NEW YORK.
Early History of New York.--During the Revolution.--
Evacuation Day.--Bowling Green.--Wall Street.--Stock Exchange.--
Jacob Little.--Daniel Drew.--Jay Cooke.--Rufus Hatch.--The
Vanderbilts.--Jay Gould.--Trinity Church.--John Jacob Astor.--
Post-Office.--City Hall and Court House.--James Gordon
Bennett.--Printing House Square.--Horace Greeley.--Broadway.--
Union Square.--Washington Square.--Fifth Avenue.--Madison
Square.--Cathedral.--Murray Hill.--Second Avenue.--Booth's
Theatre and Grand Opera House.--The Bowery.--Peter Cooper.--
Fourth Avenue.--Park Avenue.--Five Points and its Vicinity.--
Chinese Quarter.--Tombs.--Central Park.--Water Front.--
Blackwell's Island.--Hell Gate.--Suspension Bridge.--Opening
Day.--Tragedy of Decoration Day.--New York of the Present and
Future.
Less than three hundred years ago the narrow strip of territory now
occupied by what its wide-awake and self-asserting citizens delight to
term "The Metropolis of the New World," was a broken and rugged
wilderness, which the foot of white man had never trod, not, at least,
within the memory of its then oldest inhabitants, a few half-naked
savages of the Manhattan tribe, from whom the island derives its name of
Manhattan. In 1609 Henry Hudson, an English navigator in the service of
the Dutch East India Company, landed near the present site of the
Battery, securing, by right of discovery, the territory to the States of
the Netherlands. Dutch traders soon followed, and in 1614 a small fort
and four houses were erected in the neighborhood of what is now Bowling
Green. The infant metropolis was christened New Amsterdam, and Peter
Minuits sent out, in 1626, as its first Governor. He purchased the
island from its native owners, for goods, about twenty-four dollars in
value. Minuits was recalled in 1631, his successors being Wonter Von
Twiller, 1633; William Krift, 1638; and Peter Stuyvesant, 1647. In 1644
a fence was built nearly along the line of what is now Wall street, and
in 1653 palisades and breastworks, protected by a ditch, were added
along this line. These palisades remained in existence until near the
beginning of the present century.
Peter Stuyvesant was the last of the Dutch Governors. In 1664 Charles
II, of England, gave the territory to his brother James, Duke of York,
and an expedition was sent out under the command of Colonel Richard
Nicholls, to take possession of it. The fort was easily captured, and
the name of the settlement changed to New York. In 1673 the town was
recaptured by the Dutch, who again changed its name to New Orange; but
the following year it was restored to the English by treaty.
In 1689 Jacob Leister instituted an insurrection against the unpopular
administration of Nicholls, which he easily overthrew, and strengthened
the fort by a battery of six guns outside its walls. This was the origin
of the "Battery." In 1691 he was arrested and convicted on a charge of
treason and murder, condemned to death, and executed.
Negro slavery was introduced into New York at an early period, and in
the year 1741 the alleged discovery of a plot of the slaves to burn the
city and murder the whites resulted in twenty negroes being hanged, a
lesser number being burned at the stake, and seventy-five being
transported.
From the very first the mass of citizens of New York took an active part
in the struggle for independence. In 1765 the "Sons of Liberty" were
organized to resist the Stamp Act; in 1770 a meeting of three thousand
citizens resolved not to submit to this oppression; and in 1773 a
Vigilance Committee was formed to resist the landing of the tea, by
whom, in the following year, a tea-laden vessel was sent back to
England, while eighteen chests of tea were thrown overboard from
another. On the eighteenth of September, 1776, as a result of the
disastrous defeat of the American troops, under General Washington, on
Long Island, New York fell into the hands of the British, who held it
until the twenty-sixth of November, 1783, when they evacuated it. The
day is still annually celebrated, under the name of "Evacuation Day."
From 1784 to 1797 New York was the Capital of the State, and from 1785
to 1790 the seat of government of the United States. The adoption of the
National Constitution was celebrated in grand style in 1788; and on
April thirtieth, 1789, Washington was inaugurated at the City Hall, as
the first President of the United States.
In 1791 the city was visited by yellow fever. In 1795 and 1798 it
reappeared, with added violence, over two thousand persons falling
victims to it during the latter year. It made visits at intervals until
1805, after which it did not reappear until 1819. It came again in 1822
and 1823, occasioning considerable alarm, but since then its visits in
an epidemic form have ceased.
In 1820 the surveying and laying out of Manhattan Island north of
Houston street, after ten years of labor, was completed. The opening of
the Erie Canal, in 1825, gave the city a fresh impetus on the road to
prosperity. The first steam ferry between New York and Jersey City was
started in 1812. In 1825 the city was first lighted by gas; while the
great Croton Aqueduct, through which it receives its immense water
supply, was not completed until 1842.
In December, 1835, the most disastrous fire ever known in the city
destroyed over $18,000,000 worth of property. In July, 1845, a second
conflagration consumed property to the amount of $5,000,000. Both these
great fires were in the very heart of the business portion of the city.
In July, 1853, an industrial exhibition was opened, with striking
ceremonies, in a so-called Crystal Palace, on Reservoir Square. This
building, in the form of a Greek cross, was made almost wholly of iron
and glass, being three hundred and sixty-five feet in length each way,
with a dome one hundred and twenty-three feet high. The flooring covered
nearly six acres of ground. This structure was destroyed by fire in
1858.
New York has been the scene of several sanguinary riots within the past
half century. In 1849, when Macready, the English tragedian, attempted
to play a second engagement at the Astor Place Opera House, the friends
of Forrest attacked the building, resulting in calling out of the
military, the killing of thirty-two persons, and wounding of thirty-six
others. In July, 1863, a mob, made up of the poorer classes of the
population, rose in fierce opposition to the draft rendered necessary by
the requisition for troops by the general government. For several days
this mob was in practical possession of the city, and it was dispersed
only by a free use of military force. This mob resulted in the death of
one thousand persons, and the destruction of $1,500,000 worth of
property. In 1871 a collision occurred between a procession of Irish
Orangemen, who were commemorating the Battle of the Boyne, and their
Catholic fellow-countrymen, during which sixty-two persons lost their
lives.
The summer of 1871 was made memorable by the discovery that the most
stupendous frauds upon the public treasury had been carried on for
several years, by certain city officials, some of whom had been
extraordinarily popular. A mass meeting, called at Cooper Institute on
the fourth of September, appointed a committee of seventy-six to take
measures for securing better government for the city. The elections in
November following resulted in a complete sweeping out of the obnoxious
officials, many of whom were subsequently prosecuted, convicted and
imprisoned, or obliged to fly the country.
