renders to London. The history of Europe is of the past ; from dark and traditionary ages it traces down its civilization, and remains everywhere under the control of institutions that are rooted in the [)ast. Here, starting from a definite origin in persons and principles, at the threshold of a broad continent, in bright ages, witli a free development, with all the strength we require, we are working out our history in the future. The present supremacy of New York involves great intellectual and moral responsibility. In ancient times the provinces of the Roman empire erected temples and statues in honor of Rome. After the revolution of 1830, the provinces of France proposed at their common expense to erect a statue in honor of Paris, bearing these words, " A Paris lapatrie reconnaissanteJ' New York must so fulfil her inu-t as to merit the like recognition from a united country. 4 r\ L. . &^(^ r\ UBRARY OF CONGRESS 01 4 220 371 6 #