Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/584

NEW YORK. boundaries were enlarged to include Kings County and part of Queens County, on Long Island, the whole of Richmond County (Staten Island), and part of the towns of East Chester and Pelham, south of Westchester County. The city, which embraces an area of 309 square miles, consists of five boroughs. These, in order of area, rank as follows: (Queens (124 square miles), Brooklyn (66 square miles), Richmond (57 square miles), the Bronx (40 square miles), and Manhattan (22 square miles). The Borough of Manhattan consists of (q.v.) and several small islands adjacent. The Borough of Brooklyn is coextensive with Kings County. (See .) All that section of the city northeast of the Harlem River, with a number of islands, constitutes the Borough of the Bronx. It is nearly bisected by the Bronx River, and is mainly residential, its northern portion having a distinctly suburban character, though much of the southern part is closely built up. The Borough of Queens includes that portion of Long Island within the municipal limits, to the north and east of Brooklyn. It comprises Long Island City, Flushing, Jamaica, Newtown, and part of Hempstead. A number of the islands in Jamaica Bay belong to the Borough of Queens. Long Island City is noted for its great industrial establishments. The remainder of the borough consists of many pretty suburban villages and not a few tracts of farm land. The Borough of Richmond is coextensive with Richmond County, the whole of Staten island. It is largely a district of residences, although it contains a great number of establishments. The seaside resorts in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond are frequented in summer by thousands. New York extends over a distance of more than 30 miles from the Yonkers line on the northeast to the southwest extremity of Staten Island.



(q.v.), which contains the chief offices of the city, its greatest banks, business houses, museums, tenements, and palaces, lies between the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers, and is 13½ miles long, with a greatest breadth of 2¼ miles at Fourteenth Street. The southern end of the island is laid out irregularly, the early settlers having built their houses wherever they saw fit, the streets being laid out afterwards. Above Canal Street there is greater regularity, while above Tenth Street the city is laid out, with a few exceptions, in blocks about 200 feet in length from north to south, and from about 400 to about 900 feet from east to west. The cross streets are 60 feet wide, as a rule, although there are a number 100 feet wide, placed at an average distance of half a mile apart, in order to facilitate heavy traffic. The avenues running north and south are generally 100 feet wide. The great artery of New York is Broadway, which unfortunately is only 80 feet wide in the business section of the city, its width being nearly doubled in its northern half. On the east side of the city along the avenues D, C, B, A, First, Second, and Third, counting west from the East River, and in an adjoining area to the south, are the great tenement house districts. On the West Side, along the Hudson, and including the district between Seventh and Tenth Avenues, are manufacturing plants, lumber yards, gas houses, and also many cheap tenements. In the central part of the city, toward the southern end of the island, with Broadway as the main artery, are the largest banks and great commercial houses. Farther up is the retail shopping district, and above that are the homes of the well-to-do classes. Fifth Avenue, which but a few years ago was occupied solely by the homes of rich people, is becoming more and more a business thoroughfare as far as Fiftieth Street. Above Fiftieth Street, however, the character of the present structures—churches, fine club houses, and the spacious homes of the rich—will probably prevent great changes. In 1865, when Central Park was approaching completion, the districts on both sides of the park east and west were entirely unimproved. Along Fifth Avenue, from Sixtieth Street to One Hundredth Street, there were not a dozen houses, where today is a solidly built line of handsome dwellings. On the west side of the park the change has been still greater, but in addition to private dwelling there are hundreds of apartment houses. On Riverside Drive, the boulevard which skirts the Hudson River, there are both private residences and