New York City, the greater portion of which lies on Manhattan Island, is
situated at the mouth of the Hudson River, some eighteen miles from the
Atlantic Ocean. Its extreme length north from the Battery is sixteen
miles, while the average breadth of the island is one and three-fifths
of a mile. The city has an area of about 27,000 acres, of which 14,000
are on Manhattan Island, and about 12,000 on the main land; while the
remainder is in the East River and the Bay, and includes Ward's,
Blackwell's, Randall's, Governor's Ellis', and Bedloe's Islands. It is
bounded on the north by the town of Yonkers; on the east by the Bronx
and East Rivers; on the south by the Bay; and on the west by the Hudson
River. Manhattan Island is separated on the north, from the main land,
by Spuyten Duyvel Creek and Harlem River, both names recalling the Dutch
origin of the city.
The more ancient portion of New York, from Fourteenth street to the
Battery, is laid out somewhat irregularly. As far north as Central Park,
five miles from the Battery, it is quite compactly built. Various
localities in the more northern and less densely built-up part of the
island are known by different names; as Yorkville, near Eighty-sixth
street; and Harlem, in the vicinity of One-hundred-and-twenty-fifth
street, on the eastern side; and Bloomingdale and Manhattanville,
opposite them, on the western. North of Manhattanville, near
One-hundred-and-fiftieth street, is Carmansville, and a mile and a half
further north are Washington Heights; while Inwood lies at the extreme
northwestern point of the island. All these are places of interest, and
offer numerous attractions to the visitor.
That part of New York lying on the mainland, comprising the twenty-third
and twenty-fourth wards, was added to it in 1874, and contains many
thriving towns and villages. Prominent among them is Morrisania, with
avenues running north and south, and streets crossing them at right
angles, and numbered in continuation of those of Manhattan Island.
Numerous other towns, with a host of beautiful country residences, are
scattered over the high and rolling land of which this late addition to
the area of the city is composed; but with the exception of Morrisania
it has not yet been regularly laid out for building purposes. The whole
country in this section of the city, with a romantic natural beauty, to
which wealth and artistic taste have largely contributed, is a perfect
paradise of picturesqueness.
The foreigner who visits New York usually approaches it from the lower
bay, through the "Narrows," a strait lying between Staten Island on the
left and Long Island on the right. From the heights of the former, a
beautiful island, rising green and bold from the water's edge, frown the
massive battlements of Fort Wadsworth and Fort Tompkins; while on the
latter is Fort Hamilton; and in the midst of the water, gloomy and
barren, is Fort Lafayette, famous as a political prison during the late
war. New York Bay is one of the most beautiful, if not _the_ most
beautiful, in the world. Staten Island rises abruptly on one shore, with
hills and valleys, green fields and trees, villages and villas; and on
the other shore are the wood-crowned bluffs of Long Island. Within the
bay Ellis' Island is near the Jersey shore; Bedloe's Island is not far
from its centre, and is the selected site of the colossal statue of
Liberty which France has presented to New York; while Governor's Island,
the largest of the three, lies to the right, between New York and
Brooklyn. Each island is fortified, the latter containing Castle William
and old Fort Columbus.
The bay is dotted with the shipping of every nation. Ocean steamers are
setting out on their long journeys, or just returning from foreign
shores. The finest steamboats and ferry boats in the world dart hither
and thither, like water spiders on the surface of a glassy pool. Tugs,
oyster boats, and sailing vessels of every size and description, are all
represented. It is a moving panorama of water craft. As the city is
approached, gradually, from the distant haze which broods over it, is
evolved the forms of towers, spires, and roofs, and all its varied and
picturesque outlines. The city presents a beautiful view from the bay.
It rises gradually from the water's edge, some portions of it to a
considerable elevation. A prominent feature in its outline is the
graceful, tapering spire of Trinity Church, while higher still rises the
clock-tower of the Tribune building. Other towers, spires and domes,
break the monotony of roofs and walls. Approaching the mouth of the East
River, the most striking objects are the massive towers of the
Suspension Bridge, one on either shore, while between them is the
bridge, swung upon what seem at a distance like the merest cobwebs.
At the extreme southern end of Manhattan Island is the Battery, already
referred to, a park of several acres, protected by a granite sea wall.
It presents a beautiful stretch of green turf, fine trees and wide
pathways. On its southwest border is Castle Garden, a circular brick
structure, which has a history of its own. It was originally constructed
for a fort, and was afterwards converted into a summer garden. A great
ball, to Marquis Lafayette, was given in it in 1824; and General Jackson
in 1832, and President Tyler in 1843, held public receptions there. Then
it was turned into a concert hall, and is chiefly famous, as such, as
being the place where Jenny Lind made her first appearance in America.
It is now an emigrant depot, and on days of the arrival of emigrant
ships, it is very entertaining to watch the troops of emigrants, with
their quaint gait, unfamiliar language, and strange, un-American faces,
passing out of its portals, and making their first entrance into their
new life on the western continent.
Just east of the Battery is Whitehall, the terminus of numerous omnibus
and car lines, and the location of the Staten Island, South and Hamilton
ferries. There, too, is the depot of the elevated railways, which extend
in four lines, two on the eastern side and two on the western, the
entire length of the city. The Corn Exchange, an imposing building, is
at the upper end of Whitehall. At the junction of Whitehall with
Broadway is a pretty, old-fashioned square, shaded with trees, and
surrounded by an iron fence, called Bowling Green. This was the
aristocratic quarter of the city in its early days. No. 1 Broadway,
known as the "old Kennedy House," was built in 1760, and has been,
successively, the residence and headquarters of Lords Conwallis and
Howe, General Sir Henry Clinton and General Washington, while Talleyrand
lived there during his stay in America. Benedict Arnold concocted his
treasonable projects at No. 5 Broadway. At No. 11 General Gates had his
headquarters. A few of the old buildings still remain, but they have
many of them already given way to more modern and more pretentious
structures. The posts of the iron fence around Bowling Green were once
surmounted by balls, but they were knocked off and used for cannon balls
during the Revolution. An equestrian statue of King George III, which
once ornamented the Square, was melted up during the same period, and
furnished material for forty-two thousand bullets.
The stranger in New York sometimes wonders why its principal business
street is called Broadway, since there are many others which are quite
as broad, some of them even broader. But if he will visit the extreme
southern portion of the city, he will quickly comprehend. The old
streets are narrow, being scarcely more than mere alleys, with pavements
barely broad enough for two to walk abreast, so that Broadway, when
originally laid out, seemed a magnificent thoroughfare.
As already described, Wall street formed the northern boundary of the
young colonial city. In that early day, as now, wealth and fashion
sought to avoid the more plebeian business streets, and so withdrew to
the neighborhood of this northern boundary, and established, first their
residences, and then their commercial houses. Wall street then became
what it has since remained, the monetary centre of the city, only that
now it is more than that; it is the great monetary centre of the entire
country. On it and the blocks leading from it, all embraced in
comparatively a few acres, are probably stored more gold and silver than
in all the rest of the United States put together, while the business
interests represented extend to every section, not only of the
continent, but of the world.
