USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress Vol. III > Part 52
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High Bridge, a short distance below Washington Bridge and carrying the old Croton Aqueduct, has long been a conspicuous and striking object in the landscape at this point. And instead of McCombs Dam Bridge, the ancient wooden structure, always out of repair, over which New Yorkers of the last generation rattled in their carriages on the way to Jerome Park races, is soon to be seen a new bridge over the Harlem, so stately and magnificent that few of its kind will venture to assert a
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claim for notice in competition with it. In furtherance of this public improvement, the viaduct over One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street from St. Nicholas Place was opened in 1894 by the Department of Public Works.
A new and improved drawbridge for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, and to provide for all the traffic of the Grand Central Station at Forty-second Street, is now nearly com- pleted across the Harlem River at One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Street and Park Avenue, at an elevation of twenty-four feet above the high water of spring tides. Of the other bridges across the Harlem, that at One Hundred and Thirtieth Street and Third Avenue has
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Washington Bridge, Harlem River.
longest been familiar to visitors to and dwellers in the Annexed District and Westchester County, but is soon to give place to a new structure elevated to the level of the one just mentioned, to facilitate the uses of the water by river craft. The Suburban Rapid Transit Railway, now a part of the general system of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Com- pany, and the Harlem River Branch of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, share the use of the excellent and high draw- bridge extending from the northern end of Second Avenue.
In January, 1895, a drawbridge was opened by the Department of Public Works over the Harlem Ship Canal at the junction of Spuyten
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Duyvel Creek and Harlem River at Kingsbridge Road. This Canal has been made, and is still in process of deepening, by the United States gov- ernment, to meet the demands of commerce between the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. Where what was once called Spuyten Duyvel Creek enters the Hudson River, the old and now out of date drawbridge, built upon piles and just above the level of high water, is still in use by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad ; but such an impedi- ment will not long be tolerated by the commerce the canal is intended for.
Perhaps most of all to a home-returning traveller on the deck of a ship that has just crossed the Atlantic - but in some degree to anybody and everybody, by day or by night, and in every aspect - the harbor of New York is beautiful. The forts that guard the approaches, and well to the north of the formidable works at Sandy Hook, are Wadsworth on the Staten Island shore of the Narrows, Tompkins above it, and Hamil- ton and LaFayette on the opposite line of Long Island. On Governor's Island, the headquarters of the Military Department of the East, is Fort Columbus ; while on a projection of land near the Battery the round pile of Castle Williams comes into view. Willet's Point and Fort Schuyler dominate the East River.
At the Lower Quarantine Station, below the Narrows, a floating hos- pital is maintained for the retention of immigrants dangerous to the health of the community ; and at the main Quarantine Station, on Staten Island, are in evidence the health officers who have so effectually and faithfully kept from the homes of New York the scourges of cholera, yellow fever, and typhus fever, several times of recent years threatened to be brought in by shipping.
With these protections, military and sanitary, and the new system of mortar defences at Sandy Hook, the approaches to New York seem to be thoroughly guarded from any danger now likely to assail us; and be- tween them yearly sails a vast fleet of steamers and other vessels carry- ing from New York travellers, specie, grain, breadstuffs, oil, iron, cattle, and everything else the world beyond demands from our continent, or bringing to us visitors and immigrants in large numbers, with mer- chandise of every variety from all quarters of the globe.
In July, 1880, the last remains of Diamond Reef, situated between Governor's Island and the Battery, were successfully removed, after eleven years spent in patiently drilling and blasting four acres of dan- gerous subaqueous rock.
On the 10th of October, 1885, Flood Rock, the last of the obstructive
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rocky ledges in Hell Gate, in the East River, near Astoria, that since the earliest days of New York have been the dread of navigators forced to plunge into the swirling and treacherous currents around them, was finally cleared away. This event, widely advertised to occur, was antici- pated by many citizens with apprehension of danger to the foundations of their homes ; and preparations were made for it, not a few families on the east side of the town leaving their houses and resorting to the streets or open squares until the explosion should occur and the worst be realized. All, however, passed without an appreciable tremor in the soil of Manhattan Island south of Central Park ; and, under the direc-
Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty, Bedloe's Island.
tion of General John Newton, the engineer of the United States in charge, nine and a half acres of rock were safely and totally demol- ished, - the agencies used for the purpose being 280,000 pounds of dynamite and rack-a-rock cartridges, in great chambers hollowed in the solid reef, with only a thin roof left overhead to be by the explosion dropped into the excavation.
August 5, 1884, was laid upon Bedloe's Island, until then a military post, half a mile to the westward of the Battery in the upper bay, the corner-stone of a pedestal designed by Richard M. Hunt, our great archi- tect, for the colossal copper statue of Liberty Enlightening the World.
