USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume III > Part 61
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The celebration of the hundredth anniversary of American inde- pendence, which occurred during this period of depression, came at an opportune time to aid in restoring business to its proper basis, bring- ing, as it did, into the country new ideas of all kinds, and opening up markets in all directions. At first, the proposal to make an interna- tional exposition at Philadelphia the principal feature of this celebra- tion was somewhat belittled by New-Yorkers. The criticism was freely made that an exhibition of the world's products was quite un- suited to the occasion. These carpings, however, soon gave way to a spirit of general helpfulness, and New-York did her part toward mak- ing the celebration a success, reaping in return her full share of the benefits which accrued thereby to the country at large. The exhibi- tion was a great educator, and from it dates a greater improvement in public taste, in more directions than one, than many people are willing to acknowledge. Since 1876 the architecture of New-York has been distinctly of a higher class; her statues, instead of being disgraces to the city, as are many of those erected previous to this year, have shown a higher public standard of art; new industries have sprung up, directly traceable to the influence of the exposition - in fact, it was an era to be remembered in many ways. Especially should it be kept in mind that in this year was given the first successful demon- stration of the possibility of communication by telephone, so that from this time dates the development of that remarkable instrument.
1 Smith Ely, Jr., was mayor of New-York in 1877-79. As a youth he studied law in the office of Frederic de Peyster, but did not practise his profession, early embarking in the leather business in the "Swamp." In 1857, Mr. Ely was elected to the State senate, where he made an excellent rec- ord, and in 1860 was elected one of the county su- pervisors. During his tenure of this latter office, the Tweed Ring was formed, and Mr. Ely was one of its bitterest foes in opposing the twelve-million- dollar expenditure for the new court-house. Upon
the expiration of his term he was reelected. and. although a Democrat, received the powerful sup- port of Horace Greeley. In 1870 and 1874, he was sent to Congress, and in 1876, while still there, was elected mayor of the city over General John A. Dix, the Republican nominee. Before leaving the mayor's office, where he had made an enviable record, Mr. Ely was offered the congressional nomination, and was also tendered the comptroller- ship, both of which he declined, preferring to re- turn to private life. EDITOR.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
That the French people were fully sensible of the interest that they properly had in the anniversary at hand was shown by two gifts - one, the bronze statue of Lafayette, by Bartholdi, that now stands at the southern border of Union Square, given by the French residents of the city; the other, the noble statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, by the same sculptor, now such a conspicuous object in the harbor. Though the latter was not completed and set in place till many years afterward, the gift was announced at this time, and the arm of the figure, with its uplifted torch, was set up in the exhibition grounds at Philadelphia, and afterward in Madison Square, New- York, as a reminder to the public of what was to follow.
During this same year the Emperor and Empress of Brazil visited New-York - the first reigning sovereigns, save King Kalakaua of the Hawaiian Islands, who came in 1875, to set foot on American soil. The emperor soon became a public favorite by his simple and demo- cratic demeanor, and by the evidence he gave that he had come to this country to see for himself, and to learn all that could be learned by diligent observation. In July, before returning to Brazil, he deliv- ered an address at Chickering Hall before the Geographical Society.
In the November election of the centennial year, Smith Ely was chosen mayor, serving the city acceptably till 1878. The latter year ยท found New-York just taking breath again after the new crises through which it had passed. Tweed had just died in jail, such of his com- panions as were known in their true characters were in exile or in hiding, and the memory of this gang of municipal bandits was fast fading away. The period of depression consequent on the panic of 1873 was almost at an end, and the next year (1879) was to witness a revival of trade. Thus, the close of the period covered by this chap- ter found the city on the highroad to recovery from its financial and governmental troubles, even as at the beginning of the period it was looking forward to new growth after the stagnation caused by the civil war. Of the two periods, that of the Tweed Ring, with its accompanying excessive speculation and the subsequent panic and commercial depression, undoubtedly was more injurious in its effects than the former. The ravages of the war period were far away from the city, while the corruption and financial disaster of the Tweed period were within its very doors. Yet even as the brightest feature of a great war, with all its horrors and its appeal to men's baser in- stinets, is the heroism and sacrifice that attend it, so, too, in the suc- ceeding struggle with corruption and fraud, the efforts of those who successfully opposed it, winning the victory when victory seemed most improbable, and when the plunderers seemed most strongly in- trenched, shine out all the more brightly for the sordidness and public apathy that surrounded them. There was no waving of
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plumes and blare of martial music about their triumph, yet their struggles in the dusty law-courts and in the devious paths of muni- cipal diplomacy were just as real as those of the heroes of 1861-65 on bloody battle-fields, and they saved the city of New-York just as truly as these others saved the Union.
