USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > A history of the city of Brooklyn and Kings county, Volume II > Part 10
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Department is equally true of a purely admin- istrative department like the post-office. It will, therefore, be a great injustice to any offi- cial who may be retired through my action to interpret it into reproach upon him, just as it would be equal injustice to me to assume that I meant it as such; or to my successor, to hamper him with any obligations toward my appointees. The Mayor being responsible to the people must be left free from such per- sonal embarrassments. I claim this right, as I believe, in the interest of good government, for my successors and for myself.
" The law does not give the Mayor the ab- solute power of removal. I presume it was not thought to be necessary. But the whole purpose of the law will be defeated unless the Mayor knows at all times and under all cir- cumstances that he is responsible because his appointees represent him. If any of them get out of harmony with him he must ask for their resignations, and he is entitled to receive them on demand. I hazard nothing in saying that the people of Brooklyn elected me Mayor with the full purpose of placing precisely this re- sponsibility upon me. As there is no pre- cedent to govern in this case, I wish to state distinctly that the acceptance of an appoint- ment at my hands will be evidence to the community that the gentleman accepting it has personally given me his assurance that
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he will without delay give me his resignation whenever I ask for it."
The remainder of the message was in the same spirit, and left the people of Brooklyn in no doubt that the new Mayor meant to inter- pret the movement represented by the charter amendments in its most radical and reforma- tory light.
Low was renominated in 1883. The Demo- crats nominated Joseph C. Hendrix,1 who led a brilliant campaign. In a hotly contested election that drew out an extraordinary vote, Low was elected by a vote of 49,554 against Hendrix's 48,006.
The two administrations of Low demon- strated beyond question the availability of the " Brooklyn system." In his message for 1884 the Mayor offered a strong plea in behalf of the public schools, in which free books had just been introduced.
The president of the board of education made the following urgent presentation of the case : -
1 Joseph C. Hendrix was appointed postmaster of Brooklyn in 1886, and made a record in that office unequaled by any post- master the city ever had. Indeed, his reforms and innova- tions made for him a conspicuous reputation at Washington. In 1892, Hendrix was elected to Congress. He has rendered highly important service to the city in the board of educa- tion.
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" Notwithstanding the number of new build- ings erected and occupied during the year, I am unable to report any relief from the gen- eral crowded condition that existed at the time of my last report. The children come faster than we can make room for them, and in some localities for nearly every seat provided there are two applicants. As evidence of the de- mand made upon our new schools, at their opening, by primary pupils, I cite the follow- ing: The new primary building to relieve No. 24 was opened on the 4th inst., this being the last of the new buildings. The crowd of chil- dren with their parents seeking admission was so great and the excitement so intense that for two days two policemen were required to pre- serve order at the doors. In a building seat- ing 676 pupils 899 were registered, the average age being 8 years. Only the fifth and sixth primary grades are admitted to this building. It is not pleasant for me to state that many of these children, 9 and 10 years old, have never before had a day's schooling, because there was no public school into which they could gain admittance. From the first day the class- rooms have been devoted to half-day classes.
" The registry of attendance in October of this year numbered 67,314 pupils. Our regu- lar seating capacity is but 64,200, or 3,114 less than the actual attendance. We have 76 classes, numbering over 90 pupils each, and of
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this number 16 classes have over 140 each, the largest class having 218 pupils. A large proportion of these crowded classes are from necessity divided into half-day sessions.
" This is our condition after redistricting the city and reorganizing several schools, thereby decreasing the number of grammar classes, and increasing the number of primary classes by eighteen, and after building eight new school buildings, -we have been compelled to crowd and pack our school rooms without due regard to the convenience, comfort, and health of the pupils and to the proper facilities and condi- tions for imparting instruction. ...
"We have exhausted every means at our disposal to utilize space save one. It is now the purpose of the Committee on Studies to so revise the course of study that all grammar class-rooms will be full. When this has been done we shall have no resource left by which to gain space but to build new buildings."
Possibly the most important achievement in Low's administration was the framing and passage of the Arrears Bill, which had an immediate and salutary effect in the man- agement of the city's finances.