Nowhere else in America are there such and so many magnificent buildings
as in this section of the city. The streets are narrow, and overshadowed
as they are by edifices six or more stories in height, seem to be
dwarfed into mere alley-ways. Nearly every building is worthy of being
called a temple or a palace. White marble and brown stone, with every
style of architecture, abound. The United States Sub-Treasury Building,
at the corner of Wall and Nassau streets, is a stately white marble
structure in the Doric style, occupying the site of the old Federal
Hall, in which Washington delivered his first inaugural address.
Opposite is the white marble palace, in the style of the Renaissance,
known as the Drexel Building. A little further down the street, at the
corner of William, is the United States Custom House, formerly the
Merchants' Exchange, built of granite. It has a portico supported by
twelve massive columns, and its rotunda in the interior is supported by
eight columns of Italian marble, the Corinthian capitals of which were
carved in Italy. Opposite this building is the handsome structure of the
Bank of New York. Banks, and bankers' and brokers' offices fill the
street, and are crowded into the side streets.
On Broad street, a short distance below Wall, is the Stock Exchange, a
handsome, but not large building, which in point of interest towers over
all others in the locality. Here are daily exacted the comedies and
tragedies of financial life, and here fortunes are made and fortunes
lost by that system of gigantic gambling which has come to be known as
"dealing in stocks." The operations of the Stock Exchange and Gold Room
concern the whole country, both financially and industrially. Here is
the true governmental centre, rather than at Washington. Wall and Broad
streets dictate to Congress what the laws of the country concerning
finance shall be, and Congress obeys. The Bankers' Association holds the
menace over the government that if their interests are not consulted,
they will bring ruin upon the country; and it is in their power to
execute the threat. This power was illustrated on the twenty-fourth of.
September, 1869, a day memorable as Black Friday in the history of Wall
street. By a small but strong combination of bears, gold was made to
fall in seventeen minutes, from 1.60 to 1.30, after a sale of
$50,000,000 had been effected, and thousands of men, from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, were ruined. Money was locked up, and could not be
obtained even at a premium of one hundred per cent. This was the
forerunner of the panic which came four years later, in 1873. Then the
Union Trust Company failed, carrying with it Jay Cooke, Fisk and Hatch,
Henry Clews, Howe and Macy, and other houses. For the first time during
its existence the Stock Exchange was closed. Without its closing, not a
merchant or banker could have survived. With its doors shut no contract
could be completed nor stocks transferred, and it gave people time,
which was absolutely needed, to do what they could; or else universal
and overwhelming ruin would have swept over the country. As it was, not
less than twenty thousand firms went under, and the stringency of the
times was felt throughout the nation, depressing business and checking
industry, until Congress took measures for its relief.
The names of Jacob Little, Leonard W. Jerome, Daniel Drew, Jay Cooke,
Augustus Schell, Rufus Hatch, James Fisk, Jr., Jay Gould, Commodore
Vanderbilt, Wm. H. Vanderbilt, and others, are permanently associated
with Wall street. Jacob Little was known as the "Great Bear of Wall
street." He originated the daring, dashing style of business in stocks,
and was always identified with the bears. Meeting many reverses, he died
at last, comparatively poor, the Southern Rebellion having swept away
his little remaining fortune.
Leonard W. Jerome was at one time financially the rival of Vanderbilt
and Drew, with a fortune estimated at from six to ten millions. He
assumed an unequaled style of magnificence in living; but reverses came,
and his splendid property on Madison Square, including residence, costly
stables and private theatre, passed into the hands of the Union League
Club, and was occupied by them until they went to their new quarters in
Fifth Avenue. He himself is now forgotten, although a man scarcely past
the prime of life; but his name is perpetuated in the Jerome Race
Course.
Daniel Drew came to New York a poor boy, and, by persistent industry and
business capacity, worked his way up to the highest round of the
commercial ladder. In 1838 Drew put an opposition boat upon the Hudson,
with fare at one dollar to Albany; and shortly afterward established the
People's Line, which has been so successful. The panic of 1873 affected
him seriously, but he staved off failure until 1875. He died in 1879,
leaving next to nothing of the millions he had made during his lifetime.
St. Paul's Church, in Fourth avenue; the Methodist Church at Carmel,
Putnam County, New York, his native place; and Drew Theological
Seminary, are monuments of his munificence while money was at his
command.
Jay Cooke, having been already tolerably successful in business, amassed
his millions by negotiating the war loan. He was regarded as one of the
most prominent and safe financiers in the country; but in 1873 his
failure was complete, and he has not since been heard of in financial
circles.
Rufus Hatch is one of the successful stock operators of New York.
Beginning life with nothing, and meeting reverses as well as successes,
he is now known as one of the boldest and most gigantic of street
operators.
The name of James Fisk, Jr., is associated with that of the Erie
Railroad. He commenced life as a peddler. In 1868 he was appointed
Comptroller of the Erie Road, and immediately set about building up the
fortunes of that corporation. He appeared on Wall street as an assistant
of Daniel Drew; made himself master of the Narragansett Steamship
Company, and changed the condition of its affairs from disaster to
success. He was one of the conspirators on Black Friday of 1869. He
purchased the Opera House and the Fifth Avenue Theatre, finding them
both good investments. He was shot by Edward S. Stokes, both himself
and Stokes having become entangled with a woman named Helen Josephine
Mansfield. After his death his supposed great private fortune dwindled
into a comparatively small amount.
Commodore Vanderbilt also started in life a penniless boy, and became,
eventually, the great King of Wall street. He built up the Harlem River
Railroad, originated gigantic enterprises; sent a line of steamships
across the ocean; gained control of the Hudson River Railroad and other
roads; and died in 1877, worth not far from $100,000,000, the bulk of
which he left to his eldest son, William H. Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt
name has lost none of its lustre in the hands of the second generation.
In less than ten years, after a career of unequaled brilliancy in the
financial world, William H. Vanderbilt retired, with a fortune probably
double that of his father.
Jay Gould also achieved success from small beginnings. He was in company
with Fisk in the control of the Erie Railroad, and an associate in
bringing about the disasters of Black Friday. Soon after the death of
Greeley he secured a controlling interest in the New York _Tribune_. He
is still a power in Wall street, and a great railroad magnate.
