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FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
A GEOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATOION
OF NEW YORK CITY
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A DISSERTATION


SUBMITTED TO THE
SCIENCE


FACULTY OF THE OGDEN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY


(DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY)
BY
FREDERICK VALENTINE EMERSON
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CHICAGO
1909




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A GEOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION OF
NEW YORK CITY.
BY
F. V. EMERSON.


Compared with many sciences of equal rank and age, geography
has but little changed its aim and scope. Beginning as a most inclusive science which dealt with descriptions and observations relating
to the entire visible universe, the science has narrowed with the separation from the parent science of geology, meteorology, anthropology, sociology, and phases of other sciences-but still holds rather
closely to the meaning expressed by its etymology-earth science.
The content of the science has been, and, to a great extent, still
remains, the description of the surface of the earth and its peoples,
together with any reflections and observations that present themselves to the writer. Perhaps the best efforts of geographers have
been given to exploring and mapping the earth's surface, and such
work is absolutely a necessary precedent to further description.
Such work, although of great value, does not reach its highest value
when it remains almost entirely descriptive.
With the general enrichment and increase in the content of all the
other sciences, geography has slowly been assuming a new aspect.
The facts of location which constituted the principal content of the
old geography demand explanation. As a consequence, more attenton is being given to the relations of geographic facts and factors.
Ritter, Guyot, Ratzel, and many others have given a new outlook by
their labors along this line of correlation. Their working definition
of geography may be summarized in the statement that geography
treats of the earth as the home of man-that is, it considers those
earth influences that affect man. The earth in this sense includes
the land, the seas, and the atmosphere. Davis would enlarge this
definition to include all life responses to earth conditions and would
add plants and animals to the organic factors of geography.t Mill
states the idea somewhat differently by emphasizing geography as
the science of distribution, and would include facts of distribution


-1
_.


* A part of the work on this paper was done in a seminar course with Professor J. Paul Goode of
the University of Chicago, to whom the author is indebted for suggestions.
t Geografihy in the United States, W. M. Davis; Science, Jan. 22, 1904..  i
Is ' -.
X vi.i
v Q~~


197288




2       A Geographic Interpretation'of New York City.


not strictly earth-controlled, such, for example, as some governments.*
One concept of geography in preparing this paper is similar to
that of Mill. Geography under the conception set forth consists of
two great factors, the inorganic and the organic. The inorganic
factors to which life must adjust itself divide themselves into three
great classes. viz., the position upon the globe, the terrane, and the
climate. The organic factors may be divided into three classesplants, animals and man. The following outline presents the scheme
somewhat amplified:
37 Climate.
I.-Inorganic Factors. 
Temperature.
I. Position.                           Moisture.
Latitude and longitude.            Winds.
Distance and direction.
II.-Organic Factors.
2. The Terrane.                        n
I. Plants.
Geological structure.          2. Animals.
Soils, mineral locations.      3. Man.
Relief.                            Sociological.
Hydrography.                       Economic.
Many of these factors are shared with other sciences, and this is
especially true with the organic factors. Duplication and overlapping are inevitable and, of course, desirable in presenting and
correlating facts. The test of a geographic fact is the determination
as to whether it shows a genetic relation between an earth factor
and an organic factor.
The purpose of this paper is to consider the fundamental geographic facts in the growth of New York City. The factors that
have not had an important determinative influence have been
omitted.
THE POSITION OF NEW    YORK.-"An Athenian set down in a
modern city would have wondered why they had neglected the best
sites."t Athens grew, not at her harbor Piraeus, but around a fortified hill several miles distant. Rome flourished not at the mouth of
the Tiber, where she would have been accessible to the Mediterranean pirates and maritime marauders, but at a point of greater
safety in the interior. Paris grew on an island whose natural moat
gave added security, and London began well back from the coast.


* The International Geography, H. R. Mill, I9oo, p. 2.
1 Rise of American Cities, A. B. Hart; Quar.Jour. Econ., 4:I29.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


3


The modern city is an expression of factors somewhat different
from those of the ancient or mediaeval. The factor of easy defence,
although not to be neglected, is subordinate to factors of commercial and industrial growth. Easy defence may be influential in
determining the location, but the subsequent growth is determined
by the usefulness of the site for commerce and industry. The
modern city is a focus of activity for the tributary territory or
hinterland.
New York City is what it is, primarily, because of its location, its
local hinterland, its relation to other parts of the earth or its larger
hinterland, and to social and economic factors, in part geographic
and in part independent of geographic conditions.
The city is located at the western border of the narrow Atlantic
in the latitude that includes the most active and masterful of the
world's people. This latitude insured the peopling of the hinterland with Caucasian folk who had been developing for centuries,
and whose previous experience enabled them to continue their civilization in the new land without any serious interruption.
Back of New York the great Atlantic slope stretches to the
Rockies; in front, across the Atlantic, the Atlantic slope of Europe
faces toward the West, a most important fact.* New York thus is
in the zone of greatest activity, commercial and intellectual. As
yet the great routes of commerce follow the parallels instead of the
meridians, although this condition is not likely to be as persistent in
the future as in the past.
The longitude of New York is about 3,000 miles west from the
centre of the land hemisphere, a commercial location of some advantage as a medial point between Occidental Europe and the
Orient. This advantage, however, is more for the future than it
has been for the past.
The problem of distance and direction is one that this port must
meet as a candidate for world commerce. The transfer of freight
must always be influenced by distance, though the prospect of
return cargo, weather, and a host of other factors, may mask the
influence of distance. This influence, however, is permanent and
counts strongly in the long run.
In distance from Europe, New York has an advantage over most
other ports of the Atlantic and Pacific coast, Boston being the only
large city more favourably situated on the American seaboard. The
sailing distances between London and some American ports are:


* Politische Geographie der Vereinigten Staaten, Ratzel, i893, p. 13.




4      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


New York, 3,330 miles; Philadelphia, 3,500 miles; Quebec, 2,850
miles; Boston, 3,200 miles; San Francisco, about 8,ooo miles via the
Isthmus of Panama.
In the competition for world's commerce the distance of New
York and London from various ports is shown by the following
table, the navigation distance instead of the shortest distance being
taken:*
NEW YORK.     LONDON.
Alexandria................   6,503        3,097
Buenos Ayres..............   9,795         6,298
Capetown.................   5,142        6, I17
Hong Kong............... I 1,580          9,688
Melbourne................  I2,586.      II,055
Rio de Janeiro.............  4,748        5,204
Shanghai.................  I2,324       Io,437
Singapore.................  I, 141        8,248
New York, it will be seen, is one of the most favourably situated
cities on the Atlantic seaboard so far as distance from Europe is
concerned. So far as European rivals are concerned, New York is
favourably situated with regard to South American and Asiatic
ports, although not so favourably situated as ports further south on
the Atlantic seaboard. This handicap of distance is likely to tell
against New York when the Panama Canal shall have been opened.
There have been two interesting investigations dealing with the
value of the factor of distance as affecting New York and her great
rivals, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
After a period of rate wars between the Baltimore and Ohio, the
Pennsylvania, the Erie, and the New York Central for the export
trade from Chicago and St. Louis, it was agreed to submit the question of rates to a Board consisting of Messrs. A. G. Thurman, E. B.
Washburne, and T. M. Cooley. This board met in 1882 and after
hearing testimony awarded a differential rate in favour of Baltimore
of three cents per hundredweight and in favour of Philadelphia of
two cents. The Board in the report makes the award upon three
considerations-distance, cost, and competition. The shortest rail
line from Chicago, according to their conclusion, was as follows:
Boston, I,oo9 miles; New York, 900 miles; Philadelphia, 823 miles;
Baltimore, 802 miles-an evident handicap upon New York of eight
per cent. with respect to Philadelphia, and eleven per cent. against
Boston. At the rates prevailing in 1882, the Commission stated that


* Table of Distances, U. S. Hydrographic Office.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


5


the proposed differential would favour Philadelphia only six and
two-thirds per cent. and Baltimore ten per cent. The New York
people demurred and claimed that actual cost and not distance
should prevail in the consideration.
In respect to cost, the Commission confessed itself unable to
decide, owing to a lack of definite statistics. The New York Central
claimed advantages of grades, but did not substantiate the claims
with facts. The Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio admitted
the lower grades of the New York Central but claimed that fuel
cost them one-third less.
The Commission found that in I88I competitive ocean rates to
Europe were three cents per hundredweight more for Baltimore and
two cents per hundredweight more for Philadelphia. The better
facilities at New York for distribution and the greater assurance
there of west-bound freight together with the lower ocean rates convinced the Commission that the differential rate was justified. They
took no action with respect to Boston, since Boston railroads were
not a party to the controversy.* These rates prevailed until I900,
when they were lowered one half in each case. At that time Newport News and Norfolk were included in the Baltimore schedule.
Somewhat earlier a Commission headed by Mr. Hepburn made an
exhaustive examination of the question. The testimony fills five
volumes and was submitted to the New York Legislature February
28, I879. The general conclusion was that the differential was
unjust to New York and prevented her from enjoying her geographic privileges. Nevertheless, the rates have stood, at least so
far as published rates are concerned.
So many factors, geographic and economic, enter into the discussion of the rates in these cases that about the only value of the
investigation, so far as this paper is concerned, is to emphasize the
favourable position of New York for commerce with Europe. It
would seem that the conviction of the Hepburn Commission is in
part true. With a car loaded and the train in motion, a distance
of one hundred miles is almost inappreciable in the cost of transporting a train load of freight.t The factor of cheap coal is somewhat
against New York although the anthracite fields are not distant.
THE LOCAL HINTERLAND.-The history of New York City might
be divided into two periods. In the first period the hinterland was
* Report of the Advisory Commission on Differential Rates; Railroad Gazette, July 28, 1882,
PP. 453-7.
t Report, Hepburn Commission, Vol. V, p. 23. See also, The Growth of Cities, A. F. Weber
1905, p. 204.




6       A Geographic Interpretationl of Nezc York City.


local and the city was provincial. With the opening of the Erie
Canal a new hinterland was opened, and the city became more and
more metropolitan. Each hinterland will be separately described,
together with its geographic responses. The plan followed will be
to begin at the city itself, and describe the various portions of the
hinterland with reference to the city as a centre. New York is near


i \\          /v
FIG. i-Divisions of the Local Hinterland of New York. From State Geological Maps;
Pennsylvania, I893; New Jersey, 901o; New York, 9gor.


the meeting of several geological formations, each having a characteristic structure and topography. The principal divisions are
shown in the map. (Fig. I.)
THE HIGHLANDS.-The city is built on a complex of partially
metamorphosed rocks known as the Highland belt. It is a hilly
region for the most part and stands above the country on either side
with an average elevation in New Jersey of about I,ooo feet.*  It
is a well-dissected region with considerable relief, having ridges and
uplands from 500 to I,ooo feet higher than the valleys.t There is
a sharp contrast between the glaciated and unglaciated portions.
In I888 75% of the glaciated area in the highlands was forested,
while south of the glaciated area only about 30% of the area was in
* New Jersey Geological Survey, Vol. IV, I895, P. 103.
t New Jersey Geological Survey, Vol. I, 1888, p. 134.




A Geographic Interpretationl of Newz York City.


7


forest.* The glacial soils in this province are more stony and less
fertile than those of the unglaciated area.t The Highlands extend
southwesterly and terminate in the vicinity of Reading, Pa.
THE   TRIASSIC PLAIN.-In sharp contrast geologically to the
Highlands is the Triassic Plain, lying to the southeast.   The plain
begins about thirty miles north of New York and extends southwest through Pennsylvania. The rocks are sedimentary, and, in the
northern portion, especially, trap has been intruded into the series.
The effect of erosion on such a structure has been a relief much less
pronounced than that of the Highlands, with the exception of the
trap ridges which stand out above the general level, where the trap
outcrops. The plain slopes from a general altitude of about two
hundred feet on the west to less than one hundred feet on the east.f
Excepting in the northwest, where the Ramapo Mountains of the
Highlands rise above the plain, there is no very sharp topographic
division between the Triassic Plain and the Highlands on the northwest and the Coastal Plain on the southeast.~
The soils both on the unglaciated and glaciated portions of the
Triassic Plain are in general good.ll The trap ridges do not yield
good soil, but their area is inconsiderable.
THE COASTAL PLAIN.-Beginning in the vicinity of New York,
the Coastal Plain widens as it extends southward. The rocks are
sedimentary, generally unconsolidated, and dip gently eastward.
The combination of soft Cretaceous shales and marls and more
resistant overlying formations, both dipping eastward, has, in New
Jersey, been eroded into two portions-the inner lowland which is
the fertile Cretaceous plain, and the outer slope which is covered
with less fertile Tertiary and Pleistocene deposits. The altitude
of the inner lowland has a range from tide level to about one hundred and fifty feet, one third of the surface being below fifty feet.**
Over one-half of the surface of southern New Jersey is below one
hundred feet.tt The Cretaceous inner plain is a fertile region.:t In
contrast to the fertility of the inner plain, the outer slope of New
Jersey is in general infertile.~~  (Fig. 2.)
* New Jersey Geological Survey, Annual Report, 1895, p. IOI.
t New Jersey Geological Survey, Annual Report, i898, p. 2.:t New Jersey Geological Survey, Vol. I, i888, p. 152.
~ New Jersey Geological Survey, Vol. IV, 1895, p. 27.
I! New Jersey Geological Survey, Vol. I, i888, p. 152. See also the Soil Survey of Trenton Area,
1902. (U. S. Soil Survey.)
** Geological Survey of New Jersey, Vol. I, I88i, p. 169.
1t Geological Survey of New Jersey, Vol. IV, 1895, p. 105.
$t Geological Survey of New Jersey, Vol. IV, 1895, pp. I72-?.
~~ Geological Survey of New Jersey, Vol. I, 1881, pp. 173-8. See also the Soil Survey of the
Trenton Area, 1902. (U. S. Soil Survey.)