An historic event during the period of Low's mayoralty was the opening of the Bridge on Thursday, May 24, 1883. The two cities were
THE MODERN CITY 179
greatly aroused by the event, and much enthu- siasm prevailed.
The ceremonies were held at the Brooklyn Approach, and the formal programme of cere- monies was as follows : -
MUSIC :
23d Regiment Band.
PRAYER :
Rt. Rev. Bishop Littlejohn.
PRESENTATION ADDRESS :
On behalf of Trustees,
William C. Kingsley, Vice-President. ACCEPTANCE ADDRESS : On behalf of the City of Brooklyn, Hon. Seth Low, Mayor.
ACCEPTANCE ADDRESS:
On behalf of the City of New York, Hon. Franklin Edson, Mayor.
ORATION :
Hon. Abram S. Hewitt.
ORATION :
Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D. D.
MUSIC :
7th Regiment Band.
The ceremonies over which James S. T. Stranahan, who had won the distinction of being called " Brooklyn's first citizen," pre- sided, drew a large and memorable company. The military marshal of the day was Maj .- Gen. James Jourdan, commanding the Second Divi- sion of the National Guard, and the arrange- ments were as follows : -
.
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"The President of the United States and Cabinet, the Governor of the State of New York and Staff, with other distinguished Guests, will be escorted from the Fifth Ave- nue Hotel to the New York Anchorage by the 7th Regi- ment of the Ist Division, N. G., S. N. Y., Emmons Clark, Colonel Commanding, and there received by the Trustees and escorted to the Brooklyn Anchorage, from which point the 23d Regiment, 2d Division, N. G., S. N. Y., Rodney C. Ward, Colonel Commanding, will act as escort to the Brooklyn Approach.
"To avoid confusion, it is requested that holders of BLUE TICKETS will enter Gates marked A at the Roadways on either side of the Bridge. Holders of WHITE TICKETS will enter at either Gates A or B.
" Officers of the Army and Navy and the National Guard are requested to appear in Uniform. Officials of New York and Brooklyn are requested to display their badges of office."
In the course of his address Mayor Low said : -
" As the water of the lakes found the salt sea when the Erie Canal was opened, so surely will quick communication seek and find this noble bridge; and as the ships have carried hither and thither the products of the mighty West, so shall diverging railroads transport the people swiftly to their homes in the hospi- table city of Brooklyn. The Erie Canal is a waterway through the land connecting the great West with the older East. This bridge is a landway over the water, connecting two cities bearing to each other relations in some respects similar. It is the function of such
STATUE OF J. S. T. STRANAHAN AT THE ENTRANCE TO PROSPECT PARK
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THE MODERN CITY
works to bless 'both him that gives and him that takes.' The development of the West has not belittled, but has enlarged New York, and Brooklyn will grow by reason of this bridge, not at New York's expense, but to her permanent advantage. The Brooklyn of 1900 can hardly be guessed at from the city of to- day. The hand of Time is a mighty hand. To those who are privileged to live in sight of this noble structure every line of it should be eloquent with inspiration. Courage, enter- prise, skill, faith, endurance, - these are the qualities which have made the great bridge, and these are the qualities which will make our city great and our people great. God grant they never may be lacking in our midst. Gentlemen of the Trustees, in accepting the bridge at your hands, I thank you warmly in Brooklyn's name for your manifold and ardu- ous labors."
Speaking of a glance forward for twenty-five years, Mayor Edson said : -
"No one dares accept the possibilities that are forced upon the mind in the course of its contemplation. Will these two cities, ere then, have been consolidated into one great munici- pality, numbering within its limits more than five millions of people? Will the right of self-government have been accorded to the great city, thus united, and will her people
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
have learned how best to exercise that right? Will the progress of improvement and the preparation for commerce, manufactures, and trade, and for the comforts of home for poor and rich, have kept pace with the demand in the great and growing city? Will the estab- lishment of life-giving parks, embellished with appropriate fountains and statues and with the numberless graces of art, which at once gladden the eye, and raise the standard of civ- ilization, have kept abreast with its growth in wealth and numbers? These are but few of the pertinent questions which must be an- swered by the zealous and honest acts of the generation of men already in active life. Here are the possibilities ; all the elements and con- ditions are here; but the results must depend upon the wisdom and patriotism and energy of those who shall lead in public affairs. May they be clothed in a spirit of wisdom and knowledge akin to that which inspired those who conceived and executed the great work which we receive at your hands and dedicate to-day."
