Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/599

NEW YORK. Brooklyn; but in recent years the bridge has been wholly inadequate. A second bridge was begun in 1896, extending from Delancey Street, Manhattan, to Broadway, Brooklyn; three other bridges are projected: from Grand Street, Manhattan, to Williamsburg, Brooklyn; from Corlears Hook, Manhattan, to the Navy Yard, Brooklyn; and from Fifty-ninth Street, Manhattan, to Long Island City, by way of Blackwell's Island. Furthermore, two tunnels to connect Manhattan with Brooklyn have been planned, one by private railroad companies (also connecting with the New Jersey Shore), and the other by the city through the extension of the subway. The Harlem River is spanned by a number of costly bridges, Washington Bridge being perhaps the finest structure of its kind in the country, and High Bridge, which carries the old Croton Aqueduct at an elevation of over 100 feet, being unequaled among American stone bridges.

There are forty-eight daily newspapers published in New York City, with ninety-five weekly papers, and seventy-two monthly publications, not including trade organs and religious journals. The oldest of the daily newspapers are the Commercial Advertiser, founded in 1797, and the Evening Post, founded in 1801, of which William Cullen Bryant was for nearly fifty years the editor. The Sun, founded in 1833; the Herald, founded in 1835 by James Gordon Bennett; the Tribune, founded in 1841 by Horace Greeley; the Times, founded in 1850 by Henry J. Raymond; the World (1860), the Journal, the Press, the Daily News, and the Staats-Zeitung are the most important of the morning newspapers. The Evening Post, the Commercial Advertiser, the Mail and Express, the Telegram, the Evening Sun, the Evening World, and Evening Journal are the chief afternoon publications. See.

New York did not rise to commercial preëminence until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its rise is due to its central location on the Atlantic seaboard, and especially to its excellent harbor, which lies at the entrance to the fine natural waterway, the Hudson River and the Mohawk Valley, leading to the highly productive North-Central portion of the United States. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 was the most important event in the business history of the city. New York was already far in advance of its rivals before the building of railroads began, a fact which tended to make it a great focal point in their construction. It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of New York as an entrepôt of trade. It is without a rival as the centre of the wholesale dry goods and wholesale grocery business. Not only does it market its own manufactures and the greater part of its imports, but the trade in many varieties of domestic goods, produced outside of the city, centres here.

The harbor proper consists of the lower and upper bays, the former covering about 88 square miles of anchorage, and the latter 14 square miles. Between the two is Staten Island. The principal passage from one to the other is by way of the east channel called the Narrows, which at one point is only a mile in width. Small vessels may pass also on the west side of the island. The harbor is approached from the ocean from two directions, the principal one being from the southeast. The Sandy Hook Bar stretches across this entrance, about 20 miles from the

lower end of Manhattan, the deepest channel having been originally 16 feet at mean low water. In 1884 the National Government provided for dredging this channel to a width of 1000 feet and a depth of 30 feet. In 1899 a provision was made for the dredging of another entrance channel farther to the east, 2000 feet wide and 40 feet deep, requiring an excavation about 7 miles in length. Work upon this channel is still in progress. The other entrance into the harbor is from Long Island Sound. From the Sound, the passage leads through Hell Gate, at Ward's Island, into the East River, which is about half a mile in width. The tide flows very swiftly through the river, especially the ebb-tide. Extensive improvements were begun on this course about 1868 and are still going on. The channel has been made amply deep and safe for coast-wise traffic. In 1901 the battleship Massachusetts, drawing 27 feet of water, successfully passed through it. The great strength of the ebb-tide current serves to keep the port open in winter, and, in a measure, to prevent the deposit of sediment. The North River (Hudson), which is about one mile in width, does not carry as much sediment as most rivers. Some dredging, however, has been necessary.

The Sandy Hook entrance to the southeast is guarded by elaborate fortifications on Sandy Hook. (See .) The passage through the Narrows is protected by Fort Hamilton on the east (Long Island) shore and by Forts Tompkins and Wadsworth on the west (Staten Island) shore. Besides the works at the east entrance of Long Island Sound, the approach from that direction is defended by fortifications on the closely approaching points, Throggs Neck and Willets Point, within the limits of the city, and on Davids Island, a few miles to the north. Governor's Island, just south of Manhattan, is also fortified.

Almost the entire water front of Manhattan, about 22 miles, is deep enough to admit of heavy shipping, and the total frontage within the limits of the greater city is several times this. The docks already constructed occupy but a small part of the available space. Docks and piers naturally were built first on the lower end of Manhattan, the line gradually being extended northward on both sides of the island. The line is almost unbroken on the west side for a distance of about four miles, and many piers are still farther north. On the east docks are less numerous. In Brooklyn the docks extend along that portion of the shore opposite the lower end of Manhattan and farther south in Gowanus Bay. A part of the water front of Manhattan was acquired by the city from the Crown of England and subsequently State laws added to the portion belonging to the city. The greater part of the entire frontage, including in 1901 170 whole and 12 half piers out of a total of 224, is controlled by the city. The Brooklyn water front is owned mainly by private persons.

New York City has profited immensely from the advantages of internal transportation afforded by the Hudson River and the Erie Canal. In recent years the canal traffic has decreased. The canal is still of great importance, however, owing to its competition with the railway lines. All the railroads which approach New York from west of the Hudson River have their terminals in New Jersey. These lines are