8       A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


The eastern slope of New Jersey continues beneath the Atlantic
with a gentle slope. Such a shelving sea bottom, together with its
unresistant materials, is, in general, unfavourable for the formation
of harbours. The shallowness of the water prevents the approach
of large vessels. There is a tendency towards the formation of offshore bars.    From   Monmouth Beach to Bay Head, a distance of
about nineteen miles, the waves are cutting a cliff,* north and
south of which are wing-like bars.t The northern wing extends
northward and becomes Sandy Hook at the entrance to Raritan
Bay.
South of Bay Head is a line of off-shore bars with occasional
inlets and with shallow lagoons between the bars and the mainland.
/  2 T-H'NrOM                                  LAll4 A  WAY CfREfK  S
ftria5^i       3    ^.__._.  -.-j^^  ^ "-   -"_______ __.ha/es ^  e^n  Z    ~. cretoce-ou5 1/e   -    ~   " les           - 
FIG. 2.-Generalized soil section from the vicinity of Trenton, N. J., southwest to the vicinity
of Midwood. Soil types: (i) Penn loam, derived from Triassic shales; (2) Sassafras loam,
a sedimentary soil here overlying the Triassic shales; (3) Elsinbhro fine sand; (4) Collington sandy loam, a fertile soil derived from glauconitic Cretaceous shales; (5) Norfolk sand,
a medium to coarse sand sedimentary in origin and infertile. Soil location and description
from the U. S. Soil Survey of the Trenton Area, 1902; geology from the geological map of
New Jersey, published by the State Geological Survey.
The inlets are difficult of access and some of the channels through
them   are shifting.:   In consequence of these unfavourable conditions being where the lowland merges into a highland, the changes
are of importance legally and commercially.
The belt between the Appalachian ridges and the Coastal Plain
is usually termed the Piedmont. It will be referred to under that
name in subsequent pages.
West of the Highlands is a region that has by some been included in the Highland Province. It is lower than the latter, and
like it, has a metamorphic structure and hilly topography. Tarr
correlates this with the Taconic Region at the northeast, the junction being where the lowland merges into a highland, the difference
in altitude being due to the fact that the rocks of the Taconic region
are more metamorphosed and therefore more resistant than on the
south.~ This province extends along the northeastern border of the
State eastward to the Connecticut River, and westward to the Appa* Annual Report, New Jersey Geological Survey, 1905, p. 28.
t Shore-line Topography, F. P. Gulliver. Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sciences, Vol. XXXI V,
No. 8, Jan. 1899, p. 213.
t Geological Survey of New Jersey, I905, p. 28.
~ Physical Geography of New York State, I902, pp. 4-6.
h 2, line 4, read:-In consequence of these unfavorable,
there has not been any important harbor between
I Philadelphia.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


9


lachian Ridges. Its rocks are highly metamorphosed and its topography, west of the Hudson, is rough. The region in the north has
been strongly glaciated, most of the preglacial soil has been removed,
and there has not been sufficient time since the glacial period for
much new soil to form.
THE APPALACHIAN RIDGES.-West of the Highlands and Taconic
belt is the region of folded sedimentary        rocks.  Beginning near
Kingston, N. Y., the folded belt extends to Alabama.             Erosion
upon the folded structure has left the outcrops of hard rocks standing in relief as ridges, and the outcrops of less resistant rocks cut
1300 Ft 
/
/        /,,       /,   / /1  1      ij,, 
OOFt              / /      _____                                 "      I
FIG. 3.-Profile and Section in Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin Co., Pa., from Blue Mountain southward. (I) Edgemont stony loam, derived from (A) Oneida-Medina sandstone; a sterile, stony soil
on the steep ridge slopes, having only five per cent. under cultivation. (2) Hagerstown shale loam,
derived from (B) Hudson River and Utica shales; it is a loamy soil of good quality. (3) Hagerstown loam, derived from (C) Cambro-Silurian limestone; it is a productive soil.
Data from Geological Map of Pennsylvania, 1893; Topographic Map of the Harrisburg Area;
and U. S. Soil Survey Report of the Lebanon Area, Pa., go9i.
as valleys. The general result is a system of parallel ridges and
valleys with a northeast-southwest trend.      The streams in the valleys often turn abruptly and cut transverse gorges across the ridges.
The ridges in New York are lower but rise in Pennsylvania to a
general level of I,500 to I,8oo feet, and farther south some of the
ridges reach altitudes of over 3,000 feet.* The belt widens in
Pennsylvania and in the northeastern part of this State contains one of the richest anthracite coal fields in the world.        The
soils in the valleys are often fertile, especially where they are residual and derived from shales or limestones. The ridges are infertile. They are usually composed of sandstone, quartzite or conglomerate, to the slow erosion of which they owe their existence, but
which weather to a sandy, stony, infertile soil. The steep slopes
favor an active drainage which carries away the finer particles and
the soil does not retain enough moisture to favor the formation of
humus. Figure 3 shows a soil section in the ridge belt of Pennsylvania.


* The Physiography of the United States, 1895, p. 175.




10     A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU.-The Appalachian folded strata
grade to the west and northwest into the nearly horizontal layers
which form the structure of the Allegheny Plateau. This province
extends northward to the Mohawk Valley and the Lake Plains,
westward at least to central Ohio and southward to Alabama. The
Upl/ar d SO//s
/ 70               CH~u/               v           P R/IVER,,A//u              /a / so//&;/ Vile            ^-    -   ^   --   -~     ^             900
FIG. 4.-Profile of the Chemung River Valley ten miles southeast of Elmira, N. Y.
The steep upland slopes are covered with a thin soil derived largely from the
underlying Chemung shales. The valley soils are generally fertile. The figures
indicate height above sea-level.
From the U. S. Soil Survey Report of the Big Flats, N. Y., Area. I902.
surface is well dissected, with an average elevation in New York of
at least I,ooo feet.* In general the plateau is capped by shales and
sandstones. The capping shales and sandstones do not afford a
very fertile soil and the glacial till soil in New          York is not prominent except in the valleys and on the lowlands. Moreover, as in
the Ridge belt, the steep slopes characteristic of the mature dissec6
2~/ 2_~ X. __Lake                            Itfeve
yE       __ __ ___ _______________    _____Lake  Leve   _       __
FIG. 5.-Generalized profile and soil section from Lake Ontario to the Allegheny Plateau, across Wayne
and Cayuga and into Tompkins Counties, N. Y. Soil types: (i) Elmira silt loam; (2) Alton stony
loam; (3) Miami stony loam; (4) Dunkirk clay loam; (5) Dunkirk loam; (6) Miami stony loam;
(7) Volusia loam. The Elmira silt loam and the Dunkirk series were deposited in marginal glacial
lakes, the most important of which in this locality were the glacial lakes Warren and Iroquois. They
are, in general, good soils. The Alton stony loam and the Miami stony loam are derived from
weathered drift. They are fair soils. The Volusia loam is largely residual and derived from local
shales. The Volusia series are typical soils of the Allegheny Plateau in New York, Pennsylvania
and Ohio. In general, the Volusia loam is the least productive of the types shown in this section.
From the following U. S. Soil Survey Reports: Lyons Area, 1902; Auburn Area, I904; Tompkins
County, I906.
tion of the region do not make for the retention of fine soil particles
or the formation of humus. The soils of the upland, which comprise a large percentage of the plateau, are therefore not fertile.
They are in sharp contrast to the rather fertile soils of the valleysa contrast brought out in those Soil Survey reports which include
* Tarr, Physical Geography of New York State, p. 8.


I1
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__




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


11


both valleys and uplands.* (Figs. 4, 5.)t This plateau on the east
and north presents a dissected escarpment to the Hudson and
Mohawk      valleys.   (Fig. 6.)    About sixty      miles north    of New
York the plateau is capped by sandstones and conglomerates. The
result of erosion upon this structure is a region of steep-sided hills
known as the Catskill Mountains.           Further north, in the escarpment south of Albany, a durable layer of limestone overlying softer
strata produces the Helderberg Mountains.
ALE tGH^ENY PLA rEA 
JLAWV4eZ RIIVER
CoI'M ";    \ -                                                 THEe A D/IR  DACKS.p- ' ~             e "..,O,,        HA WK VAL LY        /soW V;e o '-ro     -od. 0,io 
e         i..         ' e ". -     " o'5 %
e                               3,
FIG. 6.-Profile and geological section showing: The Mohawk Valley, the Adirondacks on the north
and the Allegheny Plateau and its escarpment overlooking the Mohawk Valley on the south.
Taken near longitude 74~ 60' about 55 miles from the mouth of the Mohawk.
Profile from the following N. Y. topographic maps of the U. S. Geological Survey: Lassellville,
Canajoharie, Richmondville, Hobart, Margaretsville. Geology from the N. Y. State Museum Map,
io90. The dip of the formations is conjectural and greatly exaggerated.
THE MOHAWK VALLEY.-North of the plateau in New York is
a lowland belt extending across the State from Lake Erie to the
Hudson.
From the Adirondack region, the sedimentary rocks underlying
the Allegheny Plateau dip gently southward, lying unconformably
upon   the   crystallines  of the
Adirondacks. Along the strikes                           3
of  softer   underlying    forma-           i, - L
*/  0   _ -- -"^ _ Lake   Level__  s7
tions, Brigham holds that the
FIG. 7.-Section near Westfield, N.Y., from Lake Erie
ancient Mohawk        worked    its    to the Allegheny Plateau. Soil types: (i) Clays for
way   westward     by  headwater       the most part deposited at the bottom of marginal
glacial lakes. (2) Gravel and sand which formed
erosion.f                              shore lines of the lakes. (3) Residual soil derived
This westward advance was          from local shales. (4) Morainic soil much of which
is derived from local shales.-From the U.S. Soil
arrested   at Little Falls by a        Survey Report of the Westfield, N.Y., Area, I901.
barrier   of   crystalline   rocks
which faulting had brought to the surface.         This barrier, according
to the same author, served as the preglacial divide between the
Mohawk and a westward flowing stream. Later, at the time the
drainage of the glacial Lake Iroquois was across this divide, the outflow both corraded the divide and aggraded its channel to the level
* Soil Survey of the Big Flats Area, N. Y., 1902.
+ Soil Survey of the Big Flats Area, N. Y., I90o.
* Bulletin Geol. Soc. Am., Vol 9, 1898, pp. 183-210.




12     A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


of the divide, and when the ice finally retreated so as to divert the
drainage of Lake Iroquois to the north, the divide and the head of
the Mohawk had shifted some ninety miles to the westward, near
Rome, and the stream flowed over its level aggraded channel.* The
result of this is a trench approximately I,ooo feet deep for much of
its length, twelve to twenty miles wide, and about ninety miles in
length, extending from the vicinity of Rome to the Hudson near
Albany. The bottom of the trench descends from an elevation of
about 445 feet at Rome, to sea-level at the Hudson, in a long, gradual
slope to within a short distance of the Hudson. (See profile Fig.
6.) North of the valley is the Adirondack region, and south of it
is the rather steep escarpment of the Allegheny Plateau. This
plateau is a notable feature in New York, but it descends to the westward and in central Ohio it sinks to the general level. (Fig. 6). The
soils of the Mohawk Valley are largely of alluvial, lacustrine, and,
possibly, in part, of marine origin, and are fertile.
THE LAKE PLAINS.-Extending westward from the Mohawk
Valley are the Lake Plains, which consist of three divisions, separated in the western part of the State by escarpments. A low, narrow
plain rises Ioo to 175 feet from Lake Ontario to the Niagara escarpment. Behind this escarpment, which is about 200 feet high, is
the second plain, which extends southward a few miles to a low
escarpment made by the resistant Corniferous limestone. The
third plain lies further south, and merges into the Allegheny
Plateau. These three plains form a series of steps to the plateau.
The escarpments become less distinct from west to east, and the
two lower plains merge into the Mohawk Valley at the indistinct
divide near Rome. These plains were covered by the glacial lakes,
Warren and Iroquois.t
The soils of the Lake Plains are varied. The till, largely derived
from local limestones and shales, has plentiful mineral plant food.
Intermingled with the till, or overlying it, are the shore and bottom
deposits of the glacial lakes. The soils are generally fertile. A
section through the lower plain up to the plateau shows the soils
that are characteristic of the different agencies that have been at
work. (Fig. 7; see also Fig. 5.)
THE HUDSON VALLEY.-The Hudson River is really an extension of the Mohawk so far as volume of water is concerned, since


* Brigham. Ibid.
H. L. Fairchild, N. Y. State Museum Report, No. 56, Part I, 1902, pp. 30-I.
+ Frank Leverett, Glacial Forlmations of the Erie and Ohio Basins,Monograph 41, U. S. G. S.,
90o, pp. 68-74.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


