USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 44
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THE STOCK EXCHANGE BUILDING
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NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Among the many influences which were potent in fixing the commercial destiny of New York the improvement of internal communication was a very important one, though outside of the river traffic to Albany there was not, except the close neighboring settlements in New Jersey and Long Island, any regular communication other than a horseback express to Boston, and the stage line to Philadelphia, until Clinton's wise policy created the Erie Canal, and with it communication by water with Buffalo and the Great Lakes.
The greatest impetus to trade after that came with the railroads, first with those of local importance reaching up into Westchester and other neigh- boring counties, and afterwards with the great trunk lines, of which the first to enter the city was the Erie Railroad, which was completed to Dunkirk on Lake Erie in 1851. It was chartered with the idea of being to the southern tier of counties what the Erie Canal had been to the northern counties. The road had been built under very great disadvantages, and its construction had been halted by financial troubles and a receivership, but, after its completion in 1851, it added very greatly to the trade of New York. This was the only one of the great trunk lines that was originally chartered as such, the other through systems each having been the result of consolidation of various local roads.
The second trunk line to be completed into the city was the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, which was a consolidation of ten or more railroads, each locally organized between Buffalo and New York, and united into one system, November 1, 1869, by the consolidation of the New York Central Railroad and the Hudson River Railroad. It now comprises lines in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts (including the West Shore Railroad), aggregating 3882.28 miles operated. What is known as the New York Central System extends beyond these lines to the West. including the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern System, the "Big Four" System, Michigan Central System, "Nickel Plate" Road, and many others, giving the New York Central connections, under the same general management, with Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and all the most important points of the Central West. The Grand Central Station, begun in 1869 and completed in 1871, was long the finest in the city; was remodeled in 1899, and taken down in 1910 to make room for the much larger structure planned to take its place, annexes to which, fronting on Lexington Avenue, had already been built for the accommodation of the general offices of the company. The electrification of the company's lines within a radius of twenty- five to thirty miles of the city is one of the most notable engineering works of modern times.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the third trunk line to reach the city, was organized in its present form by the consolidation of the original
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THE PENNSYLVANIA SYSTEM
Pennsylvania Railroad, first opened from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, February 15, 1854, with the United Railroads of New Jersey, which was a combina- tion of five independent railroads in New Jersey, and became a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad in June, 1871, giving to that road a direct through line from Philadelphia to Jersey City, connected by ferries with the stations of the Pennsylvania Railroad in New York City. The great Pennsylvania System, which now extends to all the great centres of population and commerce in the middle States in the Mississippi Valley, has greatly increased its connec- tion with the trade of New York by its wonderful enterprise in the building of its great tunnels under the Hudson and the East Rivers and under the City of New York, and the building of its magnificent terminal station at Seventh Avenue and Thirty-second Street in New York City. By its acquire- ment of the Long Island Railroad as part of the system this railroad company has given to Brooklyn and Queens Boroughs, as well as Manhattan, direct communication with all parts of the continent, and has secured control of the most complete terminal, yard and shipping facilities of any railroad entering the metropolis.
The Long Island Railroad Company was chartered in 1834, and was first built from Jamaica to Hicksville, but in 1844 had reached Greenport, which is at present the eastern terminus of its main line. It acquired much impor- tance in that early day, because it formed the first railway mail route between New York and Boston, the mails then being transferred by steamboats from Greenport to the Connecticut shore. The company afterward acquired other lines on Long Island by purchase and lease, the system now comprising the Main Line from Long Island City to Greenport, 94.74 miles; Long Island City to Montauk, 115.13 miles; owned branches amounting to 106.48 miles; leased branches 63.75 miles; and the New York and Rockaway Beach Rail- way II.74 miles, reaching all important points in Long Island, and possessing great value to New York, as the means of bringing to the metropolis the extensive farm products of the island, besides operating a valuable suburban service from New York to the numerous villages and seaside resorts on the island. This important system has become a part of the Pennsylvania Rail- road with which it now has direct connection by way of the newly constructed tunnels under East River into the Pennsylvania Station at Seventh Avenue and Thirty-second Street, greatly increasing its usefulness and value.
The Philadelphia and Reading Railway and the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which is owned by the Philadelphia and Reading, together constitute another of the important railroad systems reaching New York, with tracks extending from Jersey City to many points in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and is one of the favorite lines of travel between New York and Philadelphia, with hourly trains.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Through a traffic arrangement with the Philadelphia and Reading, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company has an entrance into New York, having its own terminals at the northern end of Staten Island, and forming one of the most important commercial links between New York and the South.
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which was organized first in 1853, gained an entrance to Jersey City and New York in 1868, by its lease of the Morrison and Essex Railroad, and by extending its lines to Buf- falo and Oswego on Lake Ontario, it became not only a great coal road reach- ing the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania, but also a competitor of the Erie and other lines from points on the Northern Lakes for passenger as well as for freight traffic.