The address of Abram S. Hewitt contained these significant words : -
" I am here by your favor to speak for the city of New York, and I should be the last person to throw any discredit on its fair fame; but I think I only give voice to the general
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feeling, when I say that the citizens of New York are satisfied neither with the structure of its government, nor with its actual adminis- tration, even when it is in the hands of intelli- gent and honest officials. Dissatisfied as we are, no man has been able to devise a system which commends itself to the general approval, and it may be asserted that the remedy is not to be found in devices for any special machin- ery of government. Experiments without number have been tried, and suggestions in infinite variety have been offered, but to-day no man can say that we have approached any nearer to the idea of good government which is demanded by the intelligence and the wants of the community.
" If, therefore, New York has not yet learned to govern itself, how can it be expected to be better governed by adding half a million to its population, and a great territory to its area, unless it be with the idea that a 'little leaven leaveneth the whole lump'? Is Brooklyn that leaven? And if not, and if possibly 'the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted ? ' Brooklyn is now struggling with this problem, it remains to be seen with what success; but meanwhile it is idle to consider the idea of getting rid of our common evils by adding them together. Beside, it is a fundamental axiom in politics, approved by the experience of older countries as well as our own, that the
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sources of power should never be far removed from those who are to feel its exercise. It is the violation of this principle which produces chronic revolution in France, and makes the British rule so obnoxious to the Irish people. This evil is happily avoided when a natural boundary circumscribes administration within narrow limits. While, therefore, we rejoice together at the new bond between New York and Brooklyn, we ought to rejoice the more that it destroys none of the conditions which permit each city to govern itself, but rather urges them to a generous rivalry in perfecting each its own government, recognizing the
truth that there is no true liberty without law, and that eternal vigilance, which is the only safeguard of liberty, can best be exercised within limited areas. It would be a most for- tunate conclusion if the completion of this bridge should arouse public attention to the absolute necessity of good municipal govern- ment, and recall the only principle upon which it can ever be successfully founded. There is reason to hope that this result will follow, be- cause the erection of this structure shows how a problem, analogous to that which con- fronts us in regard to the city government, has been met and solved in the domain of physical science."
The brilliant oration of Dr. Storrs closed with the following glowing passage : -
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" Local and particular as is the work, there- fore, it represents that fellowship of the nations which is more and more prominently a fact of our times, and which gives to these cities in- cessant augmentation. When by and by on yonder island the majestic French statue of ' Liberty' shall stand, holding in its hand the radiant crown of electric flames, and answering by them to those as brilliant along this cause- way, our beautiful bay will have taken what specially illuminates and adorns it from Cen- tral and from Western Europe. The distant lands from which oceans divide us, though we touch them each moment with the fingers of the telegraph, will have set their conspicuous double crown on the head of our harbor. The alliances of nations, the peace of the world, will seem to find illustrious prediction in such superb and novel regalia. Friends and fellow- citizens, let us not forget that in the growth of these cities, henceforth united and destined ere long to be formally one, lies either a threat or one of the most conspicuous promises of the time. Cities have always been powers in history. Athens educated Greece as well as adorned it, while Corinth filled the throbbing and thirsty Hellenic veins with poisoned blood. The weight of Constantinople broke the Roman Empire asunder. The capture of the same magnificent city gave to the Turks their establishment in Europe for the follow-
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
