USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I > Part 101
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The following are the railways which have one or both of their termini at Coney Island :
The Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad Company was chartered December 10th, 1860. Its first President was David M. Talmage, and first Secretary, Garret P. Bergen. Its capital stock was $300,000, which was afterwards increased to $500,000. It has a funded debt of $281,000. Its length from Fulton Ferry to Coney Island is ten and a half miles, with a branch of one mile to Hamilton Ferry. It passes through Water, Main, Prospect, Jay and Smith streets, and Ninth street to Ninth avenue before reaching the city line, and has a large local patronage aside from its Coney Island business. Horses are used within the city limits and steam motors are employed for the remainder of the distance. The company owns 91 cars and 295 horses. The present officers are General James Jourdan, President ; Edward F. Drayton, Secretary, and William Farrell, Superintendent. The num- ber of passengers carried in 1881 was 4,208,107.
Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad Company .- This company was organized in 1862 with a capital stock of $100,000 and the following officers : Alfred H. Partridge, President ; G. P. Bergen, Treasurer, and C. R. Alton, Score- tary. The road was sold upon mortgage foreclosure in 1868, and operated by the owners until 1879, when the present company was organized. Its charter bears date January 22, 1879. The capital stock was increased to $500,000, of which, however, only $300,000 has been subscribed and paid in. It has a funded debt of $80,000. The whole number of stock- holders is 7. The road is seven miles in length, and employs eight engines and thirty cars. It carried last year a half mil- lion passengers. Officers are C. Godfrey Gunther, President: George A. Gunther, Secretary and Treasurer; Wm. Kaval- ski, Engineer.
The Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad Company, chartered Oct. 9, 1874, was the next of the Coney Island roads. It was formed by the consolidation of several other roads, among which was the Park Avenue, chartered in 1870, and the Greenwood and Coney Island, chartered in 1872. Mr. Andrew R. Culver has been its leading and effective spirit from the first. Its original capital authorized by the charter was $500,000, but this was reduced by the stockholders in 1880, to $250,000, all paid in. It has a funded debt of $750,- 000, and the cost of the road and equipment has been about $1,300,000. The road is 127,6 miles in length and extends through Water to Bridge, Concord, Navy, Park avenue, Van- derbilt avenue to Ninth avenue and Greenwood Cemetery, connecting with steam cars there for Coney Island. It has
424
HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.
been a prime factor in the building up of Coney Island. It has leased one or two short railroads on Coney Island, and Mr. Culver has been actively engaged for two or three years past in the effort to obtain a charter for an elevated Rapid Transit road through Brooklyn, to connect with his steam railroad from Greenwood to Coney Island. His plans, though urged with great moderation and regard to the rights of pro- perty holders, have not yet been successful, but in the new deals consequent upon the completion of the Bridge, his turn may come. He has at present ten locomotives and fifty steam passenger cars ; seventy-five horse cars, and about 275 horses. He transported in 1881, 3,645,281 passengers, and about the same number in 1882.
The New York and Manhattan Beach Railroad Company was chartered October 28, 1876, and was in operation in the early summer of 1877. Its capital stock is $800,000, of which $750,000 has been subscribed and paid in. Its funded debt in 1881 was $834,600. It has two routes, one from Green- point, E. D., to Manhattan Beach, crossing the 23d Street Ferry. New York ; the other from foot of Whitehall street, New York, by steam ferry, to Bay Ridge, and thence by rail to Manhattan Beach. It also leases a part of the old Canarsie line already mentioned, and several other short lines. Its lengtli of road operated was in 1881, 18,25, miles. It had that year eight locomotive engines and 79 passenger cars. In 1880, it transported 1,227,597; in 1881, 945,871; in 1882, less than 900,000. The number of stockholders is 35. Officers : Austin Corbin, President ; J. Baxter Upham, Vice President ; G. S. Moulton, Secretary and Treasurer ; Daniel C. Corbin, Superintendent. In the Winter of 1882-1883, Mr. Austin Corbin, who had, in 1881, become a large stockholder in the Long Island Railroad Company, and its president, ar- ranged for leasing the Manhattan Beach Railroad to that company, and perhaps for an eventual consolidation with it. This arrangement required some changes of track, stations, &c., but the two are now run practically as one road, and there is free and ready access to and from all parts of Long Island and Manhattan Beach. This change has undoubtedly largely increased the travel over this road the past season.
The Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railroad Com- pany was formed October 5th, 1877, by the consolidation of the Coney Island and East River Railroad Company, with the Flatbush, Prospect Park and Concourse Railroad Company. In its organization there were twenty-six directors ; the officers were: President, John A. Lott ; Treasurer, Charles C. Betts ; Secretary, Monroe B. Washburn ; Superintendent, Robert White. Trains were run from Prospect Station to Coney Island July 2nd, 1878, and from Flatbush avenue on the 20th of August following. The company owns about fifty acres of land at its terminus on Coney Island, which, with the Hotel Brighton, it has leased for a term of years. The statistics of the railway are as follows : Its terminus is at the Hotel Brighton, Brighton Beach. Its capital stock is $500,000, all paid in ; its funded debt is $1,000,000. There are 155 stockholders. The cost of road and equipment in 1881 has been $1,546,893. The length of track of main line is 7.50 miles. Some branches owned or leased add more than a mile. The number of passengers carried in 1880 was 1,004,- 502 ; in 1881, 1,024,629 ; in 1882, about a million. The season of 1883 was unfavorable ; high prices diminished travel. The number of locomotives in 1881 was seven ; of passenger cars, 44. There are four stations in the town of Gravesend, and two in Flatbush and Brooklyn. The late Henry C. Murphy was the leader in this enterprise.
The New York and Sea Beach Railway Company, char- tered in September, 1876, was not completed till 1877 by Mr. M. McCormack, Col. James Smith, and other New York capi-
talists, who held large landed interests at Mapleton, down a road from Bath junction, on Gunther's road, to Coney Island, which was operated one season with a single train. In 1879 the company was strengthened ; Colonel Ricker was elected President, and a fine water-front at Bay Ridge was purchased, together with the right of way from Bay Ridge to Bath. The road was opened for through business to Coney Island July 19, 1879. In 1883, the company was re- organized, and the following officers elected : Charles Seidler, President ; W. O. McDowell, Vice-President and General Manager, and C. W. Douglas, Superintendent. The length of the road is six miles, connecting at Bay Ridge with a line of steamers for New York. The company also owns several acres of land at Coney Island, on which are the Sea Beach Palace Hotel, and a number of other struc- tures devoted to the entertainment of visitors to the beach, under the superintendence of E. D. Myers, general manager. They have five locomotives and thirty-one cars. Passengers carried, in 1880, 389,000; in 1881, 411,480; 1882, about 450,000. The corporation is distinguished for its attention to the wants of the traveling public, and shows an interest in its employés which has resulted in better service and increased patronage. The road has a large proportion of the carrying trade between New York and Coney Island.
Its capital stock is $500,000, of which $402,767 has been subscribed and paid in, in 1881. Its funded debt the same year was $429,788. The number of stockholders is 53. The cost of road and equipment to the close of 1881, was $776,- 365. The officers are Frederick A. Potts, President ; John S. Barnes, Vice-President ; G. A. Hobart, Treasurer ; Edmund C. Stanton, Secretary; C. W. Douglas, General Manager.
The Marine Railway, on Manhattan Beach, intended to extend from Sheepshead Bay to Brighton Beach, owned and run in the Corbin interest, is a paying investment ; narrow- gauge, inexpensively built, but carrying 871,898 passengers in 1881, almost paid for itself in a single year. Its officers are the same as those of the Manhattan Beach R. R.
The other railways in operation on Coney Island, are CULVER'S, from West Brighton Beach to Coney Island Point, and an Elevated Railroad from Brighton to West Brighton. The last was chartered in 1880, is one mile in length; capital stock, $115,900, all paid in; funded debt, $144,835; forty-nine stockholders ; cost of road and equipment, in 1881, $236,- 048.79 ; number of passengers in 1881 (two months, eighteen days), 137,461 ; six locomotives, seven passenger-cars. Officers : Seth R. Keeney, President ; Isidore M. Bon, Treas- urer; Clarence A. Barrow, Secretary ; James L. Morrow, Superintendent. Other roads have been projected, but none of them are now in operation.