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This work of the French sculptor Bartholdi, presented to America at a cost of $200,000 furnished by popular subscription in France, was after- wards placed upon Hunt's appropriate pedestal, provided for it by sub- scriptions and by other efforts of our patriotic citizens, - a large share of the success of the enterprise being due to the New York World. The completion of the work was celebrated here October 28, 1886, by a brilliant parade of troops, including regulars and regiments of the National Guard and an array of the Fire Department, reviewed in Madison Square by the President of the United States, with members of his Cabinet and of the diplomatic corps, the Governor of New York and his staff, M. Bartholdi himself, M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, Admiral James of the French Navy, General Pelissier and General Sheridan, surrounded by an encompassing assemblage of other distinguished people. The cere- monial of the actual unveiling of the statue was somewhat impaired by a fog. Upon that occasion Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs made the prayer opening the exercises, Count F. de Lesseps made an excellent speech in his native language, and the oration of formal presentation was delivered by Senator Evarts ; after which the ropes controlling the canvas over the colossus were loosened by M. Bartholdi, David H. King, constructor of the pedestal, and Richard Butler, the Secretary of the American Com- mittee. The imposing figure of the statue was exposed to such view as the fog allowed, amid the boom of cannon from men-of-war, cheers of the multitude, and the clash of military bands. President Cleveland accepted the gift of France in a felicitous speech, and there were remarks from the Minister of France to America to prelude the spirited Com- memorative Address, made by Chauncey M. Depew. A benediction from Bishop Potter brought the proceedings to a close. October 29th a reception was given at the Chamber of Commerce to our French visitors. The occasion was further commemorated by poems written by Whittier and Stedman, and by an ode by Emma Lazarus, first read in pub- lic by F. Hopkinson Smith at the opening of an Art Loan Exhibition in New York, in aid of the Pedestal Fund, some months before the unveiling.
This statue, at present adorning the entrance to the inner harbor of New York, is much larger than was the Colossus of Rhodes ; the figure is one hundred and sixty-two feet in height, and from the top of the pedes- tal the head-dress reaches an elevation of three hundred and twenty- six feet. The pedestal is a rectangular shaft placed in the parade of the star-shaped granite fortification known as Fort Wood. The weight of the entire structure is forty-eight thousand tons. The work of con- structing the pedestal was done under the supervision of Gen. C. P. Stone,
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engineer-in-chief. The tiara upon the head, and the torch carried aloft as a beacon in the right hand, are illuminated by electricity.
Because it admirably embodies the spirit of the statue, we append the sonnet written by Emma Lazarus.
THE NEW COLOSSUS.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land, Here at our sea-washed sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand Glows world-wide welcome ; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin-cities frame.
" Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp !" cries she With silent lips. " Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free ; The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, - Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, to nie. I lift my lamp beside the golden door! "
The piers and docks on the East River are the special resort of sailing vessels, though steamers also are frequently to be seen there; they have many warehouses near by, and enjoy such convenience of access to ports on Long Island Sound as makes them of great value always. By using the Harlem River as a highway for traffic between the Sound and the localities on the North River above Spuyten Duyvil, twenty-five miles of crowded navigation around the Battery are saved, and the perils of disturbing tides and currents there are escaped; the Harlem itself, however, with all of its actual and possible advantages for many and great uses, has a narrow channel, and is already spanned by so many drawbridges as not to be available for larger craft. Of the water front of New York the most important portion is to be found on the North River, where, with a width of more than three thousand feet between pier-head lines, with a current less rapid and more regular than in the East River, with abundant depth, a straight course, and an unobstructed connection with the Lower Bay, ample room and opportunity are afforded for vessels of every class and size. Foreign commerce is now chiefly conducted with steamships controlled and navigated by great corporations or other associated capitalists, who have severally great fleets, with regular and frequent days for sailing. The prosperity of New York
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depends, first of all, upon foreign commerce; and to provide the best possible facilities for ocean steamers is the leading idea in the new system of docks. Methods of construction have been necessarily deter- mined by the physical conditions. At the Battery, rock is found at about fifty feet below mean high water, but along a considerable part of the line to Fifty-ninth Street it is as much as two hundred feet deep at the pier-heads. Over that rock is a great mud deposit, having, practi- cally, no carrying capacity, and so yielding as to allow any weight rest- ing upon it to sink. The wharves and piers to be there constructed were necessarily to be adapted, therefore, to what has been called "mud flotation ;" the problem was not only unusual, but of great difficulty ;
FILLING
Mean High Water
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EARTH, ASHES
CROSS SECTION OF
BULKHEAD OR RIVER-WALL
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Bulk Head Plan of Construction. (From the Engineer's Drawings.)