The West Shore Railroad and the New York, Chicago and St. Louis ("Nickel Plate") Railroad were both originally built as competing through lines to the West, but were afterward absorbed by the New York Central Sys- tem.
In the early days of the city when all the people in New York lived in walking distance of the City Hall on Wall Street, the transportation problem was of no public importance, although the "people of quality" kept their pri- vate carriages. As the city grew, however, the question of means of con- veyance between home and business assumed greater importance and led, in 1830, to the establishing of a line of stages, the first of which ran from Bowl- ing Green to Bleecker Street. Rival lines were soon established and the stages became very numerous, each claiming to have the most elegant vehicles, which were given attractive names, such as George Washington, Lady Washington, DeWitt Clinton, Lady Clinton, and the like. The villages of Greenwich and Yorkville were the northern termini of some of these lines, and larger vehicles were soon demanded, to meet which demand omnibus lines were established.
The New York and Harlem Horse Railroad, the first of its kind in the world, was organized in 1831, and made its first trip from Prince to Four- teenth Streets on November 26, 1832, the line soon afterward being extended to Harlem Bridge. John Stevenson, who built the first tram car run on that road, established, in 1836, a large car manufactory in Harlem.
As the city grew the horse-car lines were extended in every direction, and although horse cars have been discarded in nearly every other important city in the world, a few still remain in New York, though whether they are retained as historical mementos or for some other reason does not seem to be very clear. By far the larger number, however, and all the principal lines, are now operated by electric traction, the wires of the systems being laid underground in Manhattan, while in the other boroughs the trolley system is in use. On several of the lines the cable system was used for several years,
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BEGINNINGS OF RAPID TRANSIT
but those roads were later electrified. There have been many changes in ownership of the lines in Manhattan, and at one time they were all combined under one management, giving the patrons the advantage of transfers between all the lines, but legal complications destroyed the combination and the lines reverted back to the old companies, so that many trips which could formerly be made with one fare now require two or more. Various improvements in service and convenience have been introduced during recent years, however, one of the most important being the pay-as-you-enter style of cars.
From the primitive conditions of the early horse-car days of Manhattan Island to the apparently insatiable demands for urban and interurban rapid transit of the present, marks a rapid and transforming change.
Given a water-bound city shaped like a flattened cone, with millions of people crowding the entire surface, the larger part of whom have to be car- ried daily by land to and from a very small area in its narrowest end; add to this other millions from outside the city who are being daily brought in vari- ous ways across the water to the same congested area, and there are pre- sented transportation problems of the most difficult kind.
After the horse railroad made its initial success the lines multiplied and the roads became numerous. Many thought the business would be overdone, but when people found there was some way other than walking they began to spread out along these lines of transportation. The metropolitan growth was such that the transportation system never caught up with the constant demand for more. The wide end of the flattened cone-Manhattan Island-filled with people who loaded down the surface cars and found them all too slow, while beyond the Harlem lay a larger and wider territory waiting for means of transit to the growing activities of the lower end of the island.
The demand for rapid transit became loud and insistent. The surface being preempted, the solution seemed to be in elevated roads, for which the outcry began a year or so after the Civil War. Over forty plans were sub- mitted to the New York Legislature in 1867. The system proposed by Charles C. Harvey was that which met the widest approval, and that inventor was granted permission to build an experimental track from Cortlandt Street, through Greenwich Street and Ninth Avenue to Thirtieth Street. The con- struction of this road was begun in 1867, and it was opened for operation in 1870, the cars being operated by an endless chain driven by stationary engines located at four different points along the line.
Operation by endless chain proved a failure, and the motive power was therefore changed, in 1871, to a dummy engine, the equipment in that year consisting of one dummy engine and three passenger cars. The road in that year passed into the hands of a new corporation, known as the New York Elevated Railroad Company.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
In the session of 1871-1872 a charter was granted by the Legislature of New York for another elevated road, known, from its projector, Dr. Rufus H. Gilbert, as the "Gilbert" road, which was to be a pneumatic tube, suspended from lofty arches, the trains of which would be out of sight and practically noiseless. The pneumatic idea proving impracticable, the company planned to make the proposed tube without a top and construct a steam road through it, in which the train would still be out of sight of residents and those in the streets. Further thought seeming to make the trough seem of little value, it was decided to change the plan to that of a simple elevated steam railroad similar to that already in operation on Greenwich Street. Much public oppo- sition and a very large amount of litigation followed the announcement of this change of plan.
