USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > A history of the city of Brooklyn and Kings county, Volume II > Part 9
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Meanwhile, operations were begun in the direction of an effort to raise the required $5,000,000 by private subscription, but they were not successful, and it was determined to apply to the cities for aid. Application was made to Brooklyn, through the Common Council, for $ 3,000,000. After many months the incorporators were successful, and later, in 1868, the city of New York subscribed the $1,500,000 required, and the stockholders made up the additional $500,000.
The shares, as has been shown, were fixed at $100 each. The list of the original sub- scribers, as revealed by the original minute- book still in the possession of the trustees, is very interesting. It is as follows: -
SUBSCRIBERS
SHARES.
Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City of New York . · 15,000
The City of Brooklyn 30,000
Henry C. Murphy 100
Isaac Van Anden 200
William Marshall
50
Seymour L. Husted 200
Samuel McLean
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BROOKLYN AFTER THE WAR
155
Arthur W. Benson
20
Martin Kalbfleisch 200
Alexander McCue
100
William M. Tweed
560
Peter B. Sweeny
560
Hugh Smith
560
Henry W. Slocum
500
J. S. T. Stranahan
100
Grenville T. Jenks .
50
Kingsley & Keeney
1,600
John H. Prentice
50
William Hunter, Jr.
50
John W. Lewis
50
Total .
· 50,000
After the subscriptions were all made, sev- eral of the subscribers withdrew or failed to make good their promises, whereupon Mr. Kingsley took up their stock and advanced the amount necessary to cover their deficien- cies. In fact, he and the firm he represented took in all over $300,000 of the entire $500,000 subscribed by the New York Bridge Com- pany.
John A. Roebling, who had made a brilliant record as a bridge engineer, was chosen for the responsible post of chief engineer. His son, Colonel Washington A. Roebling, was made first assistant engineer. The plans of Roebling having been duly approved by the War Department engineers, the United
.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
States government commission,1 the Secre- tary of War, and lastly of Congress itself, the company was formally organized in the sum- mer of 1869, with the following directors : Henry C. Murphy, J. S. T. Stranahan, Henry W. Slocum, John W. Lewis, Seymour L. Husted, Demas Barnes, Hugh Smith, William Hunter, Jr., Isaac Van Anden, J. H. Prentice, Alexander McCue, William M. Tweed, Peter B. Sweeny, R. B. Connolly, Grenville T. Jenks.
At this juncture a distressing accident darkened the opening days of the great work. " One morning in June, 1869, Mr. Roebling, in company with Colonel Paine and his other engineering associates, was engaged in run- ning a line across the East River, making the first survey of the site for the Brooklyn foun- dation. Colonel Paine crossed to the New York side and made the necessary signals, while the chief engineer stood on the Brook- lyn side. Just as the operations were ap- proaching completion Mr. Roebling was standing on the rack of one of the ferry slips taking a final observation. At the moment a
1 The single exception to Roebling's plan offered by the commission was that they demanded a central height of 135 feet, instead of 130 feet, in the central span.
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BROOKLYN AFTER THE WAR
ferryboat entered the slip and bumped heavily against the timbers, pressing them back to the point where the chief engineer was standing. His foot was caught between the piling and the rack. Colonel Paine, who was on the boat, noticed that his chief started suddenly, and, while he made no outcry, an expression of agony overspread his countenance. The
first person to reach the side of the injured man was his son, Colonel Washington A. Roebling, and Colonel Paine quickly followed him. The chief engineer was assisted to a carriage, remarking, as he went, 'Oh, what a folly.' He was quickly driven to his resi- dence on the Heights, and a surgeon was summoned. The surgeon found that the toes of the right foot were terribly crushed. It was at once decided that amputation was necessary. Mr. Roebling rejected the sugges- tion of an anasthetic, and personally directed the operations of the surgeon. Nearly all of his toes were taken off at the joints, but he maintained his composure throughout, and endeavored to soothe the apprehensions of his family and friends. During his subsequent illness he preserved intact the use of his men- tal faculties, exhibiting indomitable will power. Eight days elapsed before fears were enter-
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
tained of a fatal result. Then the patient complained of a chill, and it was soon discov- ered that lockjaw had set in. He lived eight days longer, and toward the close suffered the most excruciating agonies, but without com- plaint, and steadily insisted upon directing the method of his treatment. Even after the muscular contraction precluded the possibility of utterance he wrote with a pencil directions for his attendants. He died of lockjaw just sixteen days after receiving his injuries."
