View of Park Row, 1825
View of Park Row, 1825

Destructive as the fire was, however, it called attention to the fact that there was a woful lack of water in the city. Most of the water was still supplied by the wells and springs which had been sufficient for a small town, but were by no means so for a city of the present size. It was now that the idea of bringing a large supply of water from without the city was conceived. The plan was to build an artificial course, or aqueduct, for water, from the Croton River, forty miles and more above the city. Many thought that this was not possible, but then other seemingly impossible things had been accomplished, so they pushed ahead and commenced the building of this work. A dam was thrown across the Croton River, forming a lake five miles long. The aqueduct extended from this dam to the city. Sometimes it had to be cut through the solid rock; sometimes it was continued underground by tunnel; sometimes over valleys by embankments, until at last it reached the Harlem River where a stone bridge, called the High Bridge, was built to support it. Through this channel of solid masonry the water was brought into the city, and when it reached the Island of Manhattan was distributed in pipes over the entire city. This wonderful work cost $9,000,000, and took seven years to build. When the water was first released from Croton River and flowed into the new channel, rushing along for forty miles to the city, the citizens rejoiced greatly. There was a celebration with parades and illuminations.

High Bridge, Croton Aqueduct
High Bridge, Croton Aqueduct

It now looked as though there would be enough water to last no matter how large the city should become, for there were now 95,000,000 gallons a day available. But before another fifty years had passed there was a cry for more water, But this time the people knew just what to do, and another aqueduct was built from the Croton River. This one was carried under the Harlem River instead of over it, supplying so much water that it will doubtless be many a long year indeed before another will be needed.





CHAPTER XXXIX

PROFESSOR MORSE and the TELEGRAPH


There lived in New York at this time a man whose name was Samuel F.B. Morse. He was an artist and was interested in many branches of science. He had founded the National Academy of Design and was Professor of the Literature of the Arts of Design at the University of the City of New York. This man believed that an electric current could be transmitted through a wire and so make it possible to convey a message from one point to another. One night, after having worked on his idea for years, he invited a few friends to the University building, which overlooked Washington Square, and showed them the result of his labors. It was the first telegraph in the world. This was a crude affair, but Professor Morse proved that he could send a message over a wire. In the year 1845 he had advanced so far that a telegraph line was built between New York City and Philadelphia. Then all the world recognized the genius of Morse. The people of New York especially honored him, and even in his lifetime they erected a statue of him which you can see to-day in Central Park.

By this time the city had crept up to both Greenwich Village and Bowery Village, and had engulfed them. On every side were houses, some of them five and six stories high, where before they had been but two stories.

An open space nearby Bowery Village was called Astor Place. This was the scene in 1849 of a famous riot, which came about in this wise: Edwin Forrest, an American actor, and William Charles Macready, an English actor, had quarrelled about some fancied slight. So when Macready came to the city to play at the Astor Place Opera House, some friends of Forrest's gathered and sought to prevent his acting by shouting their disapproval. This was the excuse for an unruly mob to gather outside the theatre and storm the house with stones. Macready escaped by leaving the theatre by a rear door. Then a regiment of soldiers came and after using all peaceful measures to quell the disturbance, fired upon the mob and killed many of them before the space was cleared and quiet restored.

Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace

Castle Garden, which had once been Fort Clinton, had become a place of amusement. Here Jenny Lind, "the Swedish Nightingale," sang, and many another artist of rare ability was seen and heard.

Now, too, a World's Fair was opened on Murray Hill. Held in a fairy-like building of glass, made in the form of a Greek cross, with graceful dome and arches, it was a Crystal Palace in fact as in name, where all the products of the world were shown. But, unfortunately, a few years later it was burned to the ground.

There are always some wise and thoughtful people who think of the comfort of others, and some of these realized that it would not be long before the Island of Manhattan would be so covered with houses that there would be no open places where one might enjoy fresh air and recreation. They said it would be well to have a garden laid out for this purpose, with walks and drives as needed. This was done and an immense tract of woodland and forest, almost as large as the city itself at the time, was set apart. As this was in the centre of the island it was called the Central Park. Millions of people have been thankful for it, although they have not put their gratitude into words.

We have now come to the days of the Great Civil War, when many men left the city to join the army. Now there were those who did not see the necessity for war and had no desire to be soldiers, so when more men were called for there was a riot; a terrible and destructive one. A mob swept over the city, a murderous, plundering mob that left a trail of horror wherever it touched; and before it was put down a thousand persons had been killed or injured, and $2,000,000 damage had been done. This was the Draft Riot. The Civil War ended, the city prospered, growing greater and greater, until in the year 1878 the stages and horse-cars could no longer carry all the people. Then railroads elevated above the streets were built that could carry great numbers swiftly to all parts of the city.

New York, already become one of the great cities of the world, advanced with giant strides.





CHAPTER XL

THE GREATER NEW YORK


The time came when the city of New York grew beyond the limits of the Island of Manhattan, though the island had seemed such a boundless tract of land, that it had been thought laughable for the City Plan to provide for streets over its entire length. The city grew larger and larger. It stretched up to the Harlem River, leaped over it and went branching out into the country beyond. Great libraries were built; hospitals for the sick; prisons for the wrong-doer, markets, churches, public institutions of every kind. Buildings grew taller and taller until they came to be twenty and twenty-five stories high. Even then there were so many people that there were not houses enough to hold them all. So they swarmed over into the already large city of Brooklyn, on Long Island. And the ferry-boats being no longer able to carry the vast crowds in comfort, a great suspension bridge was built over the East River from New York to Brooklyn. At last the city of New York and the city of Brooklyn had so much in common, that they, with some of their suburbs, were united into one great city in the year 1898.

Then the Island of Manhattan became simply the Borough of Manhattan, one of the five boroughs of Greater New York.