The rapid transit problem was taken up by the Legislature in 1875, and the Husted Act was passed, providing for the appointment of a commission to decide if a system of rapid transit for New York was needed, and, if so, to establish the proper routes, such commission to be appointed by the mayor of New York. Mayor Wickham appointed to that commission Joseph Seligman, Lewis B. Brown, Cornelius H. Delamater, Jordan L. Mott and Charles J. Canda, who, meeting first on July 13, 1875, and continuing their work through the summer, reported in favor of steam railways upon Ninth, Sixth, Third and Second Avenues, assigning them to the Gilbert road and to the New York Elevated Railroad Company, which was then operating the little road on Greenwich Street.
Following the award of the commission the work of construction was renewed, although litigation and injunctions hampered progress, but the New York Elevated had, by 1876, so extended its road that it advertised that it was running "forty through trains per day" between the Battery and Fifty- ninth Street. Cyrus W. Field secured a controlling interest in that company in 1877, and under his executive initiative the road was rapidly pushed toward completion, especially after a decision of the Court of Appeals which declared constitutional the charters of that road and of the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad Company, and dissolved all the injunctions which had been issued against the two corporations.
The Metropolitan Elevated Road was the name chosen for the Sixth Avenue road, after it had passed from the control of Dr. Gilbert. It was opened from Rector Street to the end of Sixth Avenue, at Central Park, on June 5, 1878. The Third Avenue road was completed to Forty-second Street and opened on August 26, 1878. The two companies were consoli- dated in 1879 under the title of the Manhattan Railway Company. In 1880 the Second Avenue line was completed and opened to Sixty-seventh Street, and soon thereafter the four lines had reached Harlem.
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ELEVATED ROADS AND THE SUBWAY
The Suburban Rapid Transit Railroad Company built a road from One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Street, in Harlem, crossing a bridge and running through the villages of Mott Haven and Melrose to Central Morrisania, at One Hundred and Seventy-first Street and Third Avenue. This was acquired by the Manhattan Company in 1891 and extended to West Farms and Bronx Park, and now forms the elevated railway system of the popu- lous and rapidly growing borough of the Bronx.
For the nine months ended September 30, 1872, during which period three and one-half miles of elevated railway line were operated, the total number of passengers carried was 137,446. The number became more than proportionately larger as the mileage of the line increased, even while steam continued to be used as the motive power. The elevated lines changed to electricity in the years 1902 and 1903, and since then the growth of the passenger traffic from year to year has been very great.
During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1909, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company operated thirty-seven and sixty-eight hundredths miles of elevated railway, with an equipment consisting of 916 motor cars, 675 trailer cars, and fifty-two service cars, a total of 1643 cars, with one main power station and seven substations necessary for the operation of the road by elec- tricity, and carried 276,250,196 passengers. The number of employees in the service was 5634; the total amount paid in wages, $4,121,896. The thirty- seven and sixty-eight hundredths miles of elevated railway line represent an investment of approximately $96,000,000. The number of passengers car- ried by the elevated railroads for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910, was 293,826,280.
The greatest move in the direction of rapid transit for New York was made by the creation of the subway system. Mention has been made in a previous chapter of the building of the first subway, and the completion of the railroad from City Hall to One Hundred and Forty-seventh Street, October 27, 1904.
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company, which has occupied and operated the subway from its inception, and which also acquired from the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company the elevated railroads, has thus controlled the entire rapid transit system of Manhattan and the Bronx since the autumn of 1904. From the opening of the subway for operation, October 27, 1904, to the close of the fiscal year, June 30, 1905, a period of about eight months, the number of passengers carried was 72,722,890, and the mileage operated was sixteen and ninety-six hundredths miles.
Since then a continuous policy of extension has been carried out. To the north the Broadway extension has been carried to the Yonkers line, and the line on Lenox Avenue branches off beyond One Hundred and
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
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T'AST TRAFFIC OF INTERBOROUGH SYSTEM
Thirty-fifth Street, through a tunnel under the Harlem River, to West Farms and Bronx Park; while south from the Brooklyn Bridge station the line has been extended to South Ferry, between which station and Bowling Green a line branches off to the entrance of the East River tunnel, through which are run through trains to Brooklyn, at Atlantic Avenue, from which point extensions are planned.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1909, the total number of passen- gers carried in the subway was 238,430,146, and the mileage operated was twenty-five and sixty-three hundredths miles. The equipment, June 30, 1909, consisted of 514 motor cars, 309 trailer cars and thirty service cars, a total of 853 cars. The cost of the road and equipment was $91,531,333. The number of employees was 3642, and the total amount paid in wages was $2,735,790.
The subway was originally planned to carry four hundred thousand passengers per day, but during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, the average number of passengers carried daily was over seven hundred thou- sand per day, the total number of passengers for the year being 268.962,115. To accommodate increased travel there was inaugurated a systematic lengthening of station platforms along the entire system to admit of the use of longer trains, by which means an increased carrying capacity can be obtained.
The total number of passengers carried for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1909, by the Interborough System (elevated roads and subways) was 514,680,342; and for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910, was 562,788,395.