1.3


the former is an insignificant stream until the latter joins it. From
the vicinity of Albany southward the Hudson is in a drowned river
valley. The valley consists of an outer valley in which the geologically recent gorge-like valley is cut, this gorge being the
drowned part.* The tidal influence extends to Troy above Albany.
With the exception of the Mohawk, the Hudson has remarkably
few and insignificant tributaries, and most of them enter from the
west. The divide between the Hudson and the Connecticut, owing
probably to the weak and few tributaries of the former and the
strong and more numerous tributaries of the latter, is close to the
Hudson Valley. There are few interlocking tributaries from the
two rivers to form easy passes between the Hudson and the Connecticut valleys. During the glacial advances, the Hudson Valley,
extending in the direction of ice movement, was an easy pathway
for the ice, and is well scoured. This, together with the steep
slopes and absence of any considerable flood plain, gives to the
valley but little arable soil.
THE GREEN MOUNTAINS AND BERKSHIRE PLATEAU.-Between
the Hudson Valley and the Connecticut Valley is a dissected upland,
mountainous in the north and hilly in the' south. The rocks are
largely metamorphic, and in general folded.t    The structure is complex, and both the               X51;#-  /R PLATEAU
structure   and   its   soofi       3   -'     -     4/'-'F/ 1zE RI VER
origin  are   yet a    /,             2,, 'J:,, 
matter of controversy. The surface     FIG. 8.-Soil section west of Deerfield, Mass. The section shows
the change in soil types in passing from the Berkshire Plateau
rises from  the low      into the Connecticut Valley. (i) Hartford sandy loam of alluvial
hi ls  near  New  origin. (2) Triassic stony loam derived from the underlying
h~ill~s  near  New  Triassic sandstone. (3) Holyoke stony loam and rock outcrops.
York, to the short,      It is underlain, for the most part, by crystalline rocks and consharp ridges west of    sists of stony till which contains o1 to 50 per cent. of boulders.
arp riges west O   Soil Survey of the Connecticut Valley, I903.
the northern Hudson Valley.   This region was strongly glaciated.     The ice erosion
swept away the preglacial soil, and at the recession of the ice the surface was partly covered with till. The hardness of the rocks over
which the ice moved prevented their comminution by weathering to
any extent and the residual till is very bouldery, often containing
fifty per cent. of rock (Holyoke stony loam, Fig. 8). Moreover, the
resistant rock in the till has not weathered enough in postglacial time
to make much of its plant food available.     The valleys are narrow
* Tarr, Physical Geography of New York State, p. I88.
t T. Nelson Dale, Taconic Physiography, Bulletin 272, U. S. G. S., x905, page 26.




14      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


and not in a stage mature enough for food plains to form. As in the
case of the Allegheny Plateau, the steep slopes do not favor the
accumulation of fertile soil. The soil in general in this region is
infertile. In an area in the northern part, over seventeen per cent.
is rock outcrop.*
LONG ISLAND.-Long Island, although not extensive, is important because of its nearness to New York. In structure it is a
part of the Coastal Plain modified by ice. It is a long, narrow,
low island, having a kind of double ridge or "backbone" in the
northern part. The "backbone" consists of two moraines, the
southerly one being the older. South of the older moraine is an
extensive outwash plain. (Fig. 9.) The greater part of the
island is covered by the sands and gravel of the outwash plains,
and the soil has but little plant food.t
7
300 /ee?        / 
Waash Plain                   3
4
Sea /eve/        2nd. r       toraine  mile  Im toraine  Wash P-a 7
FIG. 9.-Generalized soil section in western Long Island near meridian 73~ 20'. Babylon sheet, U. S. Soil
Survey of Long Island, I903. Vertical scale exaggerated about ten times. (i) Alton stony loam, composed largely of morainic sand and gravel with some Cretaceous clay. It is characteristic of the moraines.
(2, 3, 4) Sassafras gravelly loam. Norfolk coarse sandy loam and Norfolk sand, respectively. They are
characteristic of the outwash plains. The fineness increases from 2 to 4.
CLIMATE.-The States constituting the immediate hinterland of
New York have a continental climate, except in the vicinity of
the seacoast. The winters are long and severe and the summers
short and hot. The precipitation ranges from thirty to fifty inches,
and is in general sufficient for those crops which flourish in a
region of moderate temperatures. The plains adjoining Lakes
Erie 'and Ontario have a climate modified somewhat by the proximity of large bodies of water.      This climatic modification    has
favoured the fruit orchards and vineyards that have sprung up on
the plains overlooking the lakes.
THE RESPONSES TO THE EARLY HINTERLAND. POPULATION AND
COMMERCE.-In the early part of the nineteenth century the seaport cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York turned their
attention to the development of the trade in the trans-Allegheny
region. The Atlantic slope was well populated in I790 (Fig. Io),
and it was realized that a limit was being approached in the development of the local hinterland. Hitherto the basis of the growth of


* Soil Survey of the Vergennes Area, New York and Vermont, 1904.
t Soil Survey of Long Island, I903.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


cities in America had been that of ancient and mediaeval times,
namely, the resources of the local hinterland. The commercial
supremacy of the coast cities was to be decided by their success
in gaining a commercial primacy in the larger hinterland beyond
the Allegheny Plateau.
In the matter of a local hinterland, New   York was at a disadvantage compared with the seaports to the south. The southFIG. io.-Population map of the United States in I79o. The dotted
areas indicate a population of x8 to 45; the lined areas a population of 45 to 90 per square mile.
From the Statistical Atlas, i2th Census.
westward trend of the Appalachian ridges gave a widening belt
of Piedmont and Coastal Plain back of the more southerly seaports.* The great Appalachian Valley, with its fertile soil (Fig.
3), also widens in the latitude of Philadelphia and Baltimore, and
becomes accessible to those ports through the transverse valleys
of the Delaware, Susquehanna, and Potomac. The hinterland of
the southerly ports had a climatic advantage in that they could,
without much competition, produce tobacco, for which there was a
strong European demand. The Susquehanna tapped the territory
northwest of New York and led its flour and wheat trade towards
Philadelphia and Baltimore. To the fertile Piedmont and Shenan

* For descriptions of the soils of the Piedmont, see the following U. S. Soil Survey Reports;
Adams Co., Pa., 1904; Appomattox Co., Va., 1904; Harford Co., Md., 190o; Cecil Co., Md., I9oo.




I6       A Geographic Interpretation of New    York City.
doah Valley, and to the transverse Susquehanna and Potomac, is
undoubtedly due the fact that in the first quarter of the nineteenth
century Baltimore was the leading flour market of America, as is
shown by the following tables:
Inspections of wheat flour:*
YEAR.         PHILADELPHIA.     NEW YORK.       BALTIMORE.
813.........    359,ooo000 bbl.  389,000 bbl.    29r,000 bbl.
1815..........  335,000          312,000         388,000
1820..........   400,000   "      267,000         577,000
1825..........   294,000         446,000 oo       5I0,000
1827..........   351,ooo000       625,000         572,000
Boston had a well-peopled hinterland, but not the exclusive
monopoly of trade which the Hudson and Delaware estuaries gave
to New York and Philadelphia.
The productiveness of the local hinterlands is reflected in the
wealth and population of the cities to which the hinterlands were
tributary. Charleston and Philadelphia were leading centres of
wealth and culture and Philadelphia was the metropolis until the
early part of the nineteenth century.  (Fig. I4.)
Population of:t
YEAR.          NEW YORK.      PHILADEI.PHIA.     BOSTON.
1722..............                                 0,567
I731.........      8,628           I2,o00....
1765...............                      5,520
1773..........     21,876...
1790.........     33,131           43,520          18,038
180oo..........    60,489           69,403          24,937
I8io..........     96,373           99,874          33,250
It is not easy to account for the Colonial leadership of New
York in view of its inferior local hinterland. The later growth of
the city was probably largely due to the rapid opening to settlement
of the Mohawk Valley region-a settlement that had been retarded
by the presence of resident Indians. By 1820 a rather dense population extended across the State (Fig. ii). As early as 1795 the
Mohawk was canalized, and much of the trade for the population
of the valley centered at New York. The Cretaceous lowland and
the Piedmont of New Jersey were densely settled, but they were


* Niles' Register, Vol. XXXIV, p. 238.
+ Compendium of the Seventh Census, I854, p. 192.




A  Geographic Interpretation of New        York City.          17
tributary to Philadelphia as well as to New York. New York
was a centre of coastwise trade and by I8I5 the enrolled tonnage
in the trade in New York State exceeded that of any other State.*
In Colonial times New York and Pennsylvania were rivals in
the export trade (Fig. 12), but by 1797 New York State led the
Northern States in the value of its exports (Fig. I3). By I8IO
New York City had a commerce far in excess of that of PhilaFIG. II.-Population Map of the United States in I820. The dotted areas indicate a
population of i8 to 45; the lined areas a population of 45 to go90 per square mile.
From the Statistical Atlas, i2th Census.
delphia. In the same year the tonnage owned in New York City
by far exceeded that of any other American port, being twice that
of Philadelphia.t
If we include in the population of the three cities the population
within a radius of twenty-five and fifty miles from those cities,
the inferiority of the local hinterland of New York becomes evident (Figs. I4, I5, I6). Although the population of Boston city
never approached that of New York, the local hinterland of the
former exceeded in population that of the latter until I8IO. The
* Hazard, Vol. V, p. 77; p. 45.
t Tonnage owned (i8xo):
New York.......................    268,548.1
Boston........................................  149,12i.85
Philadelphia.................................. 125,258.15
Baltimore....................................  103,444.69
Charleston....................................  52,888. 6
Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States, 1817, p. 430.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


8            2                      2.          2.          2,)        Is            2.


150,000
140,000
130,000
120,000
II0, 000
100,000
90,000
80,000
70,000
6o,ooo
50, 000
40,000
30,000
I A     j            ~~~~~20,000
I0,000
FIG. 12.-Colonial Exports of New England, New York
and Pennsylv7ania; values in Founds.
Compendium of the 7th Census, page i84.


&1       2         2         2        CIO       t_       in.        mo       00        00       0n        00        co


55,000,
50,000,
45,000,
40,000,
35,000,
30,000,
25,000,
20,000,
25,000,
20,000,
5,000,


FIo. 23.-Exports of New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts (in dollars),
I790-i850. Compendium of the
7th Census, page I87.


0. 14.York,
Bos
Com.i
C




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


19


t,  00  0  00   0  0
Hc  c   c    t 


O     O  0  0 
80 0 0 N 0   50.4  t  H  H  H


50,000
45,ooo


35,000,
'3s,ooo,~


25,000


320,000
300,000
280,000
260,000
240,000
220,000
200,000
180,000
i8o,ooo
H _i Tii  _i,!i      ii 160,000
I _T IE- 1  I20,000
V l l _ T   I ooDoo
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
I     20,000
I I  ''  ' i  T  7, ' T  ' '1 11' I L
York, Philadelphia and
Boston, 1790 to 1840.
Compendium of the 7th
Census, page 192.


I,600,000
i,6oo,ooo
1,500,000
1,400,000
I,300,000
1,200,000
I, 00,000
I,000,000
900,000
800,ooo
700,000
600,000
500,000
400,000
300,000
200,000
I00,000


I5,oOO,
10,000,1


FIG. I5.-Populations of New York, Philadelphia and
Boston, inducing the Fopulat on of the region
within a radius of 25 miles from these c'ties.
31 '




20      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.
00     o o0      oo o o    o          oo o0 oO c o
5,500,000                        ___ _!' —"_l — lll1   11
5,000,000 
4,500,000
4,000,000
3,500,000
3,000,000  --— _ ---_ --- — -   _  ____ __  _- - --  -  -  ___....._,,,;
2,000,000
1,500,000
1,000,000                                         I  -  I
500,000
FIG. I6.-Population of New York, Philadelphia and Boston, including the population of the region within a radius of 50 miles from these cities.
graphs tell a similar story in regard to Philadelphia, the population of whose local hinterland exceeded that of New York until
about 1840.
The same conclusion is emphasized in a comparison of the
agricultural products of the three local hinterlands. Taking the
figures from the censuses of 1850 and 1900, the following comparisons appear for a radius of fifty miles from each city:
The same conclusionilmhszdi            oprsno          h
agr~~~~~IcutraIroutsoItethe  locl hinterlands. Tain  t"he
fiue fro   tHe cesssofI5       ndioth       olwigcm
parioonoo appear fo a raIu of fit mie fro   eac c ity:III  III1 I 


VALUE OF LAND                 VALUE OF PRODTOTAL ACRES     NO. ACRES   VALUE OF LAND       LUEOF      VALUE OF PRODAND IMPROVE-                  UCTS NOT FED
IN FARMS.     IMPROVED.     AND M    OVE-   LIVE STOCK.    T
MENTS.                     TO LIVE STOCK.
New York:
1850.................        2,242,682    $154,526,972........
1900.............   3,027,236     2,084,200      147,982,680   $22,134,387    $41,551,802
Philadelphia:
I850.................        3,295,372     219,403,003........
1900.............   4,951,030     3,947,574      218,520,630    37,589,050     68,397,797
Boston:
1850..............., 563-743     97,85,740........
900.o............   2,588,835       988,807      81,296,400     14,164,423     30,617,432