and the solution proposed, and thus far carried out with great success, by George S. Greene, Jr., who since 1875 has been the engineer-in-chief, acting under the commissioners governing the Department of Docks, has received the highest commendation of the most competent critics. His work, by the use of piles with a filling of stones between, surrounded by rip-raps, and carrying platforms of heavy timbers which support large concrete blocks that serve as foundations for the masonry on which rest the structures above the water level, has been pronounced by engineers of the first rank to be not only entirely satisfactory in results, but remarka- ble for originality. There is said to be no known better form of construc-
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tion, which promises sufficient permanence of fitness for the purposes it may be required to meet to justify a resort to it with larger cost ; and not the least of the merits of the method now employed by the Dock Department is found in the fact that, for the rapid increase in length of the ocean steamers of these latter days, it allows, without unreason- able cost, for an extension of piers which easily accommodate the longest ships now afloat. These structures are among the most notable of the public improvements that characterize our time. There is a length of several miles from the Battery northward specially adapted to piers for great ocean-going craft; not all of it belongs to the city as yet, but less than fifteen per cent of that space is now required for the special uses it seems particularly intended for; and means can readily be found to divert to other localities the occupants of much of the remainder, - so that we have every probability of provision in the future for an en- larged demand for accommodation of the traffic on which New York, as a competitor with other Atlantic ports for the world's commerce, is based.
The docks and piers of all great maritime cities are interesting to the observer; those of New York, though lacking in some of the solidity and striking effect upon the eye elsewhere to be found, are supremely endowed with the characteristics of animation, variety, and color con- ferred by the types of many nations continually in motion upon them. The United States Bureau of Immigration, now occupying quarters at Ellis Island, a little way from the shore of the Battery, receives all in- tending citizens of the New World who come in the steerage into New York Harbor, carefully inspects them, provides for the ailing or dis- tressed, and establishes communication with their friends, but passes them only when assured they meet the provisions of the law excluding convicts, paupers, lunatics, idiots, those suffering from loathsome diseases or likely to come upon the public for their charge, also polygamists and contract laborers.
During the ten years from 1880 to 1890 inclusive, the total number of immigrants arrived in the United States, not including arrivals from Mexico and the British American Possessions, was 5,246,613, or about one- third of the total immigration into this country for the seven decades since 1820. During the twelve years from 1881 to 1892 inclusive, the total immigration to the United States was 6,430,016, or 38.71 per cent of the total immigration for the seventy-two years from 1821 to 1892, which was 16,611,060. The year of the largest immigration was 1882, when the number of arrivals reached 788,992. In the calendar year 1895, 229,370 alien immigrants arrived at the port of New York. One of
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the noticeable characteristics of the westward tide of late years has been the increasing number of comers from Southeastern Europe and from the Mediterranean region of Asia ; an interesting addition of that kind to our population is a colony of Armenians, some hundreds of whom are estab- lished in and near Greenwich Street, where they have a church and clergy of their own ; the newly arrived may frequently be seen on the streets in Oriental costume ; the leaders among them are merchants importing and dealing in fabrics of the East, familiar with a remarkable assortment of
Immigrants Landing.
languages, but using Arabic chiefly in their contracts and correspondence with each other.
Among the leading nationalities of Europe, Germany has led numeri- cally in the aggregate of arriving immigrants : followed, in the order here given, by Ireland, England, Norway and Sweden, Italy, Russia and Poland, Austria-Hungary, Scotland, China, Switzerland, Denmark, and " all other countries." In late years, with Germany still at the head, the order of the list has shifted to Russia, Italy, Sweden and Norway, and
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Ireland. A large proportion of the entire immigration is made up of unskilled laborers, and a larger proportion consists of those having " no definite occupation." The professional class claims a very inconsiderable share of these numbers. The largest amount of money brought into the country, in thrifty provision for their new life, has been by immigrants from France, - Switzerland, Wales, and Germany following in the order given ; those from Hungary, Italy, or Poland have brought the lowest average amount. Russians have revealed the widest variations in finan- cial conditions. Some of these have been Hebrews once prosperous in affairs ; driven from home by persecution, after converting their property and estates into such money as they could be sold for, several among them have brought as much as $25,000 each ; but the vast majority sailed to America on tickets furnished by the Baron de Hirsch Fund, and with only such small sums in pocket as that fund supplied to them. The exodus of these unfortunate Jews to the United States greatly increased in 1895; but the stream of their immigration is now turning toward the late Baron de Hirsch's colony in Argentina, South America. It is com- plained in California that the Chinese spend in the country little or nothing of their wages. By Italian bankers in New York as much as $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 in an average year is sent back to Italy, of money earned here by rarely overpaid Italian laborers and remitted to their friends at home. A like drain upon us is established by the influx of natives of the Dominion Provinces and Newfoundland ; of these " birds of passage" as many as 100,000 persons come into the, United States annually in search of work, and 50 per cent of them return as regularly to their homes when the open season has ended, carrying for expenditure there the savings of their gains from our soil. It is interesting to note that of this mass of alien people who swarm at our landing-place for immigrants in New York, those most desired by employers throughout the country are British, German, Swiss, and Scandanavians, who soon become thrifty citizens ; the Poles, Huns, and the Latin races are not commonly offered as high wages, and are not in demand except for special occupations, or in some of our Southern States where climate is in their favor. But wherever the immigrants may be desired, it is cer- tain that those from the cities of the old world prefer to remain in New York, which the rapacious among them justly regard as the best field for money-gathering at the expense of hapless citizens. Among domestic servants this class is particularly in evidence, with a result disastrous to the peace of many homes, and gravely threatening to the future conduct of household life in our metropolis.