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NEW-YORK DOCKS, EAST RIVER.
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CHAPTER XV
NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS 1879-1892
HIS chapter closes the continuous narrative with the period from 1879 to the present year, 1892, inclusive. Familiar ground, it may be thought, to residents and readers. What, that they have not known or seen of it personally, have the newspaper and its ubiquitous reporter left untold ? But in such a city of bustle and movement, where one day scarcely quiets down before the milkman and market-wagon are abroad beginning another, and where business after its kind is so absorbing, what ephe- mera are events, how quickly thrust out of mind! The incoming wave leaves as much of writing in the sand, and itself soon ebbs and is swallowed up by the next. Moreover, in thirty years and to a new generation, this familiar present, if it is such, will be history-as is already our civil war. Characteristic events must, therefore, at once be caged where the future can find them, before they take wing and are lost. And what writer-in any department-can tell precisely the line, the sentence, the incident, which in the future may have in- terest or be turned to account ? In 1663 there occurred in the north- ern parts of the continent, and especially in Canada, a great earthquake or upheaval, which lasted six months. It probably altered the whole geography of the Saguenay, and was accompanied by terrific and extraordinary meteoric phenomena. Yet to Domine Selyns alone among the colonists are we indebted for the slightest allusion to it: and that in a single line of one of his many fugitive pieces-a poem on "the marriage of the rector of the Latin school."' To the writer and the rector and his bride, now for two hundred years under ground, that line and that allusion, perhaps, seemed of less value than some others in the poem, which are no longer of any interest.
It is to be remembered, also, that the present of the city, even the short period with which we are busy, is itself a development, merely the point we have reached; that already since it began changes have
1 " Anthology of the New Netherlands, or Translations from the Early Dutch Poets of New-York." by Henry C. Murphy. New-York, 1865.
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NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS
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appeared, if only as bubbles upon the surface, which yet indicate intrinsic movements or some stir of thought by which the future will be af- fected for good or ill; and that to note, relate, and col- late, not events and things alone, but these in their meaning and connections, is the legitimate work of his- tory. Standing upon the Brooklyn bridge, and taking it for an illustration, how much it gives us to think about, past, present, and fu- ture! Two hundred years ago, a small wherry, strug- gling slowly across at the summons of a horn, was enough for the existing traf- fic. Even a rainbow span- ning the stream from shore to shore would never have suggested such a thought as that a bridge might some day do the same. It was an idea too colossal, that it ever could be needed or possible. But as the little polyp of the south builds up the coral reef, first one species at a depth of water adapted to its nature, and then another and another species in suc- cession till the whole reef is completed, so upon the op- posite shores, and by the gradual accretion of peoples and wealth, grew the cities which are the real founda- tion of that bridge. In 1867, by official statement, the Union Ferry Company was
THE EAST RIVER BRIDGE.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
transporting upon its boats (besides wagons and teams), forty millions of people a year from city to city. Already, however,-twenty-five years ago,-the rush was growing too great to be handled with safety, and to business men delay, even of minutes, meant money. In fact, as still the question, our own time has before it no greater physical need or line of development than that of locomotion, of movement from place to place, of rapid transit, of the practical reduction of time and space, of distances. Therefore should history recognize the genius of John A. Roebling, who, as narrated in the preceding chapter, de- signed the Brooklyn bridge,-who showed that to be feasible which thus far had never been attempted. When completed, it would be. he declared, "the greatest bridge in existence, the great engineering work of this continent and of the age." He did not live to see it completed, or even
EAST RIVER AND NEW-YORK BAY, FROM THE BRIDGE.