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


21


Owing to changes in the enumeration in the different census
reports, the figures given above are valuable chiefly for comparison at the time they were taken. It is to be noticed that the
hinterland of Philadelphia, so far back as the census reports go,
is more productive than that of Boston or New York. It is
reasonable to suppose that these relative values were not very
much different in the half century preceding I850. Roughly
speaking, the local hinterland of Philadelphia produces about onethird more in agricultural value than does that of New York.
The comparison of the early trade and production of the local hinterland is not satisfactory, because of insufficient data. It would be
interesting to trace the influence of each factor in the complex
local hinterland of New York upon the development of the city,
but this seems impossible to do-at least for Colonial times. The
geographic factors, however, that were to influence most effectively the growth of the city, do not come into play until later
times, when data are more abundant.
CANAL BUILDING.-The factors that located the Colonial ports
of New York and Baltimore also directed the energies of those
cities to reach the larger hinterland in the Mississippi Valley.
The drowned river valleys near or upon which these ports are
located, in their upper and middle parts, are transverse valleys
across the Appalachian ridges. Back of Baltimore is the Valley
of the Potomac; across the Piedmont from Philadelphia, the
Susquehanna Valley leads into the Allegheny Plateau; and from
New York, the Hudson estuary' leads far north of the latitude of
the low Appalachian ridges.
The easy passages across the Appalachian ridges are few.
While the ridges are often steep and high, it was their number
and the width of the ridge belt that made the crossing difficult.
The trellised pattern of most of the streams made a zigzag path.
When one ridge was crossed the valley beyond must be followed
until a wind or water gap gave access to the next valley. It was
a difficult journey even for the pioneer and his pack-horse. After
the ridge belt was crossed, the Allegheny Plateau, with its early,
maturely dissected surface, must be traversed. The valleys were
narrow, and often had no flood plain to afford an easy path.
The streams were swift and subject to sudden floods. The
plateau offered but little inducement to settlers, and, consequently,
there were but few places where the traveller could secure supplies.
The feasibility of the Potomac route to the West was noticed




22     A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


by Washington in I754 when he was a member of Braddock's
army. The route up the Potomac to Cumberland, and from thence
northward down the tributaries of the Ohio to that river, became
a much-travelled road. As early as 1785 the States of Virginia
and Maryland granted a charter to the Potomac Company, allowing it to improve the navigation of that river from tidewater to
the highest practicable point, and from this point to construct
a canal to Cumberland, Md.* The tolls of the canalized river
reached their maximum of annual revenue of $22,542.89 in I8II.t
The project was not successful as a revenue producer, nor, of
course, in reaching the trade of the West.
The next attempt of the Chesapeake States to reach the West
was in 1828, when the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was begun.
The narrow flood plain of the Potomac offered a moderately easy
path along which to dig the canal, although frequently rock was
met in the digging and tunnelling was necessary. The steep slopes
of the streams gave good opportunity for securing water for the
canal by a system of dams, which, in the first construction, at
least, was less expensive than a system of feeders from tributaries.
The distance of the proposed canal to the Ohio Valley was less
by more than a hundred miles than the successful Erie Canal.
It was not until I850, however, that the Chesapeake and Ohio
canal reached Cumberland in the heart of the ridge belt. The
canal was constructed intermittently, often being delayed for want
of funds. The folded structure, with its steep ridges, across
which the canal had to pass after it left the Shenandoah Valley,
could not support a dense or a productive population. Unlike
the Erie Canal, which paid good dividends before it was completed, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal project could not hope to
pay dividends until it reached the Ohio Valley. Its -supporters
became discouraged at the constant outlay, and by the time the
canal in its slow progress had reached the coal fields near the
Allegheny Plateau, its competitor, the railroad, had anticipated the
canal and secured the bulk of the coal trade which the canal was
expected to secure. The canal was dug in the face of great geographic obstacles. Its returns were trifling in proportion to its cost,
although the canal did great service in opening up the local hinterland of Baltimore.
Philadelphia had the way to the West pointed out by early wagon
* Milton Reizenstein, The Economic History of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Johns Hopkins
University Studies, 1897.
t Report on Canals, loth Census, Vol. IV.


L_  -— ""




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


*23


roads as well as by canals. The rolling Piedmont offered but little
obstruction to road building, and the Lancaster pike-a well-built
road-early connected Philadelphia with the town of Lancaster, a
few miles east of the Susquehanna. The transverse and longitudinal Juniata valleys led to the Allegheny Front, where the ridge topography merges into the plateau topography. When this was crossed,
valleys tributary to the Allegheny led down to that river.* Later
the Forbes road gave a more direct wagon route across the mountains and plateau to Pittsburg. Along this road Philadelphia sent
her drugs, hardware, and dry-goods to the Ohio Valley settlements.t
By means of the Cumberland road, Baltimore was securing a large
portion of the Pittsburg trade, and in 1791 the "Pennsylvania Society
for Promoting the Improvement of Roads and Inland Navigation"
made a favourable report on the feasibility of a canal route from
Philadelphia to Pittsburg.4  The report was based on surveys
across the State. It was not until I826, the year after the opening
of the Erie Canal, that the Pennsylvania Canal was begun. Although the Schuylkill had been improved so that it was navigable to
Reading, it was decided to cross the Piedmont from Philadelphia to
Columbia by a railroad.
The physiographic obstacles to canal construction were difficult.
The divide near the Allegheny Front was over two thousand feet
above the sea-level. The descent westward from this divide was
through narrow, steep-sloped valleys. The problem of water supply
at the divide was so difficult that a portage railroad was built to
connect the eastern and western divisions of the canal. Where the
Juniata Valley was longitudinal, the valley was wide, the levels were
favourable, and the canal could usually be dug in residual or alluvial
materials. Where the valleys were transverse, there were often
rapids, and the digging was often in rock. The steep Conemaugh
Valley, through which the western division passed, required a large
number of locks.
The railroad-canal route was completed in 1834, and Philadelphia
was connected with Ohio. The State assumed the expense of
construction, which amounted to $I4,361,320.32.~ The route had a
considerable trade, although it did not, to any great extent, secure
the grain trade of the Ohio Valley. The total revenue of the route


* Semple, E. C., American History and its Geographic Conditions, 1903, p. 65.
tJ. B. McMaster, History of the United States, Vol. III, p. 481.
* Hulbert, A. B., Great American Canals, Vol. I, 1904.
~ Hepburn Report, Vol. V, pp. 23-4. The cost of construction is given as $I6,472,635 in volume
IV. Canals, xoth Census, p. 8.




24      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


from   I830 to I860 was $24,o64,591, and the net revenue was
$9,715,777.*  It is interesting to note that of the total net revenue,
$4,802,419, or about one half, was earned by the eighty-one miles
of railroad from Columbia to Philadelphia. The railroad crossed
the well-settled and productive Piedmont, whereas the rest of the
route, for the most part, crossed the ridge and. plateau belt.
Before the canal could share in the great iron and coal trade of
the State, it had been superseded by the Pennsylvania Railroad,
under the control of which it passed in I857.
The most feasible route to the lands beyond the Appalachian
barrier lay back of New York. The Appalachian ridges are low
and the belt is narrow a short distance west of the Hudson. The
Allegheny Plateau is dissected, and its north-south rivers are transverse to the route westward. But from the tidal Hudson normal,
physiographic processes have provided the Mohawk Valley a
trench which was of moderate slope (Fig. I7) and partially
Potomac          ~       usq vehanno - Jun ioaa  lMo hawk
FIG. 17.-Profiles of the Potomac River from Georgetown, Md., to Cumberland, Md.; of the Susquehanna-Juniata rivers from Columbia, Pa., to Huntington, Pa.; of the Mohawk River from
its mouth to the vicinity of Rome, N. Y. All the diagrams have the same horizontal and
vertical scales.
From " Profiles of Rivers in the United States," by Henry Gannett. No. 44 of
the Water Supply and Irrigation Papers, U. S. Geological Survey, 1901.
aggraded   by  the  outflowing   Iroquois-Mohawk, which      drained
Lakes Warren and Iroquois. So obvious was the utility of this
valley that, as early as 1724, nearly a century before the opening of the Erie Canal, Cadwallader Colden, Surveyor-General of
the colony, suggested the possibility of a connection between the
Mohawk and some tributary of Lake Ontario.t The plan was
later urged by Washington and by Gouverneur Morris. In I792 the
project took more definite shape in the incorporation of two companies, the Western Navigation Company and the Northern Navigation Company-the one to connect the Hudson with Lake Ontario,
and the other to connect the same river with Lake Champlain. The
people of the State were awake to the importance of the project, and
each company was to receive $12,500 from the State as soon as it
had invested $25,000o.
* Tenth Census, Vol. IV, Canals, p. 8.
t Poor's Manual, 188I, p. 4.. Hulbert, Great American Canals, Vol. II, p. 22.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


25


The principal work of the Western Navigation Company was to
excavate a canal around Little Falls, where the canal crosses the
hard crystalline rock at the old fault line. This canal, 4,725
feet in length, was finished in I795 at a cost of $50,000.*
The company, although it built insecurely and was obliged to
expend much of its revenue on repairs, fared better than most of
the canal companies of its day. Prior to the Revolution, the
Mohawk Valley had been largely under the control of resident
Indian tribes, who deterred both travel along that route and
settlement of the region (Fig. io). At this time settlers were
entering the territory and in the following two decades it was
rapidly settled (Fig. I1). Moreover, the gentle gradient of the
Mohawk made it necessary to expend money on but few places,
and the canal at Little Falls secured tolls on a large stretch of
navigable water. The company actually paid considerable dividends. Meanwhile, a strong agitation had been continued for a
canal connecting the Hudson and Lake Erie. It was delayed by
the War of I812, but under the leadership of DeWitt Clinton,
the canal was begun by the State in I818 and completed in I825.
The geographic conditions were most favourable, and the
building of the canal called for much less engineering ability
and capital than did its less successful rivals, the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal and the Pennsylvania canals. The principal engineering difficulty was at Cohoes, where the canal drops one hundred and eighty-nine feet to the tidal Hudson, and at Lockport,
where it,drops sixty feet over the Niagara escarpment to the
Ontario plain. East of Little Falls, the aggrading Iroquois-Mohawk
had provided a level way, and on the famous Rome level in the old
aggraded plain there is a sixty-mile reach without a lock. The
alluvial deposits of the Mohawk Valley and the glacial and lacustrine soils of the Ontario plain did not offer notable difficulties in
excavation. Indeed, in much of the course the principal difficulty
was in removing the tree roots.
The problem of water supply over the summit level, which was
such an obstacle to the canals in Maryland and Pennsylvania, was
relatively simple in New York. For one hundred and fifty-five
miles east of Buffalo the water for the canal comes from Lake Erie;
the middle stretch from the Seneca River to Little Falls is fed from
the numerous streams that rise in the Allegheny Plateau and flow
northward into the Lake plain and upper Mohawk region; and the


* Hulbert, Great American Canals; Vol. II, p. 36.




26      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


canal from Little Falls to the Hudson is fed largely from the
Mohawk.*
Considering the magnitude of the operations, the canal was
finished with promptness, owing to favourable conditions for construction and also to the ability and vigor with which the enterprise
was pursued.  The canal cost $6,916,402.47,t or an average of
about $20,000 per mile. The favourable physiographic conditions
in the construction of the Erie Canal are emphasized by a comparison with its principal rivals:f


LENGTH.    HEIGHT TO ASCND.AVERAGE COST PE MILE
IN ROUND NUMBERS.
Erie Canal.............       399             5726            $20,000
Penna. Canals & Railroad.     399             2291             41,ooo
Penna. Canal, main line..     277....             30,000
C.-& 0. Canal...........     I84.5            609             6o,ooo


The census maps showed a rapid settlement of the canal zone in
the decades I810-20, especially in the eastern part (Fig. II). It
was in the line of westward movement from New England. The
fertile lands were attractive and the navigable Mohawk gave communication. A notable response to these conditions is the promptness with which the canal was utilized. From 1820 to 1825, when
the canal was opened, the tolls amounted to $577,616-this, of
course, being derived only from local traffic. The sudden magnitude of these local earnings must have surprised even the promoters
of the canal.
THE LARGER HINTERLAND.-With the opening of the Erie Canal
New York City entered upon its modern phase of development. An
extensive and fertile hinterland had been made available which for
thirty years was to be tributary to that city for its export trade.
Under the influence of the canal northwestern New York rapidly
became settled. The fertile soils were given to the production of
wheat for which there was a rapidly enlarging market in the Eastern
States. A foreign market was also opened by the repeal of restrictive English laws.~  Where the Genesee River plunges into a post

* Tenth Census, Vol. IV, Transpoitation Canals, p. 2.
+ Hulbert, Vol. II,, op. cit., pp. 41-72.
t Compiled from Hulbert, Vols. I and IT, and Vol. IV, Tenth Census.
~ W. P. Sterns' "Foreign Commerce of the United States." Journal Political Economy, 8: 490.








A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


27


glacial gorge, the milling city of Rochester grew up as a response to
the wheat belt of the State and to the water power that was available
for milling.*
But the most important thing for New York City was the hinterland west of New York for which the canal was practically the only
export route and New York the only port. The hinterland opened
by the Erie canal extended from the Ontario plains to Wisconsin,
but it was the country south of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan that
was, in particular, tributary to New York during the years I830-50,
o 'Y rA R 
A   HL/A Ott (
~                                            '' IX ==-' ''  0.
a, t.,                                                ____E_____
~ 1,,.
FIG. i8.-Map showing the maximum extension of the glacial lakes in the Indiana-Ohio New York region. The
line A B in Ohio shows the location of the section in Fig. i9.-Leverett and Taylor, Monograph 41,
U. S. Geol. Survey, plate 26.
when the Erie Canal was the principal route to and from this region.
It included most of Ohio, the northern halves of Indiana and Illinois,
southern Michigan, and southeastern Wisconsin.
This is a region of moderate relief, a relief in part resulting from
the glaciation of the region, which filled the pre-glacial valleys with
drift scores and even hundreds of feet deep. The drift, in contrast
with that of New England, is not notably stony. It is largely derived from shales and limestones, and is, in consequence, largely of
fine material suitable for conversion into fertile soil.
The surface, although not level, is smooth in contrast to the
Allegheny Plateau to the east. A study of the recorded elevations


I




* From 1829 to December, I83r, Rochester exported 529,725 barrels of flour. Niles' Register,
39: 334.