The following table, prepared with great care from the latest report of the State Engineer and other offi- cial sources, embodies, it is believed, as completely as possible, all the particulars which go to make up the history of the railroads of Kings County, with their condition and officers on the Ist of January, 1882, the latest date for which reports have been received. The footings of the columns and the general summary which follows the table, serve to show that while rail- roads have had an immense development within the county, and transported, in 1881, 92,826,786 passengers, they have been, as a rule, not very profitable to the stockholders. Only $520,641.50 was paid in dividends that year on a paid-up capital stock of $20,576,250, or less than 2} per cent., while the actual excess of re-
THE RAILROADS OF KINGS COUNTY, WITH THEIR CONDITION IN JANUARY, 1882.
*** In this table are given those railroads now in existence, and those which, by consolidation or re-organization, form a part of existing roads, and those roads wbicb, tbougb organized, have only come into operation since January, 1882.
NAME OF RAILROAD.
Between what points, and number of rontes.
Miles Operated.
Capital Stock Authorized.
Capital Stock Taken Up and Pald.
Funded and Floating Debt.
Receipts from all Sources.
Expenditures for all Purposes.
Dividends.
Number of Passengers Carried During the Year.
President of Railroad in 1882.
Secretary or Treasurer in 1882.
Superintendent in 1889.
Brooklyn and Jamaloa (1) Brooklyn Central and Jamaloa (2).
=
1866
1872
19.50 333.71
$700,000 10,000,000
$652,600 9,960,700
$444,636.49 3,133,177.70
$+10,415.11 1,946,667.62
$393,697.77 2.162,183.00
$52,208.00 440,000.00
$6,501,277 6,512,270
Wlifiam Richardson ... W. J. Richardson, Sec .. Austin Corbin
Frederick W. Bunton, Treas.
Flushing (4)
New York and Flushing (5).
South-Side, of Long Island (0).
Brooklyn City
Kings County. 12 routes. S. Seventh St. to E. New York, 8 routes
1858 1860 1860
44.00 10.12 13.00 10.81
2,000,000 250,000 1,000,000 500,000
2,000,000 250,000 880,600 500,000
690,000.00 410,090.07 400,000.00 290,036.38
1,771,255.42 307,151.98 237.328.42 225,372.30
1,677,400.25 304,000.75 236,699.05 240,827.25
280,000.00 30,000.00 48,000.00 40,000.00
35,000,000 6,565,152 4,896,411 4,208,107
Charles C. Betts, Treas .. Roht. Sealy, Treas. and Sec ...
Joshua Crandali.
Coney Island and Brooklyn Grand Street and Newtown
Grand St. Ferry to Calvary Cemetery and New- town. 2 routes.
1860
8,25
170,000
170,000 75,000
154,672.16 12,000.00 85,076.58 69,219.47
115,056.50 19,172.17 48,919.85 30,727.96
112,279.44 19,172.17 47,639.12 30,762.54
330,507 285,000
C. Godfrey Gunther. . BeWitt C. Littlejohn ..
Geo. A. Gunther. Sec. and Tr. Henry W. Johnson, Sec.
William Kavalski. W. Warner.
1864 1872 1864
8.00
200,000
197,700
449,819.11
231,616.32
242,645.45
25,616.00
4,736,911
Henry W. Slocum.
John R. Connor, Tr. and Sec ..
Metropoiltan Railroad (0). North Second St. and Middie Village
Roosevelt Ferry, S. Seventh St., Brooklyn, to Middie Village
5,36
150,000
150,000
186,870.98
59,395.75
59,358.49
1,375,488
William W. Green
Richard H. Green, Treas.
Jamaica and Brooklyn.
1880
6.00
100,000
100,000
10,884.22
9,621.83
76,206
Aaron A. Begrauw .. ..
Morris Fosdick, Treas
William M. Scott.
Willlamshurgh and Flathush (11).
Brooklyn, E. B., to Flatbush .. S. Seventh St. Ferries to Prospect Park
1875
4.50
300,000
300,000
205.057.05
121,387.61
103,243.88
2,396,000
George W. Van Allen. C. B. Cottrell, Treas
Chas. B. Ailyn.
New Williamsburgh and Flatbush. Bushwick.