Broad street still has historical associations clinging about it. At the
corner of Broad and Pearl streets is the famous De Lancy House, built
early in the last century by Stephen De Lancy, a Huguenot refugee from
Normandy. In this house, on the evening of November twenty-fifth, 1783,
Washington and his staff, with Governor Clinton, celebrated the
evacuation of the city by the British troops, and a few days later
Washington bade his officers farewell, before departing for Annapolis to
resign his commission. The house, having passed through successive
stages of degeneration, had at one time sunk so low as to have become a
German tenement house, with a lager beer saloon on the third floor. It
has recently been renovated, and has again put on an air of
respectability. It still bears upon it the words: "Washington's
Headquarters." All about it are, here and there, the relics of the past,
in the shape of houses which once were homes of the gentility, in
colonial times.
Pearl street is said to have been originally a cow-path, and it is
certainly crooked enough to justify such an origin. It is the locality
of the Cotton Exchange and the cotton brokers.
On Broadway, at the head of Wall street, is Trinity Church, whose spire
was, until a recent period, the highest in the city, being two hundred
and eighty-four feet in height. In the early days, when the aristocracy
were seeking the select neighborhood of Wall street, this church
corporation established itself upon the utmost northern confines of the
city. Its original edifice was destroyed by fire, and the present one
was erected in 1846. It is of brown stone, in pure gothic architecture,
and one of the most beautiful in New York. In the rich carving of the
exterior numerous birds have built their nests. It has stained glass
windows, and the finest chime of bells in America. Within the church is
a costly reredos in memory of John Jacob Astor. A venerable graveyard
lies to its north, where repose the remains of Alexander Hamilton,
Captain Lawrence, of the Chesapeake, Robert Fulton, and the unfortunate
Charlotte Temple. Some of the headstones, brown and crumbling with age,
and bearing grotesque carved effigies of angels, date back for more than
a century. In the northeast corner is a stately monument erected to the
memory of the patriots who died in British prisons in New York during
the Revolution. Trinity Parish is the oldest in the city, and fabulously
wealthy, the corporation having been granted, by Queen Anne, in 1705, a
large tract of land west of Broadway, extending as far north as
Christopher street, known as the "Queen's Farm." The land, at that time
remote from the city, now embraces some of its most valuable business
portions. It is all leased of Trinity Church by the occupants, and the
church, when the leases expire, becomes possessed of the buildings and
improvements upon the ground, and is thus constantly augmenting its
wealth. The claims of the Jans Anneke heirs involve this vast estate. It
has three chapels, one of which, St. Paul's, is a few blocks above, on
the corner of Broadway and Vesey streets, and is surrounded by a
graveyard almost as ancient as that of Trinity.
At the northwest corner of Vesey street and Broadway is the Astor House,
which, when it was built, something more than a generation ago, was a
marvel of size and splendor, though it is now thrown in the shade by
more modern structures. John Jacob Astor, its builder, was born near
Heidelberg, in Germany, in 1765, and came penniless to the new world, to
seek his fortune. After serving as a clerk, he then engaged in a small
way in the fur business, which eventually grew to the proportions of the
American Fur Company, and brought to its founder a large fortune, though
no one outside his family ever knew its exact amount. He settled most of
his affairs before his death, selling the Astor House to his son
William, for the consideration of one dollar. Much of his property was
in real estate, which constantly increased in value. He died in 1848,
and his senior son being an imbecile, William B. Astor, the younger
brother, inherited most of his father's fortune. The son became vastly
richer than his father, dying in 1875, leaving behind him a fortune of
$50,000,000, which was mostly bequeathed to his eldest son, John Jacob,
who is now the head of the house.
[Illustration: BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF NEW YORK.]
The Post Office stands opposite the Astor House, on the east side of
Broadway, at the southern extremity of City Hall Park. It is a massive
structure, of Doric and Renaissance architecture, four stories in
height, beside a Mansard roof, costing $7,000,000.
Half a century ago the City Hall Park was the chief park of New York,
and the elegance and aristocracy of the city gathered around it. The
City Hall stands in the park, and back of it is the new Court House,
still unfinished, a massive edifice in Corinthian style, which, when
completed, will have a dome two hundred and ten feet above the sidewalk.
On the western side of Broadway, opposite St. Paul's, is the splendid
building of the New York _Herald_. The _Herald_ is the representative
newspaper of New York, and is probably the most enterprising sheet in
the world. James Gordon Bennett, its founder, was born in Scotland in
1795, and came to America in 1819. After various literary ventures, he
decided to establish a paper which should embody his ideal of a
metropolitan journal. On the sixth of May, 1855, the first number of the
New York _Herald_ was issued, being then a small penny sheet. Mr.
Bennett was editor, reporter and correspondent. He was his own
compositor and errand boy, mailed his papers and kept his accounts. His
rule, from the very first, was never to run a dollar in debt. He
succeeded in establishing a paper which has no parallel in history,
while, since his death, his son's enterprise has still further increased
its scope and popularity. Young Bennett, the present proprietor of the
_Herald_, named after his father, was trained especially for the duties
which were to devolve upon him. He is thoroughly at home in French,
German, Italian and Scotch. He is a skilled engineer, and can run either
the engines or presses of his establishment. He is a practical printer,
and can also telegraph with skill and accuracy. He gives strict personal
supervision to the affairs of his immense establishment, which yields
him a yearly income equaling that of a merchant prince.
Extending from the _Herald_ Building northward, on the eastern side of
City Hall Park, is what is known as Printing House Square, including the
offices of the principal daily and weekly papers. The magnificent
granite structure of the _Staats Zeitung_ faces this square on the
north. The immense _Tribune_ Building, nine stories high, with its tall
clock tower, flanks it on the east, on Nassau street. The _Sun_ modestly
nestles in the shadow of the _Tribune_. The _Times_ Building is found on
Park Row, where also is the _World_ office. _Truth_ lurks in a basement
on Nassau street. But a square or two below is the _Evening Post_
Building, where the venerable poet Bryant labored at his editorial
duties for so many years. A statue of Franklin occupies a small open
triangular space in the midst of the square.
Horace Greeley's name is inseparably associated with that of the
_Tribune_, which he founded. Honest and single-minded, he wielded a
mighty influence, and his paper was a great political power in the
country. He often made enemies by his honesty and straight-forwardness;
but both enemies and friends respected him. In 1872 the Liberal
Republican and Democratic parties nominated him as their choice for
President. Believing that he could rally around him men of all parties
who desired to see reform in political methods, he accepted the
nomination; and was attacked so bitterly by those whom he had supposed
to be his friends, and met such overwhelming defeat in the contest,
that, taken with the death of his wife within a week of the election, he
was crushed completely, his reason left him, and before the end of a
month he died a broken-hearted man.
North of the City Hall Park, on the corner of Chambers street, is the
old wholesale house of A. T. Stewart, now devoted to other purposes, and
having two stories added to its top. Here, a generation ago, the belles
of New York City came to do their shopping, it having been originally
built for the retail trade, as a few years later they flocked to the new
retail store on Broadway, between Ninth and Tenth. The name of A. T.