ing centuries. Even where they have not had such a commanding preeminence of loca- tion, the social, political, moral force proceed- ing from cities has been vigorous, in impres- sion, immense in extent. The passion in Paris, for a hundred years, has created or directed the sentiment of France. Berlin is more than the legislative or administrative centre of the German Empire, and even a government as autocratic as that of the Czar, in a country as undeveloped as Russia, has to consult the popular feeling of St. Petersburg or of Moscow. In our nation, political power is widely distributed, and the largest or wealthiest commercial centre can have but its share. Great as is the weight of the aggregate vote in these henceforth compacted cities, the vote of the State will always overbear it. Amid the suffrages of the nation at large it can only be reckoned as one of many consenting or conflicting factors. But the influence which constantly proceeds from these cities - on their journalism not only, or on the issues of their book presses, or on the multitudes going forth from them -but on the example pre- sented in them, of educational, social, religious life - this, for shadow and check, or for fine inspiration, is already of unlimited extent, of incalculable force. It must increase as they expand, and are lifted before the country to a new elevation. A larger and a smaller sun are
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THE MODERN CITY
sometimes associated, astronomers tell us, to form a binary centre in the heavens, for what is doubtless an unseen system receiving from them impulse and light. On a scale not utterly insignificant a parallel may be here- after suggested in the relation of these com- bined cities to a part, at least, of our national system. Their attitude and action during the war- successfully closed under the gallant military leadership of men whom we gladly welcome and honor - were of vast advantage to the national cause. The moral, political, intellectual temper which dominates in them as years go on, will touch with beauty or scar with scorching and baleful heats extended regions. Their religious life, as it glows in intensity, or with a faint and failing lustre, will be repeated in answering image from the widening frontier. The beneficence which gives them grace and consecration, and which, as lately, they follow to the grave with uni- versal benediction; or, on the other hand, the selfish ambitions which crowd and crush along their streets, intent only on accumulated wealth and its sumptuous display, or the glit- tering vices which they accept and set on high - these will make impressions on those who never cross the continent to our homes, to whom our journals are but names. Surely we should not go from this hour, which marks a new era in the history of these cities, and
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
which points to their future indefinite expan- sion, without the purpose in each of us that so far forth as in us lies, with their increase in numbers, wealth, equipment, shall also pro- ceed, with equal step, their progress in what- ever is noblest and best in private and in public life; that all which sets humanity for- ward shall come in them to ampler endow- ment, more renowned exhibition; so that, linked together, as hereafter they must be, and seeing 'the purple deepening in their robes of power,' they may be always increas- ingly conscious of fulfilled obligation to the nation and to God; may make the land, at whose magnificent gateway they stand, their constant debtor, and may contribute their mighty part toward that ultimate perfect hu- man society for which the seer could find no image so meet or majestic as that of a city, coming down from above, its stones laid with fair colors, its foundations with sapphires, its windows of agate, its gates of carbuncles, and all its borders of pleasant stones, with the sovereign promise resplendent above it -
' And great shall be the peace of thy children.'"
The newspapers tendered homage to the leaders of the Bridge movement, and to the guiding minds of the vast mechanical tri- umph-to John A. Roebling, Washington A. Roebling, Henry C. Murphy, William C.
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Kingsley, J. S. T. Stranahan, and others who had been prominent in the labors of organiza- tion and of execution.
The original cost of construction amounted to $15,000,000. The total number of passen- gers on promenade, roadway, and railroad during 1883 was 5,332,500. The total num- ber in 1892, the year after the promenade toll was removed, was 41,772,808. The statistics for 1893 show that the traffic was highest in December and lowest in August. The earn- ings of the Bridge are thus shown : -
From May 23, 1883, to Dec. 1, 1884 .
“ Dec. 1, 1884, " Dec. 1, 1885
$682,755.42 622,680.31
66
1886, “ 1887 938,281.21 66 66 1887, “ 66 1888 · 1,012,254.82
66 1888, “
66 66 1889, " 1890, " 1891, " 1892, “
66 1885, 66 1886 . . 870,207.43
1889 1,120,024.16 · 1,239,493.90 1,176,447.95
1890 1891 66 66 1892 · 1,801,661.48 66
1893 1,590, 140.03
Total
$11,053,946.71
The receipts from all sources for the year ending December 1, 1893, were as follows : City of Brooklyn construction account, $150,000; city of New York construction account, $75,000; receipts from tolls, $1,252,908.04; material sold, labor, etc., $559.91 ; interest,
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$2,426.03; rent, real estate, and telegraph wires, $ 109,246.05. Total, $1,590,140.03.