practically com- menced. In 1869 his son, Washington A. Roebling, took up his work and carried it through. Never- theless, the plan of this vast achieve-
ment was in his head, and all the more important details committed to paper, before a stone was laid. And what immense problems con- fronted him at every step of that plan,-problems as to the river-hed and foundations for the towers; problems relating to the great arch (1595 feet 6 inches in length, 135 feet from center to high water) which was to be the main span of the river; problems of weight, and strength, and material; problems of oscillations and resistance to storms, gales, hurricanes; with other problems, numerous and great, relating to the supporting cables, to anchorages, approaches, and (by no means the least) to probable cost and utility and revenue! Take but the one item of those four giant cables, which, cast from tower to tower and anchored upon the shore, were to be the supporting muscle of the bridge, and what anxious thought and computations they re- quired, as to size, weight, length, and ultimate enduring power, from the first wire of galvanized steel, weighing a pound in every eleven feet, up to a total burden-bearing strength of 12,200 tons for each cable! Moreover, with the plan perfected, what a work yet remained,
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NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS
was yet to be begun! First, to sound the river's bed, obtain a foun- dation, and locate the towers which were to be, at the high-water line, one hundred and forty feet by fifty, and two hundred and sev- enty-two feet in height. It took the whole summer of 1869. Whilst busy at this work on the Brooklyn side, the elder Roebling lost his life, and by means of a ferry-boat. It struck the float on which he was standing, and crushed his foot, an injury resulting in lockjaw, and fol- lowed, after sixteen days of suffering, by his death. His son, how- ever, immediately took up the task where he had dropped it-search- ing for a foundation. It was found at forty-five feet below high water mark; on the New-York side at seventy-eight feet. But from the quality of the formation it required a timber base to the ma- sonry; and for that timber-indestructible in salt water-there was yet a danger, small but insidious, powerful, and not to be neg- lected. What would the most consummate labor and skill above water be worth, with the teredo boring and paring away the timbers below! As old among nature's agencies as the coral, whilst the one builds, it is the mission of the other to destroy. The shells of the teredo which were taken from fossil wood about Brussels, it was re- marked, had a strong scent of the ocean; but that ocean belonged to the Eocene era-the dawn, as it were, of existing creatures, and to none nearer. This little bivalve still plies its trade, making up by numbers what it lacks in size. One pile which Mr. Roebling took out from the ferry pier, and which had been of sixteen inches diameter, was found eaten away to a thin stem of three inches between the mud and the low-water line. And so it was decided that the timber, solidified with concrete, was safe in its place below the mud surface for all time. Yet how massive the structure which must sustain a tower above it weighing seventy thousand tons, and a permanent pressure of five tons to the square foot!
One more primal difficulty remained for ingenuity to overcome- the caisson. The actual construction was begun January 3, 1870. We cannot describe it, or Mr. Roebling's many shifting contrivances to meet emergencies. To get it down, as itself the main part of that timber foundation, inch by inch through boulders and an almost im- penetrable soil; working meanwhile in compressed air, where, if a candle were blown out it would. relight itself; where work too long continued in such an abnormal increase of oxygen created danger of paralysis; and where the accident of fire might at any time imperil the whole structure; - all this required the highest qualities of patience and skill. Of one such fire, caused by an empty candle-box, a man's dinner, and a candle held too near the roof of the lowermost chamber, it took months to repair the damage. Through such difficulties have we obtained the Brooklyn bridge ! It was finished, and opened to the
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public, May 24, 1883, at a total cost of $15,000,000. Has it fulfilled its purpose ? With an average present railway transit of about one hun- dred and thirty-five thousand passengers a day, on October 12, 1892 (the Columbian celebration in New-York), the cable-road on the bridge carried 223,625; and, in addition, about 200,000 foot passengers crossed the bridge ! There were 2954 single-car round trips made over a distance of two miles and an eighth. But have we even yet reached the climax of achieve- ment in this direction ? It has merely solved problems in the way of progress and develop- ment. Already two more great bridges are in contemplation for other localities along the East River. The city has THE VERPLANCK HOUSE, 1892. passed the Harlem, has pop- ulous streets where once were outlying manors, and demands bridges; and perhaps the time only lags a little when the Hudson will be spanned to the Jersey shore. Meanwhile, another scheme awaits, perhaps, a little more bridging- to expand by swallowing Brooklyn, and making of the two a single city. So does the snake sometimes take a frog by the hind legs, with a view to similar self-expansion and unification. Occasionally, how- ever, a large and lively frog, preferring its own individuality and the management of its own concerns, bolts the intended absorption even in mid process. In the case of the cities a fine thing it would be, no doubt, for the dominant political power- the undivided sway of such masses, offices, and revenues ; and for him who, though neither mayor nor elected by the people, governs with greater power under the simple name of "the Boss." But herein, what a danger for the State !