Stewart is no longer heard in New York, save in connection with the
past. It was a power in its day and generation. Few men had more to do
with Wall street than Stewart, and his mercantile business was carried
on in the Wall street style. He "cornered" goods, "sold short," "loaded
the market," and "bought long." Having emigrated from the north of
Ireland, he first opened business in a small way, himself and wife
living in one room over their store. Beginning at the very lowest round
of the ladder, he worked with the fixed resolution of becoming the first
merchant in the land. He always lived within his income, and never
bought a dollar's worth of merchandise that he could not pay cash for.
In the days of his prosperity he built for himself and wife a marble
palace, at the corner of Fifth avenue and Thirty-fourth street, the most
finely-finished and elegantly-furnished residence in the country. He
died in 1876, worth, probably, $50,000,000. The theft of his remains
from the graveyard of St. Mark's Church, at Ninth street and Second
avenue, was the nine days' wonder of the time; and the vault prepared
for their reception, in the fine Cathedral at Garden City, Long Island,
remains empty.
Broadway, almost from the Battery, is bordered by magnificent
structures. The lower end of this thoroughfare is devoted principally to
insurance, bankers' and brokers', railway and other offices, and to the
wholesale trade. Above Canal street the retail stores begin to appear at
intervals, and as one approaches Ninth street ladies multiply on the
western pavement. From Ninth street up, the retail trade monopolizes the
street, and on pleasant afternoons the pavement is filled with elegantly
dressed ladies who are out shopping. At Tenth street Broadway makes a
bend to the westward, and on the eastern side of the way, facing
obliquely down the thoroughfare, is Grace Church and parsonage, both
elegant structures. Grace Church is a fashionable place of worship, and
the scene of the most exclusive weddings and funerals of the city.
Union Square is reached at Fourteenth street. It is oval in form, with
beautiful green turf, trees and walks, and contains a fine fountain in
the centre, a colossal bronze statue of Washington on a granite
pedestal, and statues of Hamilton and Lafayette. Along its northern end
is a wide plaza for military parades and popular assemblies. Union
Square was once a fashionable residence quarter, but it is now occupied
almost wholly by business. At Twenty-third street, Broadway runs
diagonally across Fifth avenue, touching the southwestern corner of
Madison Square--not so very long since the most genteel locality in New
York, but now, like Union Square, becoming occupied by hotels and
business houses.
Fifth Avenue, the most splendid avenue in America, makes a beginning at
Washington Square, a lovely public park embowered in trees, which was
once Potters' Field, the pauper burying ground, and where one hundred
thousand bodies lie buried. New York University and Dr. Hutton's Church
face the square on the east. The southern side is given up to business,
but the north and west are still occupied by handsome private
residences. Fifth Avenue is a continuous line of palatial hotels,
gorgeous club-houses, brownstone mansions and magnificent churches. No
plebeian horse cars are permitted to disturb its well-bred quiet, and
the rumble of elegant equipages is alone heard upon its Belgian
pavement.
Business is already invading the lower portion of the avenue, piano
warehouses being especially prominent. On Madison Square are the Fifth
Avenue Hotel and the Hoffman House. Opposite the latter house is a
monument erected to General Worth, a hero of the Mexican war.
Delmonico's and the Cafe Brunswick, rival restaurants, occupy opposite
corners of Twenty-sixth street. The Stevens House is an elegant family
hotel on Fifth Avenue and Twenty-seventh street, running to Broadway. At
Twenty-ninth street is the Congregational Church, a stately granite
edifice; and on the same street, just east of the Avenue, is the Church
of the Transfiguration, popularly known as "the little church around the
corner," a name bestowed on it by a neighboring clergyman, who, refusing
to bury an actor from his own church, referred the applicant to this. At
the corner of Thirty-fourth street is the Stewart marble palace already
referred to. From Forty-first to Forty-second streets is the
distributing reservoir of the Croton Water-works, with walls of massive
masonry in the Egyptian style. The Crystal Palace of 1853 occupied this
square. The Avenue has at this place ascended to a considerable
elevation, and the locality, embracing several streets and avenues, is
known as Murray Hill, the most wealthy and exclusive quarter of the
city. At Forty-third street is the Jewish Temple Emanuel, the finest
specimen of Moorish architecture in the country.
Occupying the block between Fiftieth and Fifty-first streets is the
Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Patrick, commenced in 1858, and with the
towers still incomplete. It is of white marble, in decorated Gothic
style; and the largest and handsomest church in the country. It is
elaborately carved, the numerous rose windows seeming almost like lace
work. When completed it will have two spires, ornamented with
buttresses, niches with statues, and pinnacles, and three hundred and
twenty-eight feet in height. The interior is as beautiful as a dream. It
is entirely of white marble. Massive pillars with elaborately carved
capitals support the arched roof, while the light is softened and
subdued by beautiful stained-glass windows. The building is in such
perfect proportion that one does not realize its immense size until he
descries the priest at the altar, so far away as to seem a mere child.
But eight squares away is Central Park, the great breathing-place of the
city. Looking back, down the Avenue, from the entrance to the Park,
there is seen a forest of spires rising from magnificent churches which
we have had no space to mention, and blocks upon blocks of palatial
residences, the homes of the millionaires of the city. The eastern side
of Fifth Avenue, facing the Park for a number of blocks, is occupied by
elegant private residences.
Madison Avenue starts from Madison Square, running through to
Forty-second street. It, with parallel avenues and places, shares the
prestige of Fifth Avenue, as being the aristocratic quarter of the city.
Fourteenth street, once a fashionable thoroughfare, is now fast being
occupied by large retail stores.
The avenues, commencing at First, and numbering as high as Eleventh, run
north and south, parallel to Fifth Avenue, already described. They are
supplemented on the eastern side, at the widest part of the island, by
avenues A, B, C, and D. Most of these avenues commence on the eastern
side at Houston street, the northern boundary of the city in the early
part of the present century. On the western side, with the exception of
Fifth and Sixth, they commence but little below Fourteenth street. They
are mostly devoted to retail trade, and, on seeing their miles of
stores, one wonders where, even in a great city like New York, all the
people come from who support them.
Second Avenue is almost the only exception among the avenues. Early in
the century it was what Fifth Avenue has become to-day, the fashionable
residence avenue; and even yet some of the old Knickerbocker families
cling to it, living in their roomy, old-fashioned houses, and
maintaining an exclusive society, while they look down with disdain upon
the parvenues of Fifth avenue. Stuyvesant Square, intersected by Second
avenue, and bounded on the east by Livingston Place, and on the west by
Rutherford Place, is one of the quarters of the _ancient regime_. Here
still live the Rutherfords and the Stuyvesants. Here is the residence of
Hamilton Fish and William M. Evarts. St. George Church, with the largest
seating capacity of any church in the city, faces this square.