The management of the Bridge was formed under control of a board of twenty trustees, eight being appointed by the Mayor, comp- troller, and auditor of Brooklyn, and eight by the Mayor, comptroller, and president of the Board of Aldermen of New York city. Under an act of the Legislature, passed April 4, 1893, on April 12 following, this board was replaced by the present board of trustees, con- sisting of two persons appointed by the Mayor of the city of Brooklyn, two persons appointed by the Mayor of the city of New York, at a salary of $3000 each, and the mayors and comptrollers of the two cities, members ex officio, the appointed trustees to hold office for five years.
Supplementing the work of the Bridge are the elevated railroads and the electric or " trol- ley " system. Six steam railroads run into the city, four running to Coney Island, one to Rockaway Beach, and one, the Long Island Railroad, connecting with the railroad system of Long Island. Sixteen ferries connect the bay and river front with New York. The New York and Brooklyn Ferry Company car- ried about 16,000,000 passengers in 1893.
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The boundaries of the city, measuring about thirty-two miles, include an extended water front that is one of the most picturesque in the country. The Erie basin and Atlantic docks on the southern extremity of the line represent an immense industry in grain ship- ments. Grain-elevators, coaling-stations, store- houses, the chief naval station in the United States, and the big establishments of the great- est sugar-refining district in the world, com- bine to give the river front an unusual in- terest.
The great docks on the southwestern water front represent important industries in which Brooklyn occupies a foremost place. The Atlantic basin covers forty acres, and is sur- rounded by brick and granite warehouses on three sides. These are 100 feet in depth, and three to five stories high. The basin contains four piers, three of which are covered, and are 700, 800, and 900 feet in length, by 80 feet in width. South central pier, 900 feet long, is the largest in the port. In the basin are seven elevators, six of which are controlled by the New York Grain Warehousing Company, the seventh being owned by Pinto Brothers. At- lantic basin is the largest grain-depot in the world. Its frontage line of basin and piers
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
measures three miles. South central pier is leased by the Union Hamburg and the Nica- ragua and Central American lines of steam- ships. Barber & Co. and T. Hogan & Sons control the east central pier; Funch & Edye's steamships dock at the south central pier, as do the lines to Bordeaux and Oporto. At the west central pier many goods from the Indies are unloaded, especially plumbago and cocoa- nut oil. The entrance to the basin is 200 feet in width. The north pier is much used by Italian barks. The basin has a uniformed police force of its own.
In this region also are finely appointed shipyards and dry docks, the Anglo-American docks, opened in 1866, being the largest in the United States. The chamber of Dock No. 1 is 510 feet in length, and that of Dock No. 2, 610 feet. Most of the large iron ships that are docked at the port of New York are hauled up here. On the old Williamsburgh water front are the vast sugar-refineries, the greatest group of the kind in the world, and representing Brooklyn's greatest manufactur- ing interest. The output of most of these great hives of industry is now controlled by the American Sugar Refining Company. The largest of the refineries melts 2000 tons of raw
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sugar per day, producing over 12,000 barrels of refined sugar. Vessels from the West Indies and other points as remote as Java line the piers at this part of the water front, load- ing with barreled sugar.
Large cooperages and extensive oil refineries occupy the water front to the north, the great Standard Oil Company having its plant in this region.
The United States reservation, known as the Navy Yard, occupies about 112 acres in the bend of the river to which the Dutch gave the name that still clings, the Wallabout. This is the chief naval station of the United States. It contains trophies of the three great wars, and the 6000 feet of water front is al- ways made interesting by the presence of one or more ships of war.
In 1884 Brooklyn obtained from the United States Government a lease of the 422,525 square feet of land on the east of the Navy Yard, and adjoining the Wallabout canal. On this plot a large market has grown up and supplied the city with a marketing centre of which it long stood in need. In July, 1890, an act of Congress authorized the sale of the fee-simple of the land to Brooklyn; the city authorities completing the purchase in No-
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vember, 1891, at the valuation of $700,000. Later, an additional purchase of adjoining land from the federal government extended the market property to the Wallabout canal, and enabled the increase of the number of lots for stands to 120. The present area of the market lands is bounded as follows: On the north by the Wallabout canal; on the east by the lands of the United States Naval Hos- pital; on the south by Flushing Avenue, and on the west by Washington Avenue.
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