Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/397

 NEW YORK (CITY) 383 among the largest and finest in the world. Chief among them are the Brevoort, Everett, Gilsey, and Hoffman houses, and the Bruns- wick, Clarendon, Fifth Avenue, Grand, Grand Central, Metropolitan, New York, St. Cloud, St. Denis, St. James, St. Nicholas, Union Square, Westminster, Westmoreland, and Windsor ho- tels ; and of more than 75 other large hotels, several are not much inferior to those named. The Astor house, a massive five-story granite building in Broadway opposite the new post office, the front occupying an entire block, was long a leading hotel, accommodating about 600 guests. It was built by John Jacob Astor, and was opened in 1836. It is now (1875) under- going alterations for the purpose of adapting the two lower stories to business purposes. The first story was always occupied by stores. The St. Nicholas, opened in 1854, is six stories high, fronting about 275 ft. on Broadway and 200 on Spring street, built of white marble and brown freestone, and has 600 rooms with accommodations for 1,000 guests. It is luxu- riously furnished throughout. The Metropoli- tan fronts 278 ft. on Broadway, with a wing on Prince street 200 by 25 ft. The main build- ing is about 60 ft. deep, six stories high, all of brown freestone. This also is elegantly fur- nished. The Grand Central hotel is in Broad- way between Amity and Bleecker streets, ex- tending through to Mercer street. It is con- structed of brick and marble, is eight stories high, and covers 14 full lots. It is magnifi- cently furnished. The building has a frontage of 175 ft., a depth of 200 ft., and is 127 ft. high to the cornice, which is surmounted by a Mansard roof. One of the most expensive and luxurious is the Fifth Avenue hotel, at the junction of Broadway, 5th avenue, and 23d street, opposite Madison square. It is of white marble, six stories high, fronting on three streets, and having room for nearly 1,000 guests. The Windsor hotel, the most recent, is a large and elegant brick structure, seven stories high, the front occupying the entire block on 5th avenue between 46th and 47th streets. In the magnificence of its appoint- ments it is unsurpassed. The Buckingham hotel, in 50th street at the corner of 5th ave- nue, of brick trimmed with brown stone and seven stories high, is to be opened in the summer of 1875. Some of the hotels are con- Ducted on the European plan, guests hiring rooms, and procuring meals at the restaurant of the hotel or elsewhere ; others are kept on the American or full-board plan. Nowhere is the habit of eating away from home so general as in New York, owing to the great distance between residences and places of business ; and this habit has made eating houses, lunch rooms, oyster saloons, bar rooms, &c., a prominent fea- ture of the town. They are everywhere, open day and night, and thronged by all classes, ac- cording to their quality. The most fashionable restaurant is that of Delmonico in 5th avenue and 14th street. Horse cars traverse the prin- 602 VOL. xii. 25 cipal avenues, and there are several lines run- ning across town from river to river. Lines of omnibuses also run to and from the principal Brooklyn ferries along Broadway and 5th ave- nue and some other streets. These means of conveyance, however, but inadequately accom- modate citizens residing in the upper part of the city. Various projects of more rapid tran- sit, both by underground and elevated rail- ways, have been discussed, but the problem is still unsolved. At the close of 1874 there were 16 horse railroad companies in opera- tion, and one line (the New York Elevated railroad) run by steam, having an aggregate paid-in capital of $15,107,670 ; funded and floating debt, $11,093,057 55 ; cost of road and equipments, $24,816,820 97; length of road laid, 132-93 m. ; number of cars, 1,403; number of horses, 10,688; number of passen- gers carried during the year, 151,925,632 ; cost of operating road and for repairs, $6,683,139 42; earnings, $8,449,825 64; number of per- sons killed, 26 ; number injured, 68. The eight principal lines, with the number of passengers carried by each, are: Third Avenue, 26,588,- 000 ; Broadway and Seventh Avenue (Univer- sity Place), 19,065,584; Eighth Avenue, 16,- 100,354; Dry Dock, East Broadway, and Bat- tery, 15,850,345; Sixth Avenue, 15,050,426; Central Park, North and East River, 14,276,- 767; Second Avenue, 14,032,275 ; Fourth Ave- nue, 9,720,697. The last named line, opened in 1832, is a branch of the New York and Harlem railroad. It was the first street horse railroad ever constructed, and was not imitated till 1852, when the Sixth Avenue railroad was opened. One of the 17 lines runs from Harlem bridge to Fordham and West Farms; the others are on Manhattan island. The Elevated railroad runs along Greenwich street and 9th avenue from near the Battery to 34th street. The track is supported by iron posts about 16 ft. high, and the cars are drawn by dummy en- gines. The fare on the horse cars is common- ly five cents and on the omnibuses ten cents. There are 15 steam ferries across East river, viz. : 12 to Brooklyn, 2 to Hunter's Point, and 1 to Astoria ; 3 across the bay to Staten island ; and 8 across North river, viz. : 5 to Jersey City, 2 to Hoboken, and 1 to Weehawken. These run every few minutes during the day, and some of them all night. Boats also ply to other neigh- boring points for the accommodation of pas- sengers. An immense suspension bridge is in course of construction across the East river to Brooklyn. (See BRIDGE, and BROOKLYN.) New York has railroad communication with the east by means of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford line, and with the north and west by the New York and Harlem and the New York Central and Hudson River lines. The freight trains and some local passenger trains of the last named come in at the depot in 30th street and 9th avenue, whence the cars are drawn by dummy engines to the freight depot in St. John's park. Convenient and well arranged