Booth's Theatre is on the corner of Sixth avenue and Twenty-third
street. It is the most magnificent place of amusement in America; built
in the Renaissance style, with a Mansard roof. Opposite is the Masonic
Temple, in Ionic and Doric architecture. At the corner of Eighth avenue
and Twenty-third street is the Grand Opera House, once owned by James
Fisk, Jr.
New York is at once spendthrift and parsimonious in the naming of her
streets. Thus, she sometimes repeats a name more than once, and again,
bestows two or three names upon the same street. There is a Broadway, an
East Broadway, a West Broadway, and a Broad street. There is Greenwich
avenue and Greenwich street. There are two Pearl streets. There is a
Park avenue, a Park street, a Park row, and a Park place. On the other
hand, Chatham becomes East Broadway east of Bowery; Dey street is
transformed into John street east of Broadway; Cortlandt becomes Maiden
Lane at the same dividing line; and other streets are in like manner
metamorphosed. Fourth Avenue, beginning at the Battery as Pearl street,
changes to the Bowery at Franklin Square. At Eighth street, without any
change in its direction, it becomes Fourth Avenue; from Thirty-fourth to
Forty-second streets it is Park Avenue, and then relapses into Fourth
Avenue again. This is one of the most interesting avenues in the city;
as Pearl street, its windings and its business occupations have been
referred to.
Bowery has a character all its own. It takes its name from Peter
Stuyvesant's "Bowerie Farm," through which it passes. In it is probably
represented every civilized nation on the globe. It is unqualifiedly a
democratic street. While Fifth Avenue represents one extreme of city
life, the Bowery represents the other. Here are the streets and shops of
the working classes, consisting of dry and fancy goods, cigar shops,
lager beer saloons, shoe stores, confectionery stores, pawnbrokers'
shops, and ready-made clothing, plentifully besprinkled with variety and
concert saloons and beer gardens. There are no elegant store fronts or
marble stores here. The buildings are plain brick edifices, three or
four stories in height, the upper stories occupied by the families of
the merchants, or as tenement houses. The Germans visit the beer gardens
with their wives and families, to listen to what is sometimes excellent
music, and to drink beer. The concert saloons are, some of them, the
resorts of the lowest of both sexes. Near Canal street is the site of
the old Bowery Theatre, which, having been thrice destroyed by fire, has
been thrice rebuilt, the last time, quite recently, and is now known as
Thalia Theatre. A generation and a half ago the gamins of New York
reigned supreme in the pit. Now that they have been relegated to the
gallery, they still criticise the performance with the frankness and
originality of expression characteristic of the "Bowery boys" of old.
One should visit the Bowery at night, when the workmen and shop girls,
having finished their daily labor, are out for recreation and amusement.
Then he will gain an idea of one phase of city life and people which he
would not obtain otherwise.
At Seventh street, where Third avenue branches off, looking down the
Bowery, and occupying the entire block to Eighth street, is Cooper
Institute, containing a free library, free reading-room, free schools of
art, telegraphy and science, and a hall and lecture room. Peter Cooper
was one of the representative men of New York. Acquiring a large fortune
by strictly honorable methods, he devoted a generous portion of it to
charitable objects, and this Institute is one of the lasting monuments
of his generosity. He was a true philanthropist, a man of broad thought
and kindly impulses, whose name was honored by all classes of the
community. He died in April, 1883, at a ripe old age.
Occupying the block between Third Avenue and the Bowery, which is now
dignified by the name of Fourth avenue, is the Bible House, the largest
structure of its kind in the world, except that of London. Here the
Bible is printed in almost every known language, and here are
congregated the offices of the various religious societies of the city
and country. The Young Men's Christian Association and Academy of Design
occupy opposite corners at Twenty-third street, on the west side of the
avenue. The exterior of the latter is copied from a famous palace in
Venice, and it is peculiar as well as beautiful in its appearance. From
Thirty-second to Thirty-third streets is the immense structure intended
by A. T. Stewart as the crowning charitable object of his life, to be,
perhaps, in some sort, an atonement for injustice of which he may have
been guilty toward the working classes. It was designed as a hotel for
working women, but in its very plan indicated how little its founder
understood the nature or needs of that class. At its completion, after
his death, it did not take many weeks to demonstrate that working women
preferred a place more home-like, and fettered by less restrictions than
this palace-prison; and so the edifice was turned into an ordinary
hotel.
Park avenue commences at Thirty-fourth street, being built over the
track of the Fourth avenue car line. In the centre of this avenue, over
the tunnels, are little spaces inclosed by iron fences, and containing a
profusion of shrubbery and flowers. The avenue abounds in elegant
churches and equally fine residences. At Forty-second street is the
Grand Central Depot, seven hundred feet in length, its exterior
imposing, and with corner and central towers surmounted by domes. At
Sixty-ninth street, between Fourth and Lexington avenues, is the new
Normal College, an ecclesiastical-looking building, the most complete of
its kind in America.
Retracing our steps to near the foot of Bowery, we come to Chatham
street, where the Jews reign supreme, and which is the vestibule of the
worst quarter of the city. Passing along a pavement festooned with
cheap, ready-made clothing, one comes to Baxter street, and from thence
to the Five Points, once the most infamous locality of New York. Here, a
generation ago, a respectable man took his life in his hands, who
attempted to pass through this quarter, even in broad daylight. It was
the abode of thieves, burglars, garotters, murderers and prostitutes.
Hundreds of families were huddled together in tumble-down tenement
houses, living in such filth and with such an utter lack of decency as
is scarcely to be credited. But home missionaries visited the quarter,
established mission-schools and a house of industry, tore down the
disgraceful tenement-houses and built better ones in their place; and
to-day the old Bowery, Cow Bay and Murderers' Alley are known only in
name. The Five Points is at the crossing of Baxter, Worth and Parker
streets, and is really five points no longer, the carrying through of
Worth street to the Bowery, forming an additional point. The locality is
still dreadful enough, with all its improvements. Drunken men, depraved
women, and swarms of half-clad children fill the neighborhood, and even
the "improved tenement houses," as viewed from the outside, seem but
sorry abodes for human beings. This is the heart of a wretched quarter,
which extends westward to Broadway, and almost indefinitely in other
directions. Mott, Mulberry, Baxter, Centre, Elm and Crosby streets are
all densely populated, containing numberless tenement houses. It is
possible to walk through some of these streets and never hear a word of
English. Mulberry and Crosby streets are especially the homes of
Italians, who on Sunday mornings pour out of the tenements upon the
pavement and street below in such throngs that a stranger can scarcely
elbow his way through. The Chinese have taken possession of the lower
part of Mott street, and established laundries, groceries, tea-houses,
lodging-houses, and opium-smoking dens. The latter are already
attracting the attention of the public, and a feeble effort has been
made by the city government to put a check upon their evil influence.