For a time work on the bridge was para- lyzed. As soon as possible the directors chose Colonel Roebling to succeed his father, and the great undertaking proceeded.
The mechanical difficulties of the work were enormous. The history of the labors, by which one difficulty after another was over- come, is one of the most absorbing in the an- nals of engineering enterprise. Huge wooden caissons were sunken on the diving-bell prin- ciple to a depth sufficient to assure firm foun- dations for the piers, which were built over them. The Brooklyn caisson was launched on March 19, 1870; the New York caisson, in September, 1871. The greater difficulties existed on the New York side, where an area of quicksand made it problematical whether
159
BROOKLYN AFTER THE WAR
bed-rock could ever be reached. The founda- tion on the New York side was required to be begun at a depth of seventy-eight feet. On the Brooklyn side brick was used under the caisson. On the New York side the space remaining after the lowest point had been reached was filled with concrete.
The most perplexing problem having been solved by the sinking of the foundations, the work advanced steadily. Difficulties with anchorages, materials, contracts, expenditures, and appropriations made the work necessarily slow, and there was a proportionate degree of public impatience. The distant possibility of a completed bridge was the permanent theme of newspaper jest and popular song. But the Brooklyn tower, containing 38,214 yards of masonry, and rising 278 feet above high water, was completed in the spring of 1875, and by the summer of 1876 the New York tower had also been finished.
During this period the pressure on the various city ferries was demonstrating the necessity for some relief to the strain of travel between the two cities. During the year 1869 the Union Ferry Company carried 42,720,000 passengers ; the Roosevelt, Grand, and James Slip ferries, 7,028,000 passengers; the Green-
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
point, 1,622,250; and the Thirty-fourth Street, 2,250,550. The terms of the new lease of the Union Ferry Company included a provision that the fare between five and half-past seven o'clock, morning and evening, be one cent. It was a few months later that the Brooklyn City Railroad Company reduced its rate of fare to five cents.
Mayor Kalbfleisch was reelected Mayor. In his message of January 3, 1871, he places the population of the city in 1870 at 400,000; the taxes levied during the year at $8,000,000; the city debt at $36,000,000. The period was active in building operations. The foundations of the still unfinished Roman Catholic Cathe- dral were laid in 1868. The Twenty-eighth Regiment armory was completed in 1870. The Brooklyn Theatre was begun early in the following year, shortly before the finishing of the new wing of the Long Island College Hospital, and the laying of the corner-stone of the Church Charity foundation at Albany Avenue and Herkimer Street.
Brooklyn acquired a police department dis- tinct from that of New York in 1870. The management and control of this new depart- ment was vested in a board of commissioners, known as the Board of Police of the City of
161
BROOKLYN AFTER THE WAR
Brooklyn, composed of the Mayor and two other persons nominated by him, and appointed by the Aldermen. The first two commissioners thus chosen were Daniel D. Driggs and Isaac Van Anden. Patrick Campbell was appointed chief clerk. Henry W. Van Wagner was placed at the head of the detective squad. The following provisions were embraced in the law establishing the department. " The commissioners shall divide said city into pre- cincts, not exceeding one precinct to each thirty-six of the patrolmen authorized to be appointed. They may also establish sub-pre- cincts and assign two sergeants, two doormen, and as many patrolmen as they may deem sufficient to each sub-precinct, and shall appoint a telegraph operator who shall be assigned to duty by the chief of police. They shall ap- point as many captains of police as there may be precincts, and assign one captain and as many sergeants and patrolmen as they shall deem sufficient to each precinct. The police force shall consist of a chief of police, captains, sergeants, and patrolmen, who shall be ap- pointed by the commissioners. The number of sergeants shall not exceed four for each precinct, and one for each special squad; and the number of patrolmen shall not exceed
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
the present number now doing duty in said city, unless the Common Council of the city of Brooklyn shall, by resolution, authorize a greater number, in which case they shall not exceed the number fixed in such resolutions ; and such resolutions may be passed by the Common Council from time to time as that body may deem expedient. The commis- sioners shall fill all vacancies in the police force as often as they occur."