S. Seventh St. Ferries to Cypress Hills, Lutheran Cemetery, &c. 4 routes
1867 1870 1870
11.50 4.13
500,000 200,000
400,000 200,000
447,936.55 200,000.00
305,380.89 101,249.31
289,901.52 113,096.17
6,048,150 1,979,710
Wliliam H. Husted. Loftis Woodt
Augustus Ivins, Treas John G. Jenkins, Treast
William N. Morrison. Waiter G. Hovey.t
South Brooklyn and Park (12) South Brooklyn Central
1877 1871
1.75 2.75
125,000 100,000
125,000 60,000
153,111.60 50,000.00
70,045.58 16,742.00
68,790.57 16,622.00
1,374,183 225,000
John Cunningham. Patrick J. Gleason .
John Cunningham, Treas James W. Lamh, Treas.
Michael Connelly.
1874
12.70
250,000
250,000
803.649.84
245,550.22
237,234.40
3,645,281
Andrew R. Cuiver.
Allan C. Washington, Treas.
R. Schermerhorn. R. H. A. Misey.
Coney Island and East River (13). Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island
Atiantic Avenue to Brighton Beach, with hranches, etc ..
1877
17.28
500,000
496,150
1,038,825.18
217,450.59
194,206.10
1,124,629
Henry C. Murphy *.
John Lefferts, Treas
Robert White.
Kings County Central, and New York, Bay Ridge and Jamalca (14).
Brooklyn to Coney Island, and Bay Ridge to New Lots.
5 1876 1875
1876
18.95
800,000
750,000
835,256.53
259,118.69
272,018.83
§ 9,663.50 ₺ pref. stk
945,871 871,898
Austin Corbin ..
G. S. Moulton.
Baniel C. Corbin.
Cypress Hills Motor. New York and Coney Island. (Leased to Pros- pect Park and Coney Island Co.)
1879
3.26
100,000
80,000
8,000.00
8,000.00
6,000,00
Andrew R. Culver
A. C. Washington, Treas.
Richard Schermerhorn.
1879
81.67
2,000,000
1,911,000
1,103,500.00
(25 p. o. net } earnings ( L.I. Road. )
Yates Ave, and Fiatbush. (Leased to Broad- way, of Brooklyn) (10) Long Island City and Flushing. (Reorganiza- tlon of Flushing and North Side) (17).
Yates Ave. and Broadway to Fiathush.
1880
2.50
30,000
30,000
99,120.98
Edwin Beers
Robert Sealy, Treas, and Sec ..
1881
15.84
500,000
500,000
977,000.00
28,296.23
17,900.00.
Alfred Sully
Charles Knoblauch, Treas
673.78
$21,875,000
$20,570,250
$12,224,085.25
$7,063,371.93
$0,935,023.68
$520,641.50
92,826,780
* Deceased.
of 1882.
Besides tbese twenty-five Railroads having 50 routes in Kings county, all having one or both termini in Kings county, but some of them extending into Queens and Suffolk counties, all of them now in active operation, transporting, in 1881, 92,826,786 passengers over 673.78 miles of road, there were, in January, 1882, one bundred and forty-two companies, which, in the fifty years since 1832, had been organized under the State Railroad Laws, but which had either failed, become extinct, or been abandoned, or were not yet completed so as to be in operation. Five or six of these will probably eventually go into operation during the present year. In addition to the 17 roads described above, which have been foreclosed and re-organized and consolidated with other roads, and are now operated in other than their original names, there are 28 more which bad also been re-organized or consolidated, but are not now operated under any name. It is possible that in tbe changes constantly going on, a few of these may be revised, but most of them will probably fall into the list of extinct roads. There have been, then, in the counties of Kings and Queens (and nearly all baving one terminus or more in Kings county, or at the boundary line between it and Queens), two hundred and twelve railroads chartered and organized within the past fifty years. Number extinct, abandoned, or not in operation, 142 ; number consolidated, but not now in opera- tion, 28 ; number re-organized or consolidated, and operated under otber names, 17; number now doing business on 50 routes, 25. Total roads chartered and organized, 212.
(1) Consolidated Into Brooklyn Central and Jamalen in 1860.
(2) Name changed to Brooklyn and Jamalen In 1866. (3) Sold to Atlantic Avenue Rosd In 1872. (4) Re-organized as New York and Flushing Rallroad In 1859. (5) Consolidated with South-Sido Rallroad In 1972.
(0) Consolidated with New York and Finshing under this name In 1872, and with Southern, of Long Island, in 1871. Abandoned In 1878 or 1879, but organized in 1880, with all its branches, as Brooklyn and Montauk, extending from Brooklyn to Patchogue, and leased to Long Island In 1881.