These streets are a festering sore in the very heart of the city, and
require attention.
The Tombs, the city prison, famous in the criminal history of New York,
is located in the midst of this quarter, on Centre street, occupying an
entire block. It is a gloomy building, constructed of granite, in
imitation of an Egyptian temple. Within these forbidding walls is the
Tombs Police Court, where, early each morning, petty cases are disposed
of by the magistrate upon the bench; and here prisoners are kept
awaiting trial. Eleven cells of special strength and security are for
murderers awaiting trial or punishment. There is also a special
department for women. In the inner quadrangle of the building murderers
are made to suffer the utmost penalty of the law, and the last act of
many a tragedy which has excited and horrified the public has been
performed here.
It will be a relief to turn from the gloom and wretchedness of the Tombs
to the sunshine and freedom of New York's great breathing place. Central
Park contains eight hundred and forty-three acres, and embraces an area
extending from Fifth to Eighth avenues, and from Fifty-ninth to
One-hundred-and-tenth streets. Originally, it was a desolate stretch of
country in the suburbs of the city, varied by rocks and marshes, and
dotted by the hovels of Irish and Dutch squatters, its most picturesque
features being their goats, which picked up a scant living among the
rubbish with which it was covered. Its whole extent is now covered with
a heavy sod, planted with trees and shrubbery, and furnishes many miles
of drives and walks. Every day in the year it has numerous visitors, but
on Sunday, one must fairly elbow one's way through the crowds. In the
southeast corner are the Zoological Gardens and the old State Arsenal;
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, recently opened, is north of Belvidere,
on the east side of the Park. The Egyptian Obelisk stands on an eminence
west of the museum. Winding paths conduct the visitor to the Mall, a
stately avenue shaded by double rows of elms, and ornamented at
intervals with bronze statues of celebrated American and European
statesmen and poets; also a number of groups which are especially fine.
The Terrace is at the northern terminus of the Mall, and leads by a
flight of broad, stone stairs to Central Lake, the prettiest body of
water in the Park, dotted by gondolas. A fountain, with immense granite
basins, and a colossal statue of the Angel of Bethesda, stands between
the terrace and the lake. Beyond the lake is the Ramble, consisting of
winding, shaded paths, and covering thirty-six acres of sloping hills.
From the tower at Belvidere, a magnificent piece of architecture, in the
Norman style, may be obtained a fine bird's-eye view of the Park. Just
above Belvidere are the two reservoirs of the water works, extending as
far north as Ninety-sixth street. Beyond that the Park is less
embellished by art, and is richer in natural beauties. From the eminence
upon which stands the old Block House, on the northern border of the
Park, a magnificent and extensive view may be obtained of the hills
which bound in the landscape, and including High Bridge.
One should visit the water front of New York, which circles the city on
three sides, to gain an idea of its immense commerce. A river wall of
solid masonry has been commenced, which, when completed, will make the
American metropolis equal to London and Liverpool in this respect. A
perfect forest of masts lines the wharves, representing every kind of
craft, and almost every nation that sails the seas. Twice a week
European steamships leave from the foot of Canal street; while from
various points along the wharves, indicated by handsome ferry or
shipping houses, boats go and come, to and from every port on the river
or on the Atlantic coast. At Desbrosses and Cortlandt streets ferries
connect with Jersey City. South, Wall and Fulton ferries give access to
Brooklyn; while other ferries convey passengers to other points on the
rivers and bay.
Passing up the East River, with the ship-thronged wharves and docks of
New York on one hand, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard on the other, the
visitor soon obtains a view of Blackwell's, Ward's and Randall's
islands. Blackwell's Island is at the foot of Forty-sixth street, and is
one hundred and twenty acres in extent. Upon it are located the
Almshouse, Female Lunatic Asylum, Penitentiary, Work House, Blind
Asylum, Charity, Smallpox and Typhus Fever hospitals. These buildings
are all constructed of granite, quarried from the island by convicts.
They are plain but substantial in appearance.
Leaving Blackwell's Island, the boat passes cautiously through the
swirling waters of Hell Gate, once the terror of all sailors, but now
robbed of most of its horrors. It was originally a collection of rocks
in mid channel, which, as the tides swept in and out, caused the waters
to rush in a succession of whirlpools and rapids. But a few years ago
United States engineers undertook and accomplished a gigantic
excavation, directly under these threatening rocks and reefs. When it
was completed a grand explosion, effected by means of connecting wires,
blew up these dangerous obstructions, and left a comparatively clear and
safe channel for vessels. The few remaining rocks which this explosion
failed to disturb are being removed, and with its dangers, much of the
romantic interest which attached to Hell Gate will pass away.
Ward's Island, embracing two hundred acres, and containing the Male
Lunatic Asylum, the Emigrant Hospital, and the Inebriate Asylum, divides
the Harlem from the East River. Randall's Island is separated from
Ward's Island by a narrow channel, and is the last of the group. It
contains the Idiot Asylum, the House of Refuge, the Infant Hospital,
Nurseries, and other charities provided by the city for destitute
children.
The visitor in New York should, if possible, make an excursion to High
Bridge, a magnificent structure by which the Croton Aqueduct is carried
across Harlem River. It is built of granite, and spans the entire width
of valley and river, from cliff to cliff. It is composed of eight
arches, each with a span of eighty feet, and with an elevation of a
hundred feet clear from the surface of the river. The water is led over
the bridge, a distance of fourteen hundred and fifty feet, in immense
iron pipes, six feet in diameter. Above these pipes is a pathway for
pedestrians. At One-hundred-and-sixty-ninth street, a little below the
High Bridge, is the site of the elegant mansion of Colonel Roger Morris,
and the head-quarters of General Washington during active operations in
this portion of the island. The situation is one of picturesque and
historic interest.
Rising grandly above all the shipping of the East River, on both its
sides, are the massive towers of the Suspension Bridge, connecting the
sister cities of New York and Brooklyn. Ponderous cables swing in a
single grand sweep from tower to tower, supporting the bridge in its
place. It does not seem very much elevated above the river, and you feel
that a certain majestic sailing vessel which is bearing down upon it
will bring the top of her masts in contact with it. But she sails
proudly beneath the structure, never bowing her head, and there is
plenty of room and to spare; for the bridge is one hundred and
thirty-five feet above high water mark. The distance from tower to tower
is one thousand five hundred and ninety-five feet, while the entire
length of the bridge, from Park Place to its terminus, on the heights in
Brooklyn, is six thousand feet, or a little more than a mile. Its width
is eighty-five feet, affording space for two railways, besides two
double carriageways, and one foot-path. It was commenced in 1871, and
cost $15,000,000. Its formal opening took place on May twenty-fourth,
1883. The day was a rarely beautiful one, and was observed as a general
holiday by the people of both cities. President Arthur and his Cabinet,
the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, with many other
distinguished persons, were among the guests, while the honors of the
occasion were done by the Mayors of New York and Brooklyn. Every street
in the neighborhood of the bridge was packed with a dense throng of
spectators, while windows, balconies and roofs were filled with curious
sight seers.
