Page:The Milestones and the Old Post Road.djvu/8

Milestones Post Road was established. This was so successful that three years later a road was opened from New York to Boston, by order of Governor Lovelace. On January 1, 1673, a mounted post was instituted, among the multifarious duties being the carrying of the mails; it was not until 1772 that a stage coach appeared carrying passengers at the rate of four pence a mile.

At that time the City Hall was on Wall Street, at the corner of Nassau, where now stands the Sub-Treasury. Broadway up to St. Paul's was opened mainly to reach the Post Road where Park Row now begins, any further development of the street being undreamed of, even to accommodate the outlying farms along the Hudson. From the site of the Post Office the Post Road ran through Park Row, up the Bowery and Fourth Avenue to Madison Square (Excursion V, Section II) whence it turned and twisted northward over toward the East River, then doubled on itself. About Eighty-sixth Street it entered the boundaries of the present Central Park, went through McGown's Pass; thence continued more or less steadily to the northwest until it struck the lines of Broadway and Kingsbridge Road, when it went soberly along to the toll bridge over Spuyten Duyvil Creek (Excursion IV, 2). After getting well over the bridge, the road soon separated into the Albany Post Road, following Broadway through Yonkers and up the river; and the Boston Post Road, going up the hill to the right across to Williamsbridge, thence across country through Eastchester to New Rochelle, and beyond to Boston. So long ago as the English occupation, the people of New York, feeling crowded, overflowed into Harlem, whence the Dutch farmers casting their eyes across the Kills, saw a country "fair to look upon." Means of getting across were soon considered and a ferry established connecting with the road to Harlem which branched off from the Post Road at Central Park. (Excursion IV, Section 1). This ferry was at about Third Avenue and One Hundred and Thirty-first Street and a bridge was built in 1795. As the lower Bronx section across the Kills grew, old trails were developed, the early Westchester Path becoming a Post Road, following the line of Third Avenue and Boston Road to Bronx Park and then northeast, until it joined the early road some distance above, thus making quite a cut-off from New York to this junction, saving the long detour around Kingsbridge. Lonely as the road was, it was not without interesting features. Hardly had the traveler left the starting point when he arrived at the first Kissing Bridge, near Chatham Square; then came the milestones telling slowly, but steadily, the