28      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


in Ohio shows that over seventy per cent. of them lie between altitudes of 600 and I,ooo feet; in Indiana about fifty per cent. lie between the same altitudes; in Illinois, nearly ninety per cent. of these
altitudes lie between 400 and 700 feet.* These elevations, however,
are largely from readings taken in valleys. The general altitude, as
shown by the large scale topographic maps, is from 500 to I,ooo
feet.
The drainage of this hinterland is for the most part established
on the recent Wisconsin and Illinoian drift and is in the youthful
stage of erosion. The divides are broad and comparatively level,
the valleys generally narrow, and swamps are not infrequent.
tQ
ku~~~~~ o~~~~~
c                             0
I    iL          _____    LadKe Leve/      J-73 ft
FIG. I9.-Diagram to show the relations between shore lines and soils. Profile from Lake Erie near
North Dover, Ohio, southeast to Berea, Ohio. There are three well-marked beaches: North
Ridge, Middle Ridge, and Butternut Ridge. Soil types: (i) DeKalb clay, formed largely by
wave action on shale cliffs. (2) Miami clay loam, consisting largely of drift mingled with
weathered fragments derived from the underlying shale. (3) Dunkirk gravelly loam, a soil
characteristic of the ridges that were beaches of former glacial lakes. (4) A clay soil, consisting
largely of offshore deposits. (5) Wabash loam, alluvial soil deposited on a flood plain.
From the U. S. Soil Survey Report of the Cleveland, Ohio, Area, I905.
The Wisconsin ice in its retreat from the Ohio-St. Lawrence
divide, ponded the waters flowing north from that divide. The result was a series of marginal lakes, a late member of which was Lake
Warren, which has been mentioned before. The maximum extension of some of these lakes is shown in Figure I8. The principal
results of geographic interest of these lakes are: their abandoned
outlets, their beaches, and the fertile lacustrine silts and clays that
accumulated on their bottoms.
The soils of the region are fertile, and their fertility results from
several causes. The soils are mostly of glacial origin and largely
derived from local shale and limestone which are easily comminuted


*The data for the computation are taken from "A Dictionary of Altitudes," Henry Gannett,
U. S. Geological Survey. I899.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


29


and furnish available plant food. The cool climate, the low slopes
and the poorly organized drainage make for the accumulation of
humus, and this, together with the fine material of glacial origin,
produces the rich, black prairie soils. Within the limits of the
marginal glacial lakes are found the very fertile soils composed in
part of lake silts.*
The lake beaches and their accompanying deltas and bars were
available for easy settlement, and the beaches and bars offered good
roads.t The use of these beaches for roads and railroads is well
shown in the topographic maps of the Cleveland region. The immediate offshore deposits, often mingled with clay silts, give a fertile,
warm loam: (Fig. I9). Farther west in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa,
Nebraska and Missouri, the loess soil is more abundant. It gives
rise to an exceedingly fertile soil.~
The climate of the Upper Mississippi Basin is continental. The
hot summers and cold winters give the large temperature range
characteristic of the continental climate. The rainfall is ample and
fairly evenly distributed through the year. It is a climate well
adapted to cereal crops and dairy farming.
The Responses to the Larger Hinterland.
POPULATION AND PRODUCTS.-The responses to the level, fertile
lands with their easy access by canal and lake were rapid. I.n I820
the settlements in this region were grouped along the Ohio River
(see Fig. II), but by I830 northern Ohio and Indiana had filled up
so that they possessed a density of six to forty-five inhabitants per
square mile. As early as 1823 the number of passengers and immigrants landing at New York exceeded not only that of any other
port, but was more than the combined numbers entering Boston,
Philadelphia, and Baltimore (Fig. 20). Until I855 there was no
division of the passengers so as to show the number of immigrants.
Of the immigrants, a large number passed through the Erie Canal
to its tributary territory. In I855 it was estimated that thirty per
cent. of the immigrants landing at New York passed through the
Erie Canal into Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin,


* For example, see the following soil reports: Miami Black Clay Loam, Toledo, O. Area, 1902;
Dunkirk Clay, Ashtabula, O. Area, 1903; Clyde Series, Saginaw, Mich. Area, 1904.
t Geological Survey of Ohio, 1870, p. 322.: For example, the Miami soil series; Toledo Area, 1902; also, the Dunkirk series, Ashtabula Area,
I903.
~ Soil Survey of Winnebago Co., Ill., 1903.




30      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.
and Minnesota.* Prior to that time the percentage must have been
greater, since there were not lines of easy communication from New
York westward other than the Erie Canal until I835. According to
Andrews, the principal work of the boats in Lake Erie at that time
was the transportation of immigrants and their effects westward
from Buffalo.t
The prairie plains of northern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were
easily brought under cultivation and produced bountiful crops, but


i fXO


I       1 ~0


\'%1M


I V16 


I 1C70


'dq O


600o o


a40 -oo


%' o oo(


II~ltllllllllll    I II~l,111~111111 I    111111 - tI I'I I I I I I I I INI I I I li —I'l I[11  I IlI  I I 1T I -   Fl
is oo.oso
i0 LI II I     I  _  1       I I 0,,
FIG. 20.-Total number of passengers arriving each year, 1820 to i855, and total number of immigrants arriving 1856 to i889.
From " Tables of Alien Passengers and Immigrants from 1820 to x888. Treasury Dep't, Bureau
of Statistics, 1889."


the lack of an accessible market made the surplus crop almost superfluous, for the bulky crop would have -its value consumed in transrportation to market. Andrews, writing in 1854, estimated that,
according to the current prices, wheat would have its value consumed
by the cost of wagon transportation in a journey of 330 miles, and


* E. J. Benton. The Wabash Trade Route in the Developmnent ofthe Old North West. Johns
Hopkins University Studies, 21: I, p. 97.
t Israel D. Andrews. Trade and Commerce of the British North A merican Colonies and the
Trade of the Great Lakes and Rivers. Thirty-second Congress, First Session; Executive Document, No. 112. i853 p. 55.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


31


corn in a journey of I70 miles.*     Before the end of the decade
I820-30 it is estimated that the Erie Canal had reduced freights to
the East 66 per cent.t The great wheat-producing region was transferred from western New York to Ohio and later to the westward.
In I830 Rochester imported 200,000 bushels of wheat from Ohio and
her wholesale trade reached to Detroit.t
In 1834 Chicago felt the quickening influence of the canal, and in
two years had multiplied her commerce many fold.~ The spread of
population in Michigan was somewhat slower, but in 1840 immigration into that State had become very active, especially in the southern part. I
THE OHIO CANALS.-The success of the Erie Canal was a stimulus to which the physiographic conditions of the region north of the
Ohio allowed a ready response. The north-south direction of the
river valleys of Ohio and Indiana suggested available canal routes
up to the Ohio-Lake Erie divide, which is of moderate elevation and
has been but little dissected. Moreover, the northern and central portions of those States are deeply covered with drift which was easily
excavated. Five routes were considered, all of which included the
partial canalizing of some of the north-south rivers (Fig. 21). They
were: The Mahoning-Grand River route; the Cuyahoga-Muskingum
route; the Black-Muskingum route; the Scioto-Sandusky route; and
the Maumee-Great Miami route.il Of these, two compromise routes
were authorized in I825. The Ohio and Erie Canal was to pass from
Cleveland up the Cuyahoga Valley over the divide and down the
Scioto Valley to Portsmouth. It was completed in I832.** The
Miami Canal was to pass from Cincinnati northward along the Great
Miami Valley, with the promise of its extension to Toledo in the
near future, which promise was fulfilled in I835. The population
of Ohio was densest in the northeast, south, and southwest parts of
the State, and this population was first served in canal construction.
The favourable conditions of canal construction are reflected in the
* Andrews, ibid., p. 381.
t Sterns, ibid., p. 448.
$ Niles' Register, 39: 139. Quoted from the Rochester Daily Advertiser.
~ Niles' Register, 47; 55.
II Hannah E. Keeth, "An Historical Sketch of Internal Improvements in Michigan, 1836-46."
Publications of the Mich. Pol. Sci. Ass'n., Vol IV, No. i, July, igoo, pp. 9, I2.
~" History of Ohio Canals," C. P. McClelland and C. C. Huntington. Published by the Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical Society. Columbus, O., x905. Most of the facts relating to the
Ohio Canals are taken from this book.
** Andrews, ibid., p. 355.




32       A  Geographic Interpretation of New    York City.
low average cost of construction per mile. According to De Bow,
'the cost and mileage of the Ohio canals were as follows:*
LENGTH.         COST.         PER MILE.
Ohio Canal................  334 mi.    $4,695,203.69     $14,055
Miami Canal.............    85 mi.      1,237,552.16       14,44r
Miami Canal (extension)....  139 mi.    2,856,635.66      20,55I
The average cost per mile was lower than that of the Erie Canal
and much lower than that of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. One


i


FIG. 21.
feature due to the moderately high and comparatively level watershed
in Ohio was more expensive and troublesome than that of the Erie
or Chesapeake and Ohio canals. Large storage reservoirs covering
* De Bow's Review, 3: 133.




A  Geographic Interpretation of New      York City.         33
32,903 acres and costing $I,430,222.07 were necessary to provide
water to carry the canals over the divide.
The system of canals gave the surplus crops of much of Ohio an
available market.* New York was a much better market than the
fluctuating and distant market at New Orleans. Before the completion of the Ohio canals, flour sold at Cincinnati for $3.50 per barrel
and at New York for $8.oo per barrel.t
THE ILLINOIS AND INDIANA CANALS.-As western Ohio and eastern Indiana filled up with settlers, the demand for a southwesterly
connection between Lake Erie and the Ohio grew stronger. Here, as
in the case of the Erie Canal, the physiographic conditions extended
an invitation for such a canal. Some of the early marginal glacial
lakes had an outlet past Fort Wayne, Ind., southwest to the Wabash
(see Fig. 18). The physiographic conditions were even more favourable for this canal than they were for the Erie Canal, but the population was too sparse and the State too poor, promptly to carry the
project through. The canal was building from 1832 to I85I, when
the Wabash was connected with Lake Erie at Toledo. The average
cost was $I6,425 per mile.t
Most of the flour and wheat of Ohio went to the East by the
Lakes and Erie Canal, while the corn and pork went south by the
Ohio River. The movements of flour by the canals at Cleveland
and Toledo are shown in Figures 22 and 23. The maximum movement is seen to be in the decade 1850-60. The maximum revenue
earned by the canals was reached somewhat earlier (Fig. 24). Considerable water power existed near the summit level, and this was
available for manufacture along the canal zone.~ Akron, Massillon,
and other manufacturing towns grew up in response to this water
power.[ 
Prices were equalized, the exports bringing a price determined by
* The width of the zone on each side of the canal through which the canal influence extended
has been estimated at one hundred miles. " History of Ohio Canals," p. 128.
tNiles' Register, April 26, 1817, gives figures illustrating the difference in prices at ports on the
lakes and at interior points.
Price of flour and corn per barrel at:
SANDUSKY.      COLUMBUS.     CIRCLEVILLE.  CHILLICOTHE.
Flour...........  $15.00         $6.oo          $6.50.
Corn.............50.50            37          $0.40
Niles' Register, 12: 144.
* Tenth Census, Vol. IV, Canals, p. 32.
~ In 1839 there was leased from the Ohio canals water to operate 207 pairs of four and a half feet
mill stones. " History of Ohio Canals," p. 133.
I Semple, American History and Its Geographic Conditions, p. 271.




34      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


to)           0             I             u) 0
o00           co            00            o             00C          00


5,000,000
4,500,000
4,000,000
3,500,000
3,000,000
2,500,000
2,000,000
1,500,000:.000,000
500,000


I00,000


FIG. 22.-Graphs showing the number of bushels of
wheat and corn arriving at Cleveland, 1833-60,
and Toledo, I843-60. For each port the graph
represents the total number of bushels of wheat
and corn added together.
From tables in the " History of Ohio Canals."
the foreign rather than the local demand, and the imports bringing
lower prices in consequence of reduced cost of transportation.* In
1851, 90 per cent. of the flour and 50 per cent. of the wheat from
this region was sent to New     York.t    Philadelphia and Baltimore
lost the export trade of the regionS and a zone of country ninety to
one hundred and sixty miles wide was established tributary to the
Erie Canal.~
The last important canal to open up the hinterland of New York
was the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which was opened along the
outlet channel of the glacial Lake Chicago in 1842. It was built
too late to be successful in the developing competition of the railroads, and, of itself, added but little to the tonnage of the Erie
Canal. I


* For instance, wheat at Delphi, Ind., before the opening of the canal brought forty-five cents per
bushel (1840), but two years later it brought one dollar per bushel. Before the opening of the canal
in 1840, salt at the same place cost nine dollars per barrel, but in I842 it cost only four dollars. Benton, ibid, p. Io9.
1 Ibid,, p. 104.     Ibid., p. o05.    ~ Ibid., p. 97.    II Poor's Manual, 1881, p. xxiv,




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


35


INFLUENCE OF THE LARGER HINTERLAND UPON NEW    YORK. -With the
80,000ooo
effective opening of this territory in
the Upper Mississippi Valley, the commercial supremacy of New York was 70,000
for the time assured. The Erie Canal
offered the only practicable outlet to 60,o00
the sea, and New York was the only
point of transfer from the Hudson to 50,000
the Atlantic. In spite of decreasing
tolls (Fig. 25), the revenue of the Erie 
Canal rapidly increased, and by 1845
the canal indebtedness was paid, the
30,000
managers buying in the bonds at 20
per cent. premium.*  In i852 the
canal was enlarged from a width of 20,000
forty feet to seventy feet, and from a
depth of four feet to seven feet. In 10,000
1882 the tolls were abolished. Up to
this time, the total cost of construc-  0
tion had been $49,591,853, and the
expense of maintenance $29,270,30r,
while the revenues were $121,461,871,
thus leaving a surplus of $42,599,718.t


o             o             o
00            00            00


FIG. 23.-Graphs showing
the number of barrels of
flour arriving via the Ohio
Canals at Cleveland, 1833 -60, and Toledo, 1842-60.
From tables in the "History of Ohio Canals."