By the message of Mayor Powell 1 in Janu- ary, 1872, it appears that there were 450 men on the police force, supported at an annual expense of $500,000. The total liabilities of the city were then over $30,000,000, and the total county debt nearly $4,000,000. Dur-
ing 1871 twenty miles of streets were graded and paved, and 2,596 buildings erected. In his second message, a year later, the Mayor reported that the water department was self- sustaining.
The pressure of opinion in favor of a new charter for the city resulted in the appoint- ment of a committee of one hundred, whose report appeared in 1872, shortly before the death of ex-Mayor Kalbfleisch. In May the
1 Samuel T. Powell had occupied the Mayor's chair for two terms, closing in 1861. He again entered the office in 1872.
163
BROOKLYN AFTER THE WAR
charter was passed by the State Assembly. By this charter the offices of Mayor, auditor, and comptroller were made elective; the ex- cise and police departments were consolidated ; the appointment of heads of departments was placed in the hands of the Mayor and Alder- men, the departments being as follows: Police and excise, finance, audit, treasury, collections, arrears, law, assessment, health, fire and build- ings, city works, parks, public instruction.
In November, 1873, John W. Hunter, who had represented the third district in Congress, was chosen Mayor. The Mayor's message in the following January shows that the city debt rose from $30,669,768.50 in 1872, and $32,- 012,884 in 1873, to $37,431,944.
It was in February of this year that a largely attended meeting of the Municipal Union Society urged the consolidation of Brooklyn and New York. Meanwhile the town of New Lots, known as East New York, had voted for annexation to Brooklyn. The city's growth continued at a remarkable rate. In the decade between 1864 and 1874, 19,660 buildings had been erected. Of this number 1786 had been built during the year ending 1874.
Perhaps the most sensational incident of the year 1874 was the announcement of Theodore
164
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
Tilton's action against the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Brooklyn's foremost preacher and orator. The news that the pastor of Plymouth Church was to be sued by his former friend upon charges assailing the integrity of Mr. Beecher's relations with Mrs. Tilton, created intense excitement in the city, and throughout the country.
The action was opened in the City Court before Judge Neilson, and the trial began on January 5, 1875. The public interest aroused by this extraordinary trial has no parallel in the history of the county. During the months of the progress it remained the chief topic of public and private talk in the city. The court room on trial days presented an historic spec- tacle, and excitement reached a great height when, at the end of June, the case was at last closed, and the fate of the great preacher was placed in the jury's hands. It was on July 2 that the jury reported its inability to agree. The case was never retried, and the painful drama thus came to an end.
That such an incident should cast a cloud over Henry Ward Beecher's life was inevita- ble. But the cloud passed away. Mr. Beecher remained at his post, his fame and influence growing; and the celebration of his seventy-
not 50 mag
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BROOKLYN AFTER THE WAR
fifth birthday drew to the Academy of Music one of the most remarkable gatherings ever witnessed in that place. Mr. Beecher's sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," occupied a seat in one of the boxes.1
In 1875 the population of the city was esti- mated at 483,252; that of the county at 494,- 570. In November of this year Frederick A. Schroeder was elected Mayor. Schroeder rep- resented the staunch German element, which had begun long before this period to form an important proportion of the city's population. He was the founder of the Germania Savings Bank. In 1871 he was elected comptroller.
1 Mr. Beecher came to Brooklyn in 1847, and died at his post forty years later, on March 8, 1887. His relations to the city of Brooklyn were exceptional, and in many respects mar- velous. No other single personality in this city ever won a prominence so significant, so salutary, so momentous. One of Brooklyn's most brilliant thinkers, writers, and speakers, the Rev. John W. Chadwick, D. D., has spoken of Mr. Beecher as 'the most unique and splendid personality of our civic his- tory ; one of the most unique and splendid in the history of the United States and their colonial beginnings.' The homage to Beecher's genius as a teacher and leader of men has come from thinking men wherever the English language is spoken. The homage which belongs to him as a citizen, as a pastor, as a humanitarian, as a patriot, has been enthusiastically offered by his fellow-countrymen, and particularly by his neighbors in the city of Brooklyn. The bronze monument to Mr. Beecher, designed by John Q. A. Ward, was placed in front of the City Hall in 1891.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
His opponent in a heated mayoralty contest was Edward Rowe.
