Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/809

Rh those actually within the cities, are included in the statement; as, for instance, where cities situated close together have a common street-railway system, it has not been thought best by the experts to attempt a separation in the tables. Therefore, Pittsburg and Allegheny, in Pennsylvania, are treated as one city, as are also Newark and Elizabeth, in New Jersey. The street-railway lines comprehended in Boston traverse also Lynn, Cambridge, and other suburban places.

The aggregate mileage of the fifty-six cities selected for each year from 1880 to 1889, with the increase and percentage of increase, is shown in the following table:

It is only fair to state that in order to make the foregoing statement, the statistics of some of the cities have been re-enforced by information from sources other than the census returns.

By the above table it will be seen that from 1,689·54, total mileage in the fifty-six cities selected in 1880, the growth has been to 3,150·93 miles in 1889. This is an increase of 1,461·39 miles, or 86·50 per cent. These figures show conclusively the rapidly increasing wants of cities.

The five leading cities of the country have a mileage assigned them as follows: Philadelphia, 283·47; Boston, 200·86; Chicago, 184·78; New York, 177·10; Brooklyn, 164·44. These are figures for 1889, and they show the total length of line; but the total length of all tracks, including sidings, for the same cities, is as follows: New York, 368·02; Chicago, 365·50; Boston, 329·47; Brooklyn, 324·03; Philadelphia, 324·21. From these figures we find that the position of Philadelphia in the last statement is reversed, and that New York steps from the fourth place in the five cities named to the first place; and this brings out a peculiarity of the Philadelphia roads and, to some extent, the roads of Boston, the tracks in these cities, to a large extent, occupying different streets in going to and from a terminus instead of being laid upon the same street.