0     0      0     0      0     0-    0     0
0     '      o     co    0.     o 0   o      o
m          e      o           oo I.        o
H     rid   FQ     H      H     ^     H m


50,000
45,000
40,000
35,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000


I
I
II
I
I   I   I    I
I   I   I    I
I.   I
I   I   A    I
I   I   I   I
I I   I   I   I
I   I   I   I
I   I   I   I
I   I    I  I
I   I   I   I
I   I   I   I
I   I   I   I
I   I   I   I
I   I   I   i
I   I   I   I
I   I   i   I
I   I   I   I
I   I.   I
I   I   -   I.11
-2 -
H


11II


_..   I .   I    I   I. I.   I I   I   I  1- 1...........,.,....  -
---                                 -  IIIIIIII      III
%I I I I I I I I   I I. I I I  I I I I  I LL   ___     ___                               I
i i i i i i i i                     ___                 ____
1111   H ill       I  I j   I  I I I   I  I  E ---
-.......   -.1.........  I   I  _ _ _


-          I     I  I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I. I
I
I
I
I
I I I I
I I I I I
I I I I I
I I I I A
-H-H


I I I
I I I
I
I
\   I
I
 itI
VI
II
II
II
II.II
III,hi
If
ALl




I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I I
I I
I I
I
I I
I I
I I
I I
I
I i
I I.. I I
I I I I
I I
---


I  I  I I I I   I   I
I   I I
I   I I
I   I I
I   Ir
I   I I
I  I I
I  I I
I  I I
I  11 I
I  I, I      I
I  IIII I    I
I  IIII I    I
I  H III I   I   I I
I  I I
I  I I
I  if I.  I I I
I  I I I
I  11 I.    I..............................................


II  1/1
[ i- I/~
T4L't
I z tt


FIG. 24.-Receipts of the Ohio Canals, 1827-I903.
From " History of Ohio Canals," page I70.
*Anmerican Railroad Transportation, E. R. Johnson, I904, p. 30.
t Report on New York Canals, p. 151.




36         A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.
o.o          cs             t             to
oo           00oo        o00           oo            00           00a
F4   H       H            H             H             H~M  


20
10
5


FIG. 25.-Average freight rates per ton on the Erie Canal, I830-1881.
From New York Report on Canals, page 192.


4,000,000
3,500,000
3,000,000
2,500,000
2,000,000
1,500,000
1,000,000
500,000


The through movement of wheat
through the Erie Canal exceeded
the local movement about 1839
(Fig. 26), while the  through
movement of all goods became
predominant about seven years
later (Fig. 27). The graphs tell
the story of the rapidly developing hinterland of New York. If
data were at hand and plotted,
the imports at New York that
were received for this hinterland would doubtless show a like
increase. The nearly contemporaneous increase of immigrants
and passengers entering New
York (see Fig. 20) must be closely
related to the development of
New York's hinterland.
The tonnage cleared at the
port of New York shows a somewhat lagging response to the
increasing through canal traffic
from 1840 to 1848.*  But during that time the tonnage cleared
at New York nearly quadrupled.


FIG. 26.-Movement of flour on
the Erie Canal from " Western States" and from New
York State from I835 to 1853.
One barrel of flour is assumed
to be equivalent to five bushels
of wheat. It is assumed that
all wheat from " Western
States" reached tidewater.
The table, therefore, is of
value chiefly as a comparison
of the movement of wheat
and wheat products during the
time indicated. Solid lineflour from " Western States ";
broken line-flour from New
York State.
Report of Auditor of Canals
of New York, i854, page II.


* Tonnage cleared at New York:
1826......   227,857       1840......   408,768
I830......   243,155        845......  483,525
I835......   366,389       I850......   982,478
Report of the New York Chamber of Commerce, x858, p. I50.


i855...... 1,445,754
I857...... 1,756,44I
i858...... 1,460,998




A Geographic Interpretation of New    York City.       37
cr  0    cc   0    cc   0   c    0    c 
m             n-    1 c   m   o   o  r o   t O
_0  _1   0 '  - - - - I 0~ _- - - - _ 00  _0~ _~  _  _ _2,500,000
2,250,000
2,000,000
1,750,000:: Ai II:1:::: 1:  I  1,500,000
2,250,000
_  2,000,000
750,000
' I^  ---- ------  ------- - i 500,000
250,000
FIG. 27.-Tons arriving at tidewater via Erie Canal from Western
States and from New York State.
From Report on New York Canals, pp. I69-170.
in  0  in   0   cc  0    cc  0        0   m   0
cc o   cc  cc   c   cc   cc  c   c   co o 
H+ i u " n   o  No 1     t-  oo  oo   o 4>    0
oo  oo  o  oo   oo  oo   o   o  o  o  o o o o o o


650,000,000
600,000,000
550,000,000
500,000,000
450,000,000
400,000,000
350,000,000
300,000,000
250,000,000
200,000,000
150,000,000
100,000,000


FIG. 28.-Value of exports and imports of New York, I647-900oo
From reports of the New York Chamber of Commerce.




38        A  Geographic Interpretation of New       York City.
In the decade I850-6o the value of the exports from New
York increased rapidly and reached a point that was not exceeded until nearly twenty years later (Fig. 28). But during that
decade the city had at least three lines of railroad connecting it with
its western hinterland. From 1820 the population curve for the cities
around New York harbour begins to rise faster (Fig. 29), and since
0t   0      0 0    000           0              0   0
8 0           N         m        o         o    &   O
0t oo    oo   oo   oo   O o oo   oo   o o3 T   oo
3,700,000
3,500,000                                                 I I 
3,250,000
3,000,000
2,750,000
2,500,000
2,250,000 --- —
2,000,000
1,750,000 
1,500,000
I,250,000                                 1
1,000,000
750,000
500,000
250,000
FIG. 29.- Population of New York and vicinity, including Brooklyn
and Jersey City, 1790 —1900. The figures for New York and
vicinity, including  Brooklyn, are estimates given in  the  i2th
Census, Vol. I, part I, p. LXXX. The population of Jersey City
is included from 1840 to 1900.
that time New York has led all other ports of entry for passengers
and immigrants (see Fig. 20).
The close of the period of predominant canal influence in the
United States, say, about I855, found New York with a monopoly of




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


39


the trade of the Upper Mississippi Basin, which had become populous and wealthy. (Figs. 30 and 3I.) It was estimated that in I850,
5,403,595 persons, occupying 26,I99,050 acres of improved land,
were dependent on that port for much of their export and import


S.     *'.'
FIG. 30.-Population map in i840. The dotted areas indicate a population
of 18 to 45 per square mile, the lined areas a population of 45 to 90, and
the dark areas a population of over 90.
From the Statistical Atlas, I2th Census.


FIG. 31.-Map showing the territory estimated to be tributary to
the Erie Canal in 1854 (the dotted area). From the Annual
Report of the State Engineer of the Canals of New York, i854.
trade.*      The City of New York at that time had a population of
515,547; Philadelphia of 340,045; Boston of 136,811, and Baltimore
of 169,054.
* Report of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1862, p. 207.




40      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.
THE RAILROADS AND NEW YORK.-The period of about twentyfive years from the opening of the Erie Canal was one of great
activity in canal building. Hundreds of miles were built, but most
of the canals were to be abandoned before they could be brought to
a paying basis. In most cases the competition of the railroad was
the cause of the failure of the canal. The success of the English
canals, which had been a strong incentive to canal construction
in America, had been largely achieved before the effective building
and operation of the railroads.  By I880, out of a total of 4,468.6
miles of canal built in the United States-most of them built prior
to i850-1,953.56 miles or 43.7 per cent. had been abandoned.*
It was fortunate for New York City that its supremacy did not
rest on the great canal alone. The first railroads were not thought
of as competitors of the canal for freight.  They were built for
passenger traffic. t
Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, the principal rivals of New
York, saw in the railroad an opportunity to overcome that city's
advantage of interior communications. The railroad could climb
grades and cross divides that were impossible to the canal and
often their initial cost was less.  We have seen that Pennsylvania
completed in 1834 a line of railroad and canal from Philadelphia to
Pittsburg.  In I857 the State sold the system to the Pennsylvania
Railroad for $7,000,00 o.  This railroad had paralleled the canal
and absorbed its traffic. The Appalachian Ridges and the Eastern
Alleghany Plateau through which the easterly state system ran was
not densely populated nor productive.  The resources of coal and
iron contained in this region were not early developed.
The merchants of Baltimore looked with suspicion upon the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal project, since its terminus was not at
Baltimore, and in 1828 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was begun.
Like the Pennsylvania system, it must cross the Appalachian
Ridge belt and the Eastern Alleghany Plateau. The interest of the
* See tables, census of i88o, Vol. IV, Canals.
t This is shown by the receipts of two early roads. Receipts from the system that afterwards
became the New York Central:
PASSENGERS. FREIGHT.
i843....... 1,008,026  103,093
I858...........  2,532,647  3,995,766
1902...........  19,183,000  35,939, I
Receipts from the Erie Railroad:
I851........  1,63,536  1,196,337
i858.........  1, 82,258  3 969,358
From Report of N.Y. Cham. of Corn., p. 58, and Statistics of Railways in the U. S., 1902, pp. 358-9.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


41


city and State in the project is shown in the fact that Baltimore
subscribed $3,500,000 and the State of Maryland $4,000,000 to the
capital stock.   The State, moreover, according to the charter,
released the corporation from all taxation in perpetuity.* The road
tapped the coal regions of the State and gave cheap and effective
transportation for Maryland's flour and tobacco, but by 1852, when
it reached Wheeling, it could not to any extent divert the grain
trade that went to New York.
The railroad from Boston to Albany was completed in I842.      It
could not effectively compete with the navigable Hudson in offering
a route from the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal to the seaboard.
In contrast with these energetic measures, New York did little to
secure a through line of railroad to her hinterland. The early and
successful growth of such a connection was largely in response to
geographical advantages. The fertile lands along the Erie Canal
located a dense population, while the cheap raw materials, excellent transportation facilities and good Western market, were responsible for the growth of manufacturing centres, in spite of the
lack of convenient coal supplies. The railroads of the canal belt
therefore originated to supply local demands, and they show a progressive growth from east to west. The easy grades and productive
territory are shown in the cheap construction and good returns of
the roads through the Mohawk Valley and Lake Plains.t
In contrast with the railroad development from Albany to Buffalo, the road up the narrow and relatively infertile Hudson Valley
grew slowly and did not reach Albany until 1851 (Fig. 32). Philadelphia and Baltimore had in the meantime become centres for radiating lines by which their local hinterlands were reached (Fig. 33).
The value and population of the canal belt are shown by a
comparison of the counties lying in or near this valley.        The
grouping of counties given below follows that of the New York
* "Hepburn Report," Vol. V, p. 23.
COMPLETED LENGTH  TOTAL    AVERAGE  NET
t                    IN MILES.     COST.       MIL. CE
PER MILE. CENT.
Albany &  Schenectady......  I831....  16.91  $i,606,I96  $94,985  6.2
Utica & Schenectady........  i836....  78.  3,222,946  41,384  I6.4
Syracuse &  Utica...........  1839....  54.8  1,968,036  37,273  13. 
Auburn & Syracuse.........  I838....  26.  1,I25,886  43,303  9. 
Auburn &  Rochester........  841....  78.  2,644,520  33,904  Io.
Rochester & Tonawanda.....  838....  43.5  974,865  22,410  I8.2
Attica &  Buffalo............  838....  31.5  821,3I3  26,073  10.3
Buffalo &  Niagara Falls....  1838....  22.  250,396  11,38I  14.2
350.71
"Transportation Systems of the United States," J. L. Ringwalt, i888, p. I27.;,,,,  ' },js




42      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


FIG. 32.-Railroads built by i840.
Coman, " Industrial History of the United States," p. 235.