(7) This Road, and the Flushing and North-Skie, Central, Central Extension, Whitestone, and Westchester, North-Shore, North-Shore and Port Washington, and Roslyn and Hunter's Point, were all consolidated In 1874 into the Flushing, North-Shore and Central, extendilnz from Long Island City to Babylon, and subsequently leased to the Long Island R. R. (8) This Rond, organized in 1861, was consolidated with the Nassan (1865) In 1868, into the Brooklyn City, Hunter's Point and Prospect Park Road, extending from Innter's Point to Sonth Ferry. In 1872, the name was changed to Brooklyn Crosstown Road.
(9) This Road was re-organized as Grand Street Ferry and Middle Village In 1869, and again re-organized as North Second Street and Middle Village, with a more extended route, in 1870, (10) This Road was re-organized as the Jamalca, Woodhaven and Brooklyn, and In 1890, hy aet of Legislature, was consolidated with the Jamaica and Brooklyn Plank Rosd Co. ss the Jamalca and Brooklyn Road.
(11) Re-organized as New Williamsburgh and Flatbuslı, In 1873.
(12) Re-organized in 1877 as Sonth Brooklyn Ceutral.
(13) This Road, and the Flatbush, Coney Island, Park and Concourse, also organized In 1877, were, in 1877, consolidated into the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railways. (16) Operated by Broadway, of Brooklyn.
(14) Both these Roads are leased to the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway, and have the same officers. (15) Leased In 1882-3 to Long Island R. Il.
(17) Leased snd operated by Long Island R. R. Co.
Wilifiam Farrell.
Van Brunt St. and Erie Basin
Hamilton Ferry to Erie Basin ..
186
1.25
150,000
1862 } 1879
11.00
500,000
300,000
1864
4.50
150,000
147,500
1832 1860
Brooklyn and Jamaica (3) ....
Atiantio Avenue. Aii east of Fiathush avenue leased to Long Island road. Long Island Raliroad.
Brooklyn to Greenport. 239 miles of branches and leased lines
1834 1852 1859
Flushing to East River, N. Y Long Island City to Penny Bridge Brooklyn to Isiip.
186 1853
Broadway (of Brooklyn)
Brooklyn City and Newtown
Fulton Ferry to Newtown, vla Be Kaib Ave .. Brooklyn to Coney Island. 2 routes.
H. A. Schultz, Treas, and Sec .. H. W. Bush. John Williams, Treas.
R. B. Sturges. Wm. E. Horwlil, Tr. and Sec. Edmund Terry, Tr. and Sec .... John Cunningham.
Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island
Brooklyn and Rookaway Beach, Flushing and Woodside (7) Greenpoint and Wlillamsburgh (6)
Brooklyn Cross Town
Long Island City to Erie Basin.
Grand St. Ferry to Middle Village ..
East New York and Jamalca Bay (10)
East New York to Jamaioa Bay Jamaica to Brooklyn
1866
Grand St. Ferry to Prospect Park Hamilton Ferry to Park. Hamilton Ferry to East New York Long Island City to Winfield Fulton Ferry to Coney Island Point, via Van- derhilt Ave ...
John Cunningham.
Long Island City and Caivary Cemetery Prospect Park and Coney Island
Coney Island and Brooklyn.
1876
New York and Manhattan Beach (15)
Greenpoint, E. B., to Manhattan Beach, with hranches and leased ilnes. Manhattan Beach Hotel to Sheepshead Bay Inlet, and Brighton Beach
1878 1882
2.00
50,000
50,000
6,881.96
43,600.85
28,171.60
Austin Corbin
G. S. Moulton, Sec. and Treas .. Baniel C. Corbiu.
Marine.
West Brighton Beach to Coney Island Point ... Brooklyn and Montauk. (Leased to L. I. R. R.) Brooklyn to Eastport, with two branches.
Frederiok B. Tappen .. Alex. H. Stevens, Treas.
+Retired. Road sold to other parties in Autumn
Date of Number of Organi- zation.
OFFICERS IN 1882.
Brooklyn and Jamaica
= 6 routes.
Wililam Richardson.
Baniel Lord, Sec.