The most extraordinary incident of the year 1876 was the burning of the Brooklyn Theatre in December, and the loss of 295 lives. This tragedy caused intense excitement throughout the city. The temporary morgue on Adams Street presented the most ghastly spectacle the city had ever witnessed. After all possible identification had taken place, 100 unclaimed bodies were publicly buried at Greenwood.
CHAPTER XIV
THE MODERN CITY
1877-1890
Rapid Transit. James Howell, Jr., elected Mayor. Work on the Bridge. Passage of "Single Head " Bill. John Fiske on the "Brooklyn System." Seth Low elected Mayor. His Interpretation of the " Brooklyn System." Reëlection of Low. Opening of the Bridge. Bridge Statistics. Ferries and Water Front. Erie Basin. The Sugar Industry. Navy Yard. Wallabout Market. Development of the City. Prospect Park. Theatres and Public Buildings. National Guard. Public Schools. Brooklyn Institute. Private Educa- tional Institutions. Libraries. Churches, Religious Societies, Hospitals, and Benevolent Associations. Clubs. Literature, Art, and Music. The Academy of Music. "The City of Homes."
BROOKLYN had now fairly entered upon what may be called its modern period. The first wires had been stretched for the great Bridge, and soon afterward the six years' labor at Hell Gate culminated in the long-antici- pated blast. Ground had been broken for the new Municipal Building, the Ocean Parkway had been opened for travel, work had begun on the Brooklyn elevated road, rapid transit trains had begun running on Atlantic Avenue,
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
the Manhattan Beach and Sea Beach rail- roads were opened to Coney Island, which had started upon its career as a great popular watering-place and pleasure resort, and a line of Annex ferryboats was opened between Jew- ell's Wharf and Jersey City.
In the mayoralty contest of 1877 James Howell, Jr., was elected on the Democratic ticket. The bill which had passed the Legis- lature at the previous session reduced the Mayor's salary from $10,000 to $6000. Mayor Howell took a strong interest in the progress of the Bridge, and succeeded Henry C. Mur- phy as a trustee.
Work on the Bridge advanced steadily dur- ing the years 1877 and 1878. The breaking of a strand of the cable at the New York anchorage in June, 1878, resulted in the death of several workmen. In April, 1880, farewell services were held in St. Ann's Church, at Washington and Prospect streets, preparatory to the removal of the building, to make way for the Bridge approach. The prospective area of the approach necessitated the removal of much property, and the slow work of demo- lition and advance still continues, after fifteen years, to present unsightly pictures at the threshold of the city.
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THE MODERN CITY
Mayor Howell's message in January, 1880, revealed the fact that the taxable value of property in the city had reached $232,925,699, which was an increase of nearly $3,000,000 over the figures for the previous year.
An important event for the city was the passage in May, by the Legislature, of the "Single Head" bill, by the provisions of which the system of triple heads of departments was abolished, and complete appointive power and responsibility vested in the Mayor. This rad- ical step toward municipal reform and good government was one which could not fail to attract the attention of the country, since Brooklyn was the first great city to take it, and the experiment was watched with the liveliest interest by all students of municipal government.
John Fiske, in his admirable work on "Civil Government," thus succinctly describes the new system of city government: " Besides the council of [nineteen] Aldermen, the people elect only three city officers, - the Mayor, comptroller, and auditor. The comptroller is the principal finance officer and book-keeper of the city; and the auditor must approve bills against the city, whether great or small, before they can be paid. The Mayor appoints,
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
without confirmation by the council, all execu- tive heads of departments; and these executive heads are individuals, not boards. Thus there is a single police commissioner, a single fire commissioner, a single health commissioner, and so on; and each of these heads appoints his own subordinates; 'so that the principle of defined responsibility permeates the city government from top to bottom.'1 In a few cases where the work to be done is rather discretionary than executive in character, it is intrusted to a board; thus, there is a board of assessors, a board of education, and a board of elections. These are all appointed by the Mayor, but for terms not coincident with his own; 'so that, in most cases, no Mayor would appoint the whole of any such board unless he were to be twice elected by the people.' But the executive officers are appointed by the Mayor for terms coincident with his own, that is, for two years. 'The Mayor is elected at the general election in November; he takes office on the first of January following, and for one month the great departments of the city are carried on for him by the appointees of his pre- decessor. On the first of January it becomes
1 Seth Low on " Municipal Government," in Bryce's Amer- ican Commonwealth, vol. i. p. 626.
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THE MODERN CITY
his duty to appoint his own heads of depart- ments,' and thus 'each incoming Mayor has the opportunity to make an administration in all its parts in sympathy with himself.'