Viewed, however, from the standpoint of one who observes the pic-
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turesque, when the newly arrived immigrants are landed upon the lower skirts of our city, the medley of color, the babble of various tongues, the admixture of races, can be equalled nowhere in the world. They come from Europe, Asia, South America, the West Indies, Africa, islands of the Atlantic and Pacific, many in their native garb, often carrying up Broadway queer outlandish luggage which tells a story of squalor in haunts of a life far away and otherwise unknown to us. One may see there bands of Russian Jews hairy and haggard, clothed in archaic garments of woollen stuffs once white, blending with a troop of light-hearted Portuguese from the Azores, beribboned, wearing pointed hats, carrying guitars and cages of canary birds, followed by an uncouth procession of sturdy folk from Iceland, clad in sheep-skins much the worse for wear; and in a little while these melt away to be succeeded by others, who in turn are absorbed into the vast population distributed on the great bosom of our broad and fruitful land, that has room and maintenance and opportunity to spare for all.
Of this great throng, those who remain in the city of New York are not of one mind as to becoming American citizens ; there are here to-day as many as fifty thousand adult male inhabitants, of foreign birth but entitled to be naturalized upon application, who have never renounced their allegiance of birth to assume the character and privileges of citizen- ship. But the fact that native Americans, born of parents each of whom was also a native, are in the minority not only of citizens entitled to vote but of those who actually do vote at any of our elections, shows what a rendezvous this is for the nations of the world, and reveals the necessity for the vast expenditures we shall have occasion presently to refer to, of public moneys raised by taxation every year to support and extend our common-school system. To maintain and develop our republican institutions, based upon the wide foundation of universal suf- frage, the first requisite and guaranty is education of the masses to equip them for an intelligent exercise of the franchise which selects the representatives and determines the policies of a great democracy. It is in our common schools that the immigrants of tender age, and the children of those who have already attained to years of maturity when they arrive, are fitted for the duties and responsibilities of participation in affairs of government dependent upon the free ballot of all ; and upon the equal opportunity here afforded for comfort and prosperity insured by the sufficient rewards of industry bestowed with intelligence we must rely for escape from the terrors elsewhere attendant upon what has been aptly called a " cultured proletariat."
The proposed renovation or rebuilding of piers, the promise of roof- -
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gardens on top of some of them, the Aquarium at the Battery already so nearly complete, and the additional parks to be provided along the rivers, inspire the hope that what is now lacking in external finish of our water front will be supplied in the near future.
The passenger traffic of our mercantile marine, for others than the hordes of immigrants we have been speaking of, increases enormously. The " first-class " accommodation of the Atlantic liners, great and small, knows no diminution of patronage, is more in demand in each succeed-
Proposed New Piers and Arriving Steamers.
ing year. Belonging to the thirty companies in active operation, there are between eighty and ninety steamships now on the ocean ferry in constant service. So even is their general average of time made. and speed sustained, of comfort, of care for passengers, that the winter voy- age is no longer dreaded by timid travellers, and in many cases is selected by those experienced at sea. To Americans whose business or pleasure calls them abroad it is no uncommon thing to make the cross- ing several times in the year ; and among families it is now a common method of seeking a summer holiday to "go to Europe." The new arrangements of the "North German Lloyd " and " Hamburg American "
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companies, for regular steamers sailing direct between New York and Mediterranean ports, have met with signal success. The excursions made by some of their boats, going from and returning to New York within three months, have been much frequented; the appointments of these steamers include many of the privileges of luxurious yachts, and at a reasonable rate of charge.
But, in these days of dependence upon foreign shipping for such ser- vice, the event most notable to New Yorkers, in the late history of pas- senger ships crossing the Atlantic, is the establishment of the new " American Line" in 1893, when the Stars and Stripes were hoisted upon the steamers " New York " and " Paris." Southampton is their English port. On the 22d of February of that year President Harrison, several mem- bers of his Cabinet, and an assemblage of well-known citizens, attended, by invitation of the International Navigation Company, on board the " New York," when those two leviathans of the deep were formally trans- ferred from the British flag. Since that time, two new American-built ships of proportions quite equal to theirs, the "St. Paul" and the "St. Louis," have been added to their fleet.
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