Frederick B. Tappen .. Alex, H. Stevens, Treas Charies C. Betts. Edwin Beers .. Samuel Hatton .. James Jourdan.
Nicholas Wyckoff. James Binns.
6,500.00
2,015,496 635,639
Greenwood to Coney Island, with branches East New York to Canarsie.
1870 1865
21,270.00
Grand St., Prospect Park and Flatbush
L. I. City to Whitestone, with branches.
425
THE EARLIEST FERRY.
eeipts over expenditures was only $128,000. The prospeets for a greater measure of sueeess in the future for some of these roads is brighter now than it was one or two years sinee. Very many companies have failed and become extinet, while only four or five roads have paid large dividends, the Brooklyn City paying the largest, 14 per eent. per annum. Yet most of these roads are worked to their full eapaeity, and there is a demand, which must soon be met, for some mode of transportation which shall combine greater speed, bet- ter facilities for entranee and exit to and from the ears, and more ample aeeommodations for passengers. Whether the elevated steam roads ean fulfill all these conditions is still an unsolved problem.
There have been several attempts made to build ele- vated railroads, and one was partially eonstrueted, but beeame bankrupt ; its management being so tainted with suspicions of fraud that it was abandoned, and a prejudiee exeited against all elevated railroads, which has thus far prevented the prosecution of any similar
enterprises. Eventually there will probably be some elevated roads built on prineiples which shall be just and fair to the eitizens and property owners, as well as to the stockholders of the roads. There were two or three plank-roads in existenee so late as 1870, and there are traditions of them still among the oldest inhabi- tants, but like plank-roads everywhere else, they were long sinee abandoned.
There are, in the county, two principal boulevards, the Ocean Parkway, from Prospeet Park to Coney Island, and the Saekett street boulevard or Eastern Park- way, extending from the Park to East New York, each two hundred and fifty feet wide, with rows of trees, maeadamized, or rather telfordized, and forming the finest drives on the continent. Several of the principal streets of the eity, notably Flatbush avenue, Bedford avenue, Clinton avenue and Clinton street, and Third street, are of exceptional width, well paved and lighted, and forming attractive routes for earriages, ete., to and from Prospeet Park.
BROOKLYN FERRIES AND FERRY RIGHTS.
BY Army R.files A.M. M.J.
The Earliest Ferry established between Long Island and New Amsterdam, was from the foot of the present Fulton street, Brooklyn, to the foot of the present Peek Slip, New York. This was what was subsequently known as the Old Ferry. At that early day, the time oeeupied in erossing the river, as well as the difficulties and labor of rowing aeross a strong eurrent, were so great, as to necessitate the location of the ferry at this point, where the two shores eome nearest together ; al- though at a considerable distanee above the then settled portion of New Amsterdam. The first regular ferry- man of whom there is any mention, was Cornelis Direk- sen, who, in 1642, kept a small inn near the present Peek Slip, where he owned a farm. It is a somewhat curious coineidenee that our fellow eitizen, Mr. HENRY E. PIERREPONT, whose whole life has been so inti- mately associated with the history of Brooklyn ferries, is a lineal deseendant of this Direksen, who seems also to have owned a small piece of land, with a house and garden, on Long Island, near the present Fulton Ferry, which, in 1643, he sold to one Willem Thomasen, together with his right of ferriage, provided the di- reetor would give his eonsent, for 2,300 guilders, in eash and merchandise. Willem Thomasen may possi-
bly have been the same as, or the predecessor of Wil- lem Jansen, who is next found in charge of the ferry. The embryo eity of New Amsterdam, at this period, afforded the country people of Long Island their only market for sale or purehase, and the travel of passen- gers and produee across the ferry gradually inereased to sueh an extent, as to attraet the attention of the pru- dent burgomasters of the eity, who, on the 13th of February, 1652, applied to Gov. Stuyvesant for the ferry franchise, as a legitimate souree of revenue, with which to defray the municipal expenses. Their petition, however was ref ised; the Direetor perhaps, considering it as one of his own perquisites. Two years later, July, 1654, in consequence of the " daily confusion oeeurring among the ferrymen on Manhattan Island, so that the inhabitants are waiting whole days before they can ob- tain a passage, and then not without danger, and at an exorbitant priee," the director and council found it nee- essary to enaet an ordinanee, the first on record relative to ferries. It comprised the following provisions :
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