One more engineering feat of great importance to the city, and connected with the river itself, should not be passed by. We refer to the opening of Hell Gate, or, as originally written, Hellegat,-the word signifying (according to Judge Benson) "beautiful pass," but applied to the whole of what is now the East River. As the Dutch soon found, however, what looked so "beautiful" when seen from the shore, was something quite different when they undertook to navigate through it. Engineering has already greatly reduced its worst fea- tures; but as portrayed by Cooper, in his vivid narrative of the chase of the Water-witch, the reader can almost replace the past. Nor is Irving's humorous description at all out of the way, where he speaks of the compressed current as shouldered off from this promontory and that, and horribly perplexed by rocks and shoals; taking these
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NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS
impediments in " mighty dudgeon"; at half-tide roaring with might and main, "like a bull bellowing for more drink," but when the tide is full sleeping "as soundly as an alderman after dinner"; in fact, resembling "a quarrelsome toper, who is a peaceable fellow enough when he has no liquor at all or has a skinfull, but who, when half- seas over, plays the very devil!" At the east, in mid-channel, lay Pot Rock, broadside to the current for one hundred and thirty feet, and only eight feet below the surface at low water. Next, and where the stream rounded into the river, Hallett's Point protruded three hundred feet, and in such a way as to throw the stream over upon the " Gridiron " with tremendous violence; to escape which, vessels had almost to shave the Point if they would get round into the eastern channel. Or if, turning to the northern side of the stream, they essayed the middle or the main ship-channel over to the New-York side, there again confronted them, within nine feet of the surface, the dangerous Frying-Pan Ledge, with other rocks and ledges beyond - " treacherous reefs," " intricate pas- sages," and "a thousand dizzying eddies "! The HELL GATE .- EXCAVATIONS AT HALLETT'S POINT. scene of this great aqueous disturbance, always dreaded by seamen, is the narrow strait lying between Manhattan and Ward's Islands and the Long Island shore; yet within it, before the improvements were made, one thousand vessels a year were wrecked or seriously damaged.
Up to 1845 Hell Gate had not even been surveyed. In that year David Hall induced other merchants to join with him in petitioning Congress in the matter. The first survey was made for the Coast Survey Office by Lieutenant (since Admiral) Charles H. Davis, in 1848; and a second, the same year, by Lieutenant (since Admiral) David D. Porter. Still, nothing was done to the purpose beyond the making of a chart in 1851. So far the only plan proposed was that of Lieutenant Davis (reaffirmed by Porter) to blast and dock, and in this way get rid of the most serious dangers. During that year M. Maille- fert, a French engineer, proposed to the Chamber of Commerce the plan of blowing up Pot Rock, the Frying-Pan, and Way's Reef by gunpowder discharged upon the tops, as had been done in Nassau harbor and elsewhere. He offered to do the work for $15,000, and
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
this was subscribed by Henry Grinnell ($5000) and others. The ex- periment lasted a year, and came to an end after only partial success. Nor was work resumed until 1866, when General John Newton took charge of operations. Meanwhile commerce was suffering to the amount of nearly $2,500,000 a year; but yet Congress was chary and slow about giving. Not until 1868 could it be induced to make its first large appropriation, $85,000. In 1869, however, it was $178,200. Then General Newton really began his great and successful labor.
HELL GATE .- BLOWING UP OF HALLETT'S POINT ROCKS.