FIG. 33.-Railroads built by i850:
Coman, " Industrial History of the United States," p. 238.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


43


Committee on Canals, I899. The so-called canal counties are as
follows:
Albany,    Genesee,      Monroe,    Ontario,    Schenectady,
Cayuga,    Herkimer,     Niagara,   Orleans,    Seneca,
Erie,      Livingston,   Onondaga,  Oswego,    Wayne,
Fulton,    Montgomery,   Oneida,    Saratoga,  Wyoming.
The non-canal counties are:
Allegany,    Chautauqua, Cortland,  Schoharie,  Tioga,
Broome,      Chenango,   Delaware,  Schuyler,   Tompkins,
Cattaraugus, Chemung,    Otsego,    Steuben,    Yates.
The figures showing a comparison of the two sets of counties are
as follows, according to the census reports:
VALUE OF FARMS WITH           NUMBER OF   NUMBER OF
IMPROVEMENTS AND  POPULATION.  ACRES       ACRES
IMPLEMENTS.                IMPROVED.  UNIMPROVED.
Canal Counties:
I850..........   $231,967,I83      932,585   4,606,579   1,935,413
58o..........     452,557,446    1,404,795  6,261,385   1,518,980
I900.........     368,773,030    1,838,602  5,549,580   I,582,010
Non-Canal Counties:
I850..........     119,I48,862     539,711   3,238,974   2,370,821
i88o..........     247,056.192     634,883   5,099,9I8   I,881,560
1900..........     222,833,910     685,750   4,834,012   1,878,622
The canal counties in 1900 contained nearly three times the
population of the non-canal counties, about one-third more value
in farms, and in the former region the proportion of improved to
unimproved land is three and one-half, while in the latter region
the proportion is two and two-thirds.
The completion of the New York Central and Hudson River
roads and of the Erie at the time of active development of railroads in the Upper Mississippi Valley, gave New York a somewhat
brief continuation of the practical monopoly of the export and
import trade of that region so far as the trade tended eastward,
which that city had enjoyed from the Erie Canal. And when the
Pennsylvania and    the Baltimore and Ohio systems finally completed connections with the Upper Mississippi Valley in the decade
between 1850 and i86o, they were compelled by the preeminence
of New York, to fix rates for, and compete for, transportation to
that port.
In 1839 was begun the part of a series of railroads that in 1853
became the railroad connection between Chicago and Buffalo.
Partly by State aid and partly by individual corporations the road
was built as separate units, and was finally united in the Lake
Shore and Michigan Southern. The route, following the narrow




44      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


plain at the foot of the Alleghany escarpment, used many of the
beach ridges in Ohio and crossed the prairie plains of Indiana and
Illinois to Chicago.  It intersected the north-south roads that had
previously been built. In four years, x856-59, the road doubled
its traffic, and in the twenty-four years, from i856 to i88o, its
traffic increased thirty-two fold in spite of decreasing rates.*
New York was also the terminus of the Erie, the second line of
railroad to cross the Alleghany Plateau, but the building of the Erie
Road was in defiance of geographic conditions rather than in conformity thereto. The Erie Railroad was chartered in 1832, and a
company organized in I833. The promoters, possibly deceived by
the ease of building and good returns of the roads in the Mohawk
Valley, at first estimated the cost at only $3,000,000, but it was
not opened to Dunkirk, on Lake Erie, until twenty years later.
The route led across the Appalachian ridges, and was transverse
to the general north-south courses of the valleys in the Alleghany
Plateau (Fig. 34). Moreover, its tributary territory was largely
the dissected Alleghany Plateau, without people or products to
make the road profitable. Like most of the other early transAppalachian roads south of the Mohawk, the Erie was in part
built with State aid. 
F'-  \~ I. Y CEITRAL and HUDSON RIV/ER liR 
FIG. 34.-Profiles of the Erie and the New York Central Railroads.
"Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor of New York, 1905."
In all comparisons in which physiographic features are a factor,
the preeminence of the Mohawk-Lake Plains route is evident.
Taking the early trunk lines, their grades give a fair indication of
ease of construction, as the following table indicates:
SUM OF ASCENTS. TOTAL LENGTH.  LEVEL TRACK.
Feet.        Miles.       Miles.
New York Central, New York to
Buffalo......................  1,695.5I    440.32      211.52
Erie Railroad, New York to Dunkirk................   4,233.70      460.03      Io9.47
Pennsylvania, Harrisburg to Pittsburg.........................  2,959.23   247.51       42.77 j
* " Poor's Manual," I88i, p. 517.
t "Tenth Census," Vol. IV, Table X.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.  45


The cost per mile of various railroads brings out the advantage
of the Mohawk-Lake Plains route, as will appear from the following
comparisons: New York, Buffalo to Albany, about $24,000; Erie,
New York to Dunkirk, $60,ooo; Pennsylvania, Harrisburg to Pittsburg, $50,000; Baltimore and Ohio, Baltimore to Wheeling, $47,000.
In the thirties New York was connected with Philadelphia both
by canal and railroad, the route of both being in large part the
Cretaceous lowland.
While the railroads in the Mohawk Valley and Lake Plain were
developing, the same geographic factors in the Ohio region that
invited the building of canals
were making for the construc-       -  g    I          a
M oo o  co          oo
tion of railroads. By i840 a few
short lines reached from Lake   8% 
ports into the interior (Fig. 32).
But soon the easy grades and    70%
dense population of Ohio hastened the building of railroads.  6o% 
The railroads followed the northsouth direction of the rivers and  50%
canals. In 1848 the Mad River
Railroad connected Sandusky on  40%         E
Lake Erie and Dayton, where
there was also canal connection 
with Toledo and Cincinnati. Ins 
I846 the Little Miami connected
Springfield and Cincinnati, and   % ' 
in I851 Cleveland and Cincinnati
were connected.  In 1854 the    Io%
Chicago and Rock Island Rail-    5%
road reached the   Mississippi o
River.  This road diverted to
River. This road diverted to  FIG. 35.-Percentage of total tonnage
the Lake traffic much of the         in New York carried by canals.
trade that formerly went down        New York Report on Canals," p. i81.
the Mississippi.*
In the decade from 1840 to I85o the Ohio canals felt the rapidly
growing competition of the railroads, and their traffic fell off in
a marked degree. The Erie Canal in the next decade felt the
same competition. In 1864 the railroad tonnage in NewYork for the
first time exceeded the canal tonnage. After i865 the percentage of
tonnage carried by the Erie Canal decreased rapidly (Fig. 35).
* "Poor's Manual," i88r, pp. xxiii-iv.:i
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46        A   Geographic Interpretation of New         York City.
The   reason   for this decline in canal traffic in all parts of the
United States lay in the growing efficiency of the railroads as compared with that of the canals. Canal movement is slow, and because of their location in northern latitudes, the principal canals
of the United States are frozen for several months each year when
the movement of agricultural products is most active.*
0           C          0           0
o           o          o oo                    o
Cents.
4
4    ' t Ii  [!fl'1i l  I  IIIT  I   Il  I II1:1 1 11  I I'i  I1[I1
-1 1A1I1-11111110111X1111X 1111111 11
3
FIG. 36.-Average freight rates per ton-mile for fve-year periods on
three groups of railroads: I. The Fitchburg, Boston & Maine; New
York, New Haven & Hartford, and the Boston & Albany. II. The
The Illinois central, chicago & Alton, and the Rock Island.
III. The Erie, New York central & Hudson River, Lake Shore
& Michigan Southern, and the Pennsylvania.
From Tables in "changes in the Rates of iharge for Railroad and
Other Transportation Services, by H. T. Newcomb, goI.
The railroads have been       increasing the size of their cars and
the tonnage of their l oads. IUp to     85   the maximum     train loadin 
York, New Haven & Hartford, and the Boston & Albany. II. The
The Illinois Central, Chicago & Alton, and the Rock Island.
III.on the New  York Central was 200 tons or about three or four boat
loads at that time.  In i h88o the freight train loads averaged about
Other Transportation Services,"I by H. T. Newcomb, 1901.
loads at that time.     In 1880 the freight train loads averaged about
1,ooo tons. At that time the maximum barge capacity was about
240 tons.    Since then train loads of 2,000 tons are not uncommon.
* The average dates of the opening and closing of the Erie Canal are given as follows:




AVERAGE CLOS- AVERAGE OPENING DATE.      ING DATE.
Albany..............   Nov. 15        Mar. 30
Buffalo..............  Dec. 12        Apr. 9
Erie Canal...........   Dec. 5         Apr. 27
Report of the U. S. Waterway Commission.






A Geographic Interpretation of New York City..


47


Moreover, railroads are adaptable.  They can be extended to tap
almost any region, and when freight is in the car the tendency is
for it not to leave the car in which it is loaded until the destination
is reached.
THE GREAT LAKES.-We have seen that the Lake route and
the Erie Canal turned the export trade of much of the northern
Mississippi Valley to New York.  The all-water route to the seaboard had another far-reaching economic effect when the railroad
period came in; an effect, on the whole, still favouring New York,
but not so partially as before the advent of the railroads.
The Great Lakes are
navigable for vessels of           o                         8
considerable draught from   Cents.
Buffalo to Duluth.   This     30
waterway, probably    the 
best inland water route in    25   \-    
the world, has an exceed-            i
20.. -  -
ingly important economico-                   X i_
geographic influence in its    5
effect on freight rates, a.I. ~     = X.
factor that often makes or    10o                 ~ 
unmakes commercial cen-.:..
ters. The advantage of a       s 
free water route is that
competition is open and           FIG. 37.-Freight rates on wheat per bushel,the tendency istowarsthe,in five-year periods, I868-i898.
the tendency is towards the  '" Report on New York Canals," p. i9o.
maintenance of low freight
rates. The competition, both active and potential, of the Lake
route with the railroads which parallel it has made long-distance
freight rates in that region the lowest in the world.* The effectiveness of water competition is brought out in a study of three groups
of roads that may be taken as examples (Fig. 36). One group has its
direction approximately parallel to the Lakes, another is roughly
perpendicular to the trend of the Lakes, and the third is in New
England, where water competition is not important and hauls are
* The rates since 1868 are given as follows:
LAKE AND  LAKE AND
ALL RAIL.   RAIL.    CANAL.
I868..............  30.49  20.76    I7.33
i88o............. 9.9o 0  5.70     13.27
1890.............. I 4.31  8.50    6.72
1898..............  II.55  5.40     4.82
" Report on New York Canals," p. i90.




48      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


relatively short. The low freights on the railroads in competition
with the Lake route must be due largely to water competition.
The same tendency is shown in Fig. 37, where the canal rates are
a factor. Moreover, it is probable that the actual railroad rates
were often lower than the published rates shown in the graphs,
or the rail roads could
Barrels of                          not have secured so large
Flourin  ' ~         cfm        8
Millions. 'I   o '? X     a portion of the traffic or
competed so successfully
4  _ ___________ileven during the navigation season.*
z EzIII-mVI, i: ZThe effective competition of the railroad with
3
the canal prceded that
of the railroad with the
2 _:::::::::::::^:       Lake route.  Prior to  the
seventies the Lakes were
the favourite route for
I           V_:::I:::::::::: __grain shipments.   As is
usually the case, the manufacturedproductof greater
o.          E I 1111 1 1 1 I:::::: value for given weight
passed to railroad carriage
FIG. 38.-East-bound shipments of flour from  passed to railroad carriage
Chicago in five-year periods, i860-I900.  before the raw material.
Tunell's " Statistics of Lake Commerce," p. 53.  In the sixties flour shipments eastward by rail began, and continued to exceed those by boat (Fig. 38). About 1873
the railroads became strong competitors for east-bound wheat
shipments (Fig. 39), and in 1876 a considerable portion of corn
shipments passed to railroad carriage.t
Much of this grain movement by railroad centers upon New
York and makes that port the principal port of grain export in the
United States. So long as the water'route is an actual or potential competitor of the railroads, the railroads will be compelled to
make rates to move freight to New York.
The easy pathway by the Lakes to the Sea was retroactive in
its effects. The growing population in the hinterland of New York
not only sent an increasing export tonnage to New York, but it
became a consumer of a rapidly increasing tonnage of imports.


* George G. Tunell, "Statistics of Lake Commerce"; 55th Congress, 2nd Session, Document
No. 277, 1898, p. 36.
t Tunell, ibid., page 54.




A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


49


To a considerable extent, exports
things being equal, ships will bring
they can best secure a
Bushels in
return tonnage. The pre-   Millions.
eminence of New York,
therefore, as the leading
port of import in the
United States, grows out
of her export trade. 
25


control imports, and, other
their cargo to the port where




THE   MINOR GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS.-The
discussion heretofore has
been given mainly to the
larger hinterland of New
York, upon which the
supremacy of the city
has been founded. Minor factors have been important, although, with
the excellent route from
the city to the interior,
it is probable that the
export trade along that
route would have located
a great export port in the
vicinity of New York,
had its local advantages been


20
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FIG. 39.-East-bound shipments of wheat from
Chicago by rail and by lake from I860 to 19oo.
Tunell's "Statistics of Lake Commerce," p. 53.
of the poorest for commerce.


THE HARBOUR.-An ideal harbour should afford: (i) anchorage
and easy movement for the largest vessels; (2) easy access to the
sea; (3) moderately deep water near the shore for convenient and
easy wharfage; (4) protection from waves and winds; (5) easy
fortification; (6) freedom from ice.*
The same continental sinking that drowned the Hudson also
produced Long Island Sound. This waterway, with its tributary
estuaries on the north, afforded a protected course for the early
traffic between New York and southern New England. The lower
Hudson, which, with the East River, constitutes the harbour of
Greater New York and Jersey City, has an extent and depth sufficient for many times its present commerce. The depth of this fine


i
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ii
i:


* "The Organization of Ocean Commerce," J. R. Smith, 1905, p. 124.