Shortly after noon the procession moved down Broadway, and a little
after one o'clock the President and other distinguished guests entered
the gateway of the bridge, preceded by the Seventh Regiment, the
procession headed by a company of mounted policemen, while Cappa's band
played "Hail to the Chief." When the party reached the New York tower,
they were met by President Kingsley of the bridge trustees, and there
were introductions and welcomes, and the march was resumed. At the
Brooklyn tower Mayor Low met the President, and the Seventy-third
Regiment presented arms. In announcement of the fact that the bridge was
crossed, cannons thundered forth salutes, the steam whistles of vessels
and factories screamed, bells rang, and deafening cheers went up from
the watching multitude. The further ceremonies of the day took place in
a pavilion on the Brooklyn end, when Mr. William E. Kingsley, the
President of the Bridge Association, Mayor Low, of Brooklyn, Mayor Edson
of New York, Hon. Abram S. Hewitt and Rev. B. S. Storrs, made able
addresses. A reception was tendered in the evening, at the Academy of
Music, by the City of Brooklyn, to the President and the Governor of the
State, previous to which there was a fine display of fireworks from the
bridge.
During all the excitement of the day, while cannon thundered and the
multitude cheered, an invalid sat alone in his house on Columbia
Heights, and regarded from afar the completion of his toil of years.
John A. Roebling, the elder of the two Roeblings, first conceived and
planned the bridge which connects New York and Brooklyn. He had built
the chief suspension bridges in the country, and to him was intrusted
the task of putting his own plans into tangible form. While testing and
perfecting his surveys, his foot was crushed between the planking of a
pier; lockjaw supervened, and the man who had designed the bridge lost
his life in its service. He was succeeded by his son, Colonel Washington
A. Roebling, who was equally qualified for the undertaking. He labored
with zeal, giving personal superintendence to his workmen, until in the
caissons he contracted a mysterious disease, which had proved fatal to
several men in his employ. From that period he was confined to his home,
a hopeless invalid, his intellect apparently quickened as his physical
system was enfeebled. He has never seen the structure, save as it stands
from a distance; but from his sick-room he has directed and watched over
the progress of the enterprise, his active assistant being his wife, of
whom Mayor Edson, in his address on the occasion, spoke in the following
terms: "With this bridge will ever be coupled the thought of one,
through the subtle alembic of whose brain, and by whose facile fingers,
communication was maintained between the directing power of its
construction and the obedient agencies of its execution. It is thus an
everlasting monument to the self-sacrificing devotion of woman." After
the conclusion of the address, the President and his Cabinet, the
Governor, and hundreds of others, paid their respects to Colonel
Roebling, and did honor to the man the completion of whose work they
were celebrating. After it was over Roebling replied, to the suggestion
that he must be happy, "I am satisfied."
The great bridge was opened to the public at midnight, and the waiting
throng, which even at that hour numbered about twenty thousand persons,
were permitted to enter the gates and cross the structure. A
representative of the New York _Herald_ was the first to pay the toll of
one cent demanded, and the first to begin the passage across. With the
completion of this bridge the continent is entirely spanned, and one may
visit, dry shod and without the use of ferry boats, every city from the
Atlantic to the Golden Gate.
But the great bridge was not to be consecrated to the use of the public
without a baptism of blood. On Decoration Day, which occurred the
seventh day after the opening of the bridge, there was a grand military
parade in New York, reviewed by President Arthur from a stand in Madison
Square, and impressive ceremonies at the various cemeteries in Brooklyn.
From early morning a steady stream of pedestrians poured each way,
across the bridge. About four o'clock in the afternoon there came a lock
in the crowd, just at the top of the stairs on the New York side,
leading down to the concrete roadway Men, women and children were wedged
together in a jam, created by the fearful pressure of two opposing
crowds, extending to either end of the bridge. Some one stumbled and
fell on the stairs. The terrible pressure prevented him or her from
rising, and others fell over the obstacle thus placed in the pathway.
Those immediately behind were hopelessly forced on over them. A panic
ensued. Women screamed and wrung their hands; children cried and called
pitifully for "help!" Men shouted themselves hoarse, swore and fought. A
hundred hats and bonnets were afterwards found upon the spot, trampled
into shapelessness. Clothes were torn off, and many emerged from the
crush in only their undergarments. Parents held their children aloft to
keep them from being trampled upon. Hundreds of men climbed with
difficulty on the beams running over the railroads, and dropping down
were caught by those in the carriage-way beneath. A number of women also
escaped in that manner.
At last, after almost superhuman efforts, the crowd was pressed back
sufficiently to gather up the prostrate bodies, which were taken to the
roadway below, and ranged along the wall, waiting for ambulances to
convey them away. Twelve persons were found dead, some of them bruised,
discolored, and covered with blood, and others apparently suffocated to
death. The list of injured was very much larger--how much will probably
never be known, since many, assisted by their friends, returned to their
homes without reporting their hurts. The dead and wounded were most of
them conveyed to the City Hall Police Station, and were there claimed by
their friends; and the day which had begun so joyously ended in gloom.
New York is one of the most wonderful products of our wonderful western
civilization. It is itself a world in epitome. Thoroughly cosmopolitan
in its character, almost every nationality is represented within its
boundaries, and almost every tongue spoken. It is the great monetary,
scientific, artistic and intellectual centre of the western world.
Containing much that is evil, it also abounds with more that is good. It
is well governed. Its sanitary arrangements are such as to make it
peculiarly free from epidemic diseases. The record of its crimes is
undoubtedly a long one; but when the number of its inhabitants is
considered, it will be found to show an average comparing favorably with
other cities. Thousands of happy homes are found throughout its length
and breadth. Hundreds of good and charitable enterprises are originated
and fostered within its limits, and grow, some of them, to gigantic
proportions, reaching out strong arms to the uttermost confines of the
country and even of the world, comforting the afflicted, lifting up the
degraded, and shedding the light of truth in dark places. It is already
a great city, a wonderful city. But what it is to-day is only the
beginning of what those who live fifty years hence will behold it. There
is still space upon Manhattan Island for twice or thrice its present
population and business; and the no distant future will undoubtedly see
this space fully occupied, while it is among the possibilities that New
York will become, in point of inhabitants and commercial interests, the
first city in the world.
[Illustration: NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN BRIDGE.]