The removal of individual rocks from mid-stream he determined to leave till later, and to commence with that great outcropping bat- tery,-720 feet in width, and projecting 300 feet into the stream,- Hallett's Point. But any attack from the water side was, under the conditions, impracticable. Therefore, like Grant at Vicksburg, he went inland, threw up a coffer-dam between himself and low water, and for a series of years sat down "over against" his stubborn objec- tive, Hallett's Point. Henceforth it was a work of patient under- mining, and for his men of perpetual night and day drill, gallery following gallery out to the verge of the reef, and under a roof of rock whose old seams or cracks or rottenness might at any time pour down upon them a deluge. Not till Sunday, September 24, 1876, was everything ready for the great explosion, which was to be the end of the Hallett's Point obstructions. The supporting piers were all charged with explosives in groups, every eighth group having its own battery, all of them connected with one finger-key on shore. The gal- leries were then flooded, and at high tide the explosion took place. It lasted three seconds. A column of water was thrown up more than fifty feet; yet, though fifty-two thousand pounds of explosives were used, no damage to property was done. In Astoria, a pitcher of
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NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS
water standing on the ground close to the same strata of rock was not even shaken. The cost of the whole work was $1,717,000 - not so much as the bridge, nor so original a piece of engineering, but in its way, perhaps, as important.
When, during the progress of these operations at Hell Gate, it be- came evident that time and money and good engineering would pre- vail over the obstructions, the East Side Association especially had charming and golden visions of a not distant time when Harlem, the original "out ward" of the city, would be the center of its foreign commerce. That day is not yet, but it may come. The swift-footed
THE HARLEM RIVER IMPROVEMENTS, - LOOKING NORTHWEST FROM KINGSBRIDGE ROAD.
Grecian nymph Atalanta (it is said) promised to marry whichever one of her suitors should surpass her in running; but a certain bright youth threw golden apples before her, which she stopped to pick up, and so lost the race! Our swift-footed city picks up and pockets all the apples without stopping, and is at this date far beyond the "out ward." This rapid advance itself gives something like substance to what were in 1874 mere speculative anticipations as to the future of that region. But a forward step in another direction has been taken, which may have important results .. It is but eight miles across from the Hudson to the East River by the line of the Harlem River and the Spuyten Duyvil creek. A channel-way through, of sufficient depth, VOL. III .- 37.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
would shorten the usual passage round by way of the Battery to the extent of twenty miles, and avoid the delays, expense, and dangers thereto incident. With this in view, so early as 1874 Congress passed an act for deepening the Harlem River, with General Newton in charge as engineer. His preliminary surveys were made during that year; but for years thereafter farther progress was obstructed by legal ob- stacles. Not till January, 1888, was the work recommenced. Nor is it a simple work of dredging and removing obstructions. Passing from the Hudson through Spuyten Duyvil creek, it contemplates a
THE HARLEM RIVER IMPROVEMENTS, LOOKING WEST FROM KINGSBRIDGE ROAD.
cut from three hundred and seventy-five to four hundred feet wide through Dyckman's meadows, involving that width of solid rock. Already three quarters of a million have been spent upon it by Col- onel George L. Gillespie, of the corps of engineers, who is in charge of the work. When completed, the result will be a channel for ves- sels drawing at mean low water eight feet. At an immense saving of time, it will place the traffic of the Hudson in a direct line with Long Island Sound. Such progress has been made, during our period, upon the waterways surrounding the city.
From the bridge and engineering as a feature of our period, we may pass to house and city building, as a striking illustration of
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NEW-YORK DURING THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS
the general development. After a long sleep of some three hundred years, architecture has had a great revival during the last forty or fifty years. Only of late, however, has there been any marked ac- tivity or progress in this country. "Architecture and eloquence," says Emerson, "are mixed arts, whose end is sometimes beauty and sometimes use." To build is an instinct older than the first rude hut; the beginning of architecture was an awakened sense of pro- portion and of beauty expressed in ornamentation. Therefore may the progress and culture of a people or an era be measured, in some degree, by the grandeur and beauty of its buildings. These, in so far as they can claim to be artistic, always express something, some idea or end "of beauty or of use." Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Nott, the venerable
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