50      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


harbour is of increasing importance, for the tendency of modern
commerce is toward ships of larger and larger draught.
The opening of a harbour to the sea is a vital and often troublesome factor. The success or failure of a modern harbour often
depends upon its accessibility to the vessels of deep draught which
modern commerce demands. A common difficulty with an estuary
harbour, such as that of New York, is the bar across the channel
that is built where the outward flowing river loses its carrying
power. Several features in New York harbour reduce this difficulty. The H.udson River carries but little silt. It has been mentioned before that its catchment basin is below the average for
rivers of the same length.   The Mohawk and Upper Hudson
deposit most of their load far above the harbour, shortly after
reaching tide water. Moreover, the Hudson is narrow and the
flood and ebb tides are strong. The ebb tide through the narrows
has cut the main channel leading to the city, and the passage of the
ebb and flood tides past Sandy Hook has extended that channel
seaward.* The most serious menace to the harbour is the load
which the shore currents are bringing northward along the coast
of New Jersey. They tend to extend Sandy Hook across the harbour mouth. There is also some shore drift from the Long Island
shore. t
A comparative measure of the value of this tidal scour is found
in the dredging expenses of various harbours. According to the
records of the House documents from I895 to 1903 the expenditures for harbours, largely for dredging and clearing, were as
follows:
New York.................................... $I,035,300.00oo
Philadelphia...................................  2,7I,000ooo.oo
Delaware Breakwater..........................., I85,000.00
Boston.........................................  1,501,68.75
Baltimore...............................  470,000.00
New  Orleans.................................  I,404,845.30
The showing is very favourable to New York Harbour. If the
Delaware Breakwater expenses are added to those of Philadelphia,
the expense of that port is nearly four times as great as that of
New York.
The comparative freedom from silt and the strong tidal scour in
the Hudson and East Rivers, together with the drowning of the
region, afford deep water near the shore. This factor makes easy
* L. M. Haupt, " Changes along the New Jersey Coast." Annual report of the New Jersey
Geological Survey, 1905, p. 83.
+ Haupt, ibid., p. 79.






A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


51


the building of piers and also permits the vessels to lie at right.
angles to the shore, thus saving shore space and allowing commerce to concentrate*. Thus the enormous commerce of the city
is concentrated at the lower end of Manhattan Island and along
the opposite shores in New Jersey and Long Island. The rental of
wharfage privileges yields to the city over $2,000,000 per year.t
THE TERMINAL MORAINE.-The terminal moraine which crosses
at the Narrows, besides accentuating the tidal scour by narrowing
the channel, furnishes sites for easy fortification. The narrow entrance to Long Island is another factor of the same sort, and the
projecting Sandy Hook is utilized for the purposes of fortification.
The Highlands, the Triassic Trap Ridges on the north, and the
terminal moraine on Long Island give some protection from wind.
Ice does not interfere, to any extent, with the traffic of the harbour,
as the water is too salt for easy freezing, both in the harbour and in
the tributary Hudson.
THE COAL FIELDS.-The anthracite and bituminous coal fields
of Pennsylvania are an exceedingly important factor in the development of modern New York. Cheap and good fuel, together with
excellent transportation facilities to the coal fields, have aided in
making New York a leading manufacturing as well as commercial
city.  New York has also a large coastwise coal trade. 
THE GEOGRAPHIC-SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS.-The preceding discussion has dealt with what may be called the physical
geographic features of New York. Another phase of the city's
geographic development may be considered under the head of
social factors. They deal not so much with the influence of physical factors as the influence of man upon man. Here the distinction
between influence dependent upon earth control and those ejmanating from complex social causes is not clear.
MANUFACTURES.-Given any cause for a city, whether, like St.
Petersburg, it originates in a royal edict, a fortified site, as Rome,
or a situation favourable for commerce, as New York, and a population of diversified occupations will gather. The primary occupations of a modern city are manufacturing and commerce, but a host
of subsidiary trades and occupations grow up. A compilation from
* Smith, Ibid., p. 125.
t Municipal Affairs, 1898, p. 2.
* In i904 the following shipments took place:
ANTHRACITE  BITUMINOUS
New  York..........................  7,647,432T  19.340,002 T
Philadelphia......................  3,306,846 T  5,066,386 T
Baltimore............................  217,705 T,892,740 T


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52      A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


*the census of g9oo shows the importance of trade and manufactures
in four cities.
Percentage of persons engaged in trade and transportation:
Greater New York........... 35 per cent. of total working population.
Philadelphia.................  24     "            (a
Boston...................... 34  "  " 
Chicago.........    32   "      "            (
Percentage of persons engaged in manufacturing and mechanical arts:
Greater New York.......... 37 per cent. of total working population.
Philadelphia................. 41r  "   ( 
Boston.....................  32  "  "             (
Chicago..................... 35  "    "            (
The modern commercial city tends to become a manufacturing
center.   Good transportation, concentration of capital, access to
markets, are factors.    Many goods are best manufactured at the
place of meeting of their constituent materials.       The exports for
1900 had 35.6 per cent. of products manufactured in the city and
its immediate environs.* New York is thus seen to be the greatest
manufacturing as well as the greatest commercial city in the United
States.   Including the adjoining counties with the cities, the following figures of the value of manufactures are given in the
Twelfth Census:
Greater New York and vicinity............... $1,798,020, 115.00
Chicago               (................  I,004,414,962.00
Philadelphia    i"    "...............   732,137,957.00
Boston           ((...............   576,705,204.00
The influence of the variety of imports and exports at New York
is reflected in the manufacturing. There is no predominating
manufacturing industry. The number of establishments is large
and the capital invested in each establishment is relatively small.
These conclusions are readily inferred from the following
figures, as to the number of manufacturing establishments: t
Greater New York and Jersey City..................... 38,846
Philadelphia........................................ 15,887
Chicago.............................................  19,203
CAPITAL PER  WAGE EARNERS PER VALUE OF PRODUCT
ESTABLISHMENT.  ESTABLISHMENT. PER ESTABLISHMENT.
Greater N.Y. and Jersey City.  $24,748          Ir.9          $35,894
Philadelphia...............  29,994          I5.5           38,803
Chicago....................    27,805         I3.6           46,333
* " The Erie Canal and Transportation ": E. P. North, North A merican Review, January, I9oo.
t "Twelfth Census," Vol. VIII, Part I.




A Geographic Interpretation of New   York City..


53


The following list includes the principal articles in the manufacture of which New York stands first, according to the reports of
the Twelfth Census:
Newspapers and periodicals.   Hats and caps.
Printing and publishing.      Men's clothing, factory product.
Bookbinding.                  Women's clothing, "  (
Shipbuilding.                 Brooms and brushes.
Shirts.                       Coffee and spice roasting.
Wholesale slaughtering.       Cordage and twine.
Soaps.                        Malt liquors.
Cigars and cigarettes.        Musical instruments.
Steam fittings.               Patent medicines.
Men's furnishing goods.       Foundry and machine-shop products.
These industries are founded upon a large consuming population, a supply of varied materials, cheap fuel and, probably most
of all, upon the abundant and cheap labour.  This latter factor, a
result of dense population, is common to all cities, but in this case
it is, perhaps, accentuated by the fact that the city is on an island
and the population can not easily avoid congestion by spreading to
suburbs.  Moreover, the position of New York, as the principal
port of immigration, produces a constant surplus of cheap labour.
TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION.-Perhaps the most spectacular
factor in the growth of a commercial city is the break in transportation which usually occurs.* The freight from the river and
railroads at New York is transferred to vessels for the coastwise
or foreign trade. A mere transfer of goods without change of
ownership will cause a considerable concentration of population,
but the place where a transfer both of goods and ownership occurs
must be a commercial center. t Merchants, brokers, bankers, and
others, are required to handle the transfer, and their presence
requires a still larger body of workers of other classes.
It is interesting to note that early Dutch colonists realized the
value to their town of this transfer. During Van Twiller's administration, all vessels touching at New Amsterdam were required to
unload and and reload or transfer; if this were not done a heavy
toll was imposed. This transfer located a class of merchants and
traders and doubtless contributed not a little to the prosperity of
the town.t The mere value of a physical transfer to vessels is seen
in the statement, made in I90o, that every ship that clears from
New York has caused the expenditure of from $2,000 to $2o,ooo.~


"1
l
i!
is


* The Theory of Transportation, C. H. Cooley, p. 91.
+ The Growth of Cities, A F. Weber, 1905, p. 73.: Memorial History of New York, p. I9s, Vol. i, Wilson.
~ " Harper's Weekly," Dec. 2r, I9ox, The CommercialLosses of New York.




54'     A Geographic Interpretation of New York City.


It would be interesting to know how much of the five hundred
million dollars' worth of exports from New York are transferred in
ownership, but no statistics showing this have been found. However, an idea can be gained from the statistics given in the Board
of Trade Reports of the city of Chicago. Taking the mean of the
years, 1875, i880, 1885, I890, it appears that the following percentages of the entire shipments east from Chicago are billed direct to
Europe on through bills of lading:
Wheat......................................8.3 per cent.
Flour.......................................... 9. i per cent.
Corn.........................................  6.7  per  cent.
In view of these facts, it seems reasonable to believe that at
least 80 per cent. of the breadstuffs change ownership at the exporting port. This for the twenty years, I886-1905, would give an
annual change in ownership of breadstuffs alone amounting in
value to $30,ooo,ooo.* Assuming that half the annual exports and
imports at New York change ownership, it would involve a business
of $500,000oo000, a sum which would account for that city's being
the financial center of the country.
The imports at New York considerably exceed the exports, and
their value is over half of the total value of the imports of the
United States. This excess of imports clearly arises primarily from
the use of the port for exports. Exports in a measure control
imports. The cheap water route westward from New York not
only furnishes cheap rates, but by its potential competition, keeps
down freight rates on railroads. The concentration of railroads
and canal at New York has made the port a great point of export,
and this in turn has provided facilities for imports.
The commercial growth, therefore, of New York is due primarily to its easy route to the interior. The splendid harbour and
adjacent coal fields are important factors, the latter allowing the
great development of manufactures that normally occurs in a commercial centre. The Mohawk pass offered an easy gradient, and
the Mohawk Valley and Iroquois Plain offered inducements for a
dense population. From the ease of construction and the demand
of the inhabitants of the region came the impetus for canal and
railroad building. The rapidly developing interior found a path
for its exports and imports by way of the Lake, railroads and canal,
and the transfer at the harbour built up a commercial and financial


* For the twenty years, 1886-1905, the average annual value of the exports of wheat from New
York was $20,991,033; of flour, $17,431,794.
Tables in the " Report of the N. Y. Chamber of Commerce," 1905-6.


-




A Geographic Interpretation of Nezu York City.


55


metropolis. The same facilities that invited exports to New York
provided a way for imports, and the one invites the other. The
presence of a trading class is retroactive and requires the presence
of other classes, and this tends to build up a city.    Excellent
transportation, the supply of varied materials for manufactures,
convenient coal and cheap labour have given to Greater New York
great and varied manufactures.
There is some evidence that the momentum which New York
has enjoyed because of easy access to the interior is somewhat
decreasing.  New Orleans and Galveston have become competitors
for the interior grain export trade.  The other Atlantic ports have
increased their export trade.  From I868 to 1899 the percentage of
the entire export values of the United States that passed through
New York has shown a uniform annual relative decline of about
eight per cent.-a decline small, and, perhaps, to be expected, but
which, if continued, will diminish the lead of New York in export
values, and, therefore, will tend to decrease the imports at that
port, relatively at least.  Moreover, the exports of grain in which
the port of New York formerly was so prominent have shown a
marked relative decrease in the last thirty years, as is shown by the
following figures from the Report of the New York Produce
Exchange from 1902-3, page 28:
New York's percentage of flour, wheat and corn exported from
the six principal Atlantic ports:
FLOUR.     WHEAT.     CORN.
PER CENT.  PER CENT.  PER CENT.
I873-82............................  70.42  63.35  47.70
I883-92............................  46.06   60.22      46.57
I893-I902............................  38. 4  48.33      28.16
'892
New  York...........................  32.48    38.50      24.71
Boston..............................  7.05     I6.31       6.5I
Philadelphia..........................  I9.74  I7.o0I      9.62
Baltimore............................  24.07  I8.25     36.44
Norfolk..............................  1.36.25       3. I
Newport News.......................  I5.30     9.68       9.59


i
ii


The business men of New York realize the danger and, largely
through their efforts, the citizens of New York State, in 1903,
voted to enlarge the Erie Canal so as to allow the passage of barges
of one thousand tons capacity.  It is hoped by this increased
capacity to restore to the Erie Canal something of its old impor



7


656       A   Geographic Interpretation of New       York City.
tance. Whether the plan will succeed is an exceedingly interesting
economico-geographic question, the solution of which rests with the
future.
Henry Hudson      discovered   a northwest passage, the value of
which he could not foresee; a passage which, indeed, located a
great city, but whose greatest value is the opportunity which it 
gave to the inhabitants of the hinterland of that city. 
* 1
*I
BIBLIOGRAPHY.                                  1
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COMAN, KATHARINE. Industrial History of the United States. I905.            l
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GULLIVER, F. P. Shore-line Topography. Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sciences, 
Vol. XXXIV, No. 8, Jan., I899.
HART, A. B. The Rise of American Cities. Quar. Jour. Econ., 4:I29. 
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HAZARD'S REGISTER. Vol. V.
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.A Gcographic Interpretation of New York City.


57 


g  MMASTER.J. B. History of the United States. Vol. III, 1905.
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IRATZEL, F. Politische Geographie der Vereinigten Staaten. I893.
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' RINGWALT, J. L. Transportation Systemsof the United States. t888.
SEMPLE, ELLEN C. American History and its Geographic Conditions.  1903.
SMITH, J. R. The Organization of Ocean Commerce. I905.
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8:490.
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Bull. 117.
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WILSON, JAMES G. Memorial History of New York. I893.
il


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