The two smaller streets on either side of the Bowling Green, Whitehall
and State Street, unite to the northward and form Broadway. This is
the chief highway of New York, and one of the most famous in the
world, extending in various forms all the way to Yonkers, a distance
of nineteen miles. The long and narrow formation of Manhattan Island
puts Broadway longitudinally in the centre of the city, and
necessarily throws into it an enormous traffic. One can hardly make
any extended movements in New York without getting into Broadway.
Hence the noted street has its show, always on exhibition, of the
restless rush of life in the modern Babylon. The architecture of its
great buildings, which tower far skyward, excites admiration, and its
perpetual din of traffic, with the moving crowds and jam of vehicles,
is the type of New York activity. This wonderful street is eighty feet
wide between the buildings, and extends of that width from the Bowling
Green five miles to Central Park at Fifty-ninth Street; and from its
upper end, beyond this, the "Grand Boulevard," one hundred and fifty
feet wide, with pretty little parks in the centre, is prolonged
northward. In its course, which inclines somewhat to the westward,
Broadway diagonally crosses Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Avenues, and at
the Central Park boundary intersects Eighth Avenue. Here is the
"Merchant's Gate," entering the Park from Broadway, the opposite
entrance from Fifth Avenue being known as the "Scholar's Gate." The
intermediate entrances at Sixth and Seventh Avenues are the "Artist's
Gate" and the "Artisan's Gate."
A survey of Broadway gives the best idea of the characteristics of New
York. Its lower course is a succession of wealthy financial and
business establishments and huge office buildings, and the adjacent
streets on either side are similarly occupied. Banks, trusts,
insurance offices, and manufacturers' and merchants' counting-rooms,
railroad and steamship offices are everywhere. But in the midst of all
this display of worldly wealth and grandeur is the quiet graveyard at
the head of Wall Street, wherein stands the famous Trinity Church. Its
chimes, morning and evening, summon the restless brokers and business
men to attend divine service, though few may take heed. It is a
wealthy parish, with over $500,000 annual revenue, maintaining a
magnificent choir and various charities, and owns valuable buildings
all about. The old graveyard stretches along Broadway, and in Church
Street, behind, the elevated railway trains rush by every few minutes.
It is part of the valuable domain of Trinity Church that "the heirs of
Anneke Jans" have long been trying to recover. Anneke Jans Bogardus
was an interesting Dutch lady who died in Albany in 1663, having
outlived two husbands. The first husband owned the whole of the Hudson
River front of New York between Chambers and Canal Streets, with a
wide strip running back to Broadway. Her heirs sold this to the
British Colonial Government, and it was known as the "King's Farm,"
being afterwards given as an endowment to Trinity Church. This is what
the present generation of heirs want to recover, but thus far have
gained more notoriety than cash by the effort.
In 1696 the first Trinity Church was built, being afterwards burnt,
while a second church was built and taken down, to be replaced by the
present fine Gothic brownstone edifice, whose magnificent spire rises
two hundred and eighty-four feet. This church was dedicated in 1846,
and its chancel contains a splendid reredos of marble, glass and
precious stones, the memorial of William B. Astor, while the bronze
doors are a memorial of his father, John Jacob Astor. The churchyard
is chiefly a mass of worn and battered gravestones, resting in the
busiest part of New York, the oldest stone being dated 1681, for it
has been a burial-place more than two centuries. Near its northern
border is the Gothic "Martyrs' Monument," erected over the bones of
the patriots who died in the British prison-ships, moored over on the
Brooklyn shore during the Revolution. There are hints, however, that
it was not so much the reverent memory of these heroes that prompted
the erection of the monument as the desire of the vestry to stop the
proposed opening of a street through the yard. There is also a
remembrance that, while these patriots were in prison dying, among
their relentless foes was the Trinity rector, Dr. Inglis. When General
Washington came into New York in 1776 he desired to worship at the
church, and sent an officer to Dr. Inglis, on Sunday morning, to
request that he omit reading the usual prayers for the king and the
royal family. The rector refused, and afterwards said: "It is in your
power to shut up the churches, but you cannot make the clergy depart
from their duty." Among the noted graves is that of Charlotte Temple,
under a flat stone, having a cavity out of which the inscription
plate has been twice stolen. Her romantic career and miserable end,
resulting in a duel, have been made the basis of a novel. William
Bradford's grave is here, one of Penn's companions in founding
Philadelphia; but he removed to New York, published the first
newspaper there, and for fifty years was the official printer. A
brownstone mausoleum covers the remains of Captain James Lawrence of
the frigate "Chesapeake," killed in action in 1813, when his ship was
taken by the British ship "Shannon," his dying words being, "Don't
give up the ship." Here also are buried Alexander Hamilton, Robert
Fulton, Albert Gallatin and other famous men, almost the latest grave
being that of General Philip Kearney, killed in the Civil War.