Page:Charters of the Weehawken ferry company.djvu/18

Rh will now find that your acquaintances are rapidly moving above Fourteenth street. Elegant and substantial houses are going up in Fifty-first street; and lots in 121st street have been sold for $1,100." Observing the past and present, it may be safely said that in much less than 20 years New York City will have doubled its present population and trebled its wealth. Many reasons conspire to favor the impression that the proportional increase will be greater in future than during the past. The present prosperous condition of our country, the dissatisfaction among the masses of the old world, the uncertain condition of European affairs, all urge to this conclusion. Upwards of 300,000 immigrants arrived at the port of New York last year. Many of these, it is true, take up their abodes in rural regions and distant parts of the country, yet many also locate themselves at this focus of trade. The accession of population from the country is also very great. Numbers of young men from the surrounding rural districts come here to seek their fortune. Here, then, the question arises, where are the overflowings of this increasing mart to go? The answer is plain: they must overspread the soil nearest to the commercial heart of the metropolis. They will take up their abodes as close as practicable to the localities of traffic, and as accessible as can be to the streets of trade. To enable this to be done, and to facilitate ingress and egress, resort will be had to every expedient that will afford communication with all points of the surrounding region; our citizens must proceed from business to their homes with facility; and ferry boats will ply to and fro, to an extent not now thought of.

Bearing in mind, the natural advantages of Weehawken, and the facts that the business of New-York is centering on the Hudson, and that the city can only extend in a northerly direction, we hazard nothing in predicting the speedy growth of a large city upon the beautiful and extensive country which lies in the neighborhood of the Weehawken ferry.