" With all these immense executive powers intrusted to the Mayor, however, he does not hold the purse-strings. He is a member of a board of estimates, of which the other four members are the comptroller and auditor, with the county treasurer and supervisor. This board recommends the amount to be raised by taxation for the ensuing year. These estimates are then laid before the council of Aldermen, who may cut down single items as they see fit, but have not the power to increase any item. The Mayor must see to it that the administrative work of the year does not use up more money than is thus allowed to him." 1
The first Mayor to act under this charter amendment was Seth Low, who was elected,
1 Commenting on the Brooklyn system, Fiske says: "It insures unity of administration, it encourages promptness and economy, it locates and defines responsibility, and it is so sim- ple that everybody can understand it. The people, having but few officers to elect, are more likely to know something about them. Especially since everybody understands that the suc- cess of the government depends upon the character of the Mayor, extraordinary pains are taken to secure good mayors ; and the increased interest in city politics is shown by the fact that in Brooklyn more people vote for Mayor than for Gov- ernor or for President."
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
in 1881, over Howell by a vote of 45,434 to 40,937.1 Low, who was born in Brooklyn, where his family had occupied a distinguished position, and had graduated from Columbia College in 1870, afterward entering the busi- ness house of his father, was in his thirty-sec- ond year when elected to office, a circumstance which, added to the novelty of the conditions under which his administration must work, did not fail to attract special attention through- out the country.
In his first message (January, 1882) Low touched upon the important question of the appointing power : -
" The manifest purpose of the act is to make the Mayor the responsible head of the city government, and to secure a homogeneous government by laying upon each Mayor the necessity of making his appointments at the beginning of his term. To accomplish this purpose the act does some things by direct provision and some things by implication. It provides, in section 1, that the terms of office of certain specified officers shall expire on the first of February, 1882. It then provides, in section 6, that 'after the first day of January,
1 The increase in the bulk of the city vote since 1877 is shown by the fact that the vote for Howell had been 36,343, as against 33,538 for John F. Henry.
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THE MODERN CITY
1882, the Mayor of the city of Brooklyn shall have sole and exclusive power to appoint the successor of any commissioner or other head of department (except the department of finance and the department of audit), or of any assessor or member of the board of edu- cation of said city, when the terms of such officers shall respectively expire, or as by law may then or thereafter be required to be ap- pointed.'
" There are certain officers in the city whose terms of office expired some time in the year 1881, to wit: The corporation counsel, the city treasurer, the collector of taxes, and the registrar of arrears, and to these officers the charter amendment makes no distinct reference. The reason that the present in- cumbents hold over is that, by section 5 of that amendment, all power to appoint during 1881 was taken away from the Mayor and Common Council, where it formerly resided, without being lodged anywhere else, except that the sole power of filling vacancies during 188I was lodged with the Mayor. The evi- dent purpose of this provision was to place the appointment of the successors to the present incumbents of these offices in the hands of the Mayor to be elected by the people in 1881. So much is clear ; but it leaves two points un- certain : First, when are the successors to the present incumbents to be appointed ? Second,
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
when appointed, is it for the balance of an un- expired term, or for two years ?
" I shall be governed by what I believe to be the clear and intelligent purpose of the law. I shall appoint the four officers alluded to so that their terms shall begin practically on the first of February, or at the same time with the officers distinctly mentioned in the act, and I shall appoint them for two years."
Speaking further of appointments and re- movals, Low said: -
" It is a matter of grave public concern for the people to know in what spirit an officer intrusted for the first time in the history of our city with such powers purposes to use them. The whole theory of the law is that the Mayor shall be responsible for the admin- istration of the city's affairs, and for the policy which animates the different departments. It makes the relation of the different commis- sioners and heads of departments to the Mayor practically that of the cabinet officer to his chief. I feel it to be a matter of no less im- portance to my successors than to myself to emphasize this thought. It is no reproach to Mr. Evarts that President Garfield placed Mr. Blaine at the head of the State Department. It is no reproach to Mr. Blaine that President Arthur has called Senator Frelinghuysen to succeed him; and what is true of the State
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