The extension of the rapid transit systems of the city was, in the fall of 1910, engaging the attention of the city authorities, the Public Service Commission and the several companies identified with the problem of extending the transit facilities to the districts most needing them in the various boroughs.
Even more important than rapid transit to the Greater City is a suffi- cient supply of pure water. Reference has been made in a former chapter to the earlier service in this direction, and to the joyous celebration of the citizens of New York when the water supply from the Croton watershed was turned on. That system has since been frequently extended, but the most important of all of the arrangements made for securing a better and more adequate water supply for New York is involved in the new Cats- kill water supply project, which proposes to bring into this city a very large additional supply of pure mountain water from four distinct water- sheds in the Catskill Mountains, to be developed in the following order: I, the Esopus: 2, Rondout; 3. Schoharie: 4, Catskill Creek; with a total
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
estimated yield of about seven hundred million gallons daily. The cost of the project, including filtration plant and main delivery aqueduct to the five boroughs, is estimated at $161,857,000. The water from the Esopus watershed, which has an area of 255 square miles, will be stored in the Ashokan reservoir, thirteen and one-half miles west of Kinston, which will be the main impounding reservoir, about twelve miles in length, with an average width of one mile, and a maximum depth of 190 feet, the reser- voir water surface being 590 feet above the sea level, the submerged area covering twelve and eight-tenths miles and the capacity of the reservoir amounting to one hundred and thirty billion gallons.
The Rondout watershed, covering 176 square miles, will discharge its waters into the Lackawack reservoir, which will be connected by the Rondout aqueduct with the Catskill aqueduct eight and one-half miles below the Ashokan reservoir.
Schoharie watershed, with an area of 228 square miles, will store its waters in Prattsville reservoir, connected by a ten-mile tunnel, through the divide, with the Esopus Creek and the Ashokan reservoir.
The Catskill Creek watershed has an area of 163 square miles, and there will be several reservoirs along Catskill Creek, from the lowest of which an aqueduct will convey the water into the eastern extremity of Ashokan reservoir. .
From the Ashokan reservoir the Catskill aqueduct, with a capacity of five hundred million gallons daily, extends ninety-two miles to an equal- izing reservoir of nine hundred million gallons capacity at Hill View, in Yonkers, just across the New York City line, with a full water level of 295 feet above tide.
A filtration plant, sufficient to purify the entire Catskill Mountain sup- ply, is to be constructed at Eastview, three miles east of Tarrytown. The plan, which has been under contemplation for many years, is now under 'construction and has been fully elaborated with means to extend the water system to all five of the boroughs.
The present water supply of Brooklyn is mostly procured from Long Island, west of Amityville, about one-fifth from the surface streams and the remainder from driven-well stations.
The fighting of a city, in our time, forms such a very important feature of its desirability for residence, that one of the present day can scarcely conceive what a town could have been like in the. olden days, when candles and whale oil formed the only means of lighting, and yet we read, in regard to the celebrations of the Eighteenth Century, about "illumination" being part of the festivities of the people: when they lighted candles in their windows in honor of the King's Birthday.
A CHURCH AMID SKY SCRAPERS
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TRINITY CHURCH FROM THE REAR
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
The introduction of gas in New York City, in 1823, marked a won- derful change, although at first it was very limited, as the lights were poor as compared to those of gas as it is now made and used with the improved styles of burners that are now available.
MMERCE 1901
NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The first capital employed in the production of gas in this city was by the stockholders of the New York Gas Light Company, and the price for five or six years was $10 per one thousand cubic feet. As late as 1860 the gas was sold at from $2.50 to $3.00 per one thousand cubic feet, and in that year the company supplied about thirteen thousand consumers and 3100 street lamps. Instead of selling by the thousand feet, the company charged so much per hundred feet. In 1847 the rate was seventy cents
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GAS SUPPLANTS THE CANDLE
per hundred feet, or only ten cents less than the rate now charged for one thousand cubic feet. In addition to that, there was the rent of the meters to be paid for, which averaged about sixteen cents per month, and, as the company owned the gas fixtures, various prices were charged for these, which frequently amounted to as much as the cost of the gas itself.
The New York Gas Light Company was originally situated at the corner of Centre and Hester Streets and at Canal and Hester Streets. In 1852 the company moved to its new works at Twenty-first Street and Avenue A, and in 1859 it had 496 cast-iron retorts under fire and had six holders of 1,500,000 cubic feet capacity. It is interesting to note that these six reservoirs, which in those days were considered extraordinarily large, did not have, combined, the capacity of the gigantic holder at Astoria. These holders were situated in Park, Roosevelt, Church and New Streets, but with the gradual demand for space for business purposes, they were removed to more remote localities. In the year previous to the beginning of the Civil War, the company had 120 miles of mains, and its business was confined to the territory south of Grand Street.
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