So the story of the Island of Manhattan is ended.





TABLE of EVENTS

Year

1609.

1613.

1614.

1614.

1621.

1626.

1629.

1633.

1636.

1638.

1641.

1642.

1643.

1644.

1646.

1647.

1652.

1653.

1655.

1664.

1667.

1670.

1673.

1674.

1678.

1681.

1682.

1686.

1688.

1689.

1691.

1692.

1693.

1696.

1697.

1699.

1700.

1701.

1702.

1705.

1708.

1710.

1711.

1714.

1715.

1720.

1725.

1728.

1729.

1731.

1732.

1733.

1735.

1736.

1741.

1743.

1745.

1752.

1753.

1755.

1756.

1759.

1760.

1761.

1763.

1765.

1766.

1770.

1771.

1773.

1774.

1775.

1776.

1776.

1777.

1780.

1781.

1783.

1788.

1789.

1790.

1798.

1803.

1804.

1805.

1807.

1811.

1812.

1814.

1823.

1824.

1825.

1833.

1835.

1842.

1845.

1849.

1853.

1856.

1863.

1870.

1878.

1883.

1898.





INDEX

Adventure Galley, 82, 83
Amherst, General Jeffrey, 123
Amsterdam, 2, 14
Andre, Major John, 177, 178
Andros, Edmund, 61, 62, 64, 66, 68
Anne, Queen, 28, 91-93
Annetje Jans's farm, 27, 28
Anti-Federalists, 187
Anti-Leislerian Party, 68
Apthorpe, Charles Ward, 156
Apthorpe mansion, 156
Aqueduct, Croton, 227-229
Army, Continental, 144, 148, 151, 179
Arnold, Benedict, 177, 178
Astor Place riot, 231, 232
Astor Place, 231

Bank, Manhattan, 203
Banks, 201-203
Battery, 10, 68, 176
Battle of Bunker Hill, 148
Battle of Golden Hill, 136-138
Battle of Harlem Heights, 164, 165, 166
Battle of Long Island, 154, 155
Bayard Farm, 189
Bayard, Nicholas, 69, 72, 89
Bellomont, Lord, 82, 83, 86-88
Block, Adrian, 10-12
Bogardus, Everardus, 26, 37, 42
Bolting Act, 62, 63
Boston, 66, 84, 140, 141, 143
Boston Port closed, 141
Bouweries laid out, 21
Bouwerie Lane, 21
Bouwerie Village, 54, 76, 231
Bowery Road, 179
Bowery, the, 21, 35
Bowling Green, 12, 35, 93, 105, 131, 134, 152, 200
Bradford, William, 79, 108
Bridge, East River, 236
Bridge, High, 227
British occupy New York City, 163
Broad Street, 57, 148
Broadway, 12, 58, 93, 162, 198, 204
Bunker Hill, Battle of, 148
Burgomasters, 46
Burgoyne, General, 171, 172
Burnet, William, 101-103
Burns's Coffee-House, 129, 130
Burr, Aaron, 150, 201, 203-207
Burton, Mary, 112-114
Buttermilk Channel, 30

Cabot, John, 23, 50
Cabot, Sebastian, 23, 50
Canal, Erie, 220-222
Canal Street, 205
Cape of Good Hope, 3
Castle Garden, 215, 232
Cemetery, first Jewish, 104
Central Park, 233
Chambers, Captain, 139, 140
Charles I., 23
Charles II., 62
Church in the Fort, 36, 37
Church, St. Mark's, 54
Church, St. Paul's, 150, 167, 195, 198
Church, Trinity, 28, 79, 129, 198
City Hall (first), 36, 47, 75, 87, 122
City Hall (in Wall Street), 87-89, 94, 99, 128, 133, 152, 190
City Hall (present), 152, 205
City Hall Park, 50, 175, 176, 214
City Hospital, 184
City Plan, 212, 213
City Wall, 48, 87
Clarke, George, 111, 115, 116
Clermont, the, 210, 211
Clinton, Admiral George, 116-118
Clinton, De Witt, 208, 220-222
Clinton, Governor George, 171
Clock, first public, 99
Colden, Cadwallader, 102, 131, 133
Collect Pond, 50, 114, 189, 198, 202, 204, 205, 209
College, Columbia, 184
College, King's, 121, 184
Colonial Congress, the, 129
Columbia College, 184
Columbia Heights, 164
Columbia University, 121, 164
Colve, Captain Anthony, 58, 59
Committee of Safety, 68
Common, the, 50, 137, 152, 184, 198, 205
Congress, Colonial, 129
Congress, First Continental, 141-143
Congress, Second Continental, 144, 147
Constitution of the United States, 186-188
Continental Army, 148-149, 151, 179
Continental Congress, First, 141-143
Continental Congress, Second, 144, 147
Cornbury, Lord, 89-94
Cornwallis, Lord, 178
Corporation Library, 87
Cosby, William, 105-110
Council of Twelve, 39
Croton Aqueduct, 223, 227-229
Crystal Palace, 233
Cunningham, Provost-Marshal, 176

Declaration of Independence, 152
De Lancey, James, 107-109, 117-121, 123-125
De Lancey, Stephen, 99
De Lancey, Susannah, 116
Demont, William, 168
De Vries, Captain David Pietersen, 28, 39, 40
District of Columbia, 199
Doctors' Mob, 185
Dongan Charter, 65
Dongan, Thomas, 64, 65
Draft Riot, 234
Duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, 206, 207
Duke of York, 50-54, 55, 60, 61, 64, 65
Dutch Netherlands, 2

East India Company, 2-5, 13
East Indies, 2-5, 13
East River Bridge, 236
Elevated railways, 234
English claim New Netherland, 23, 53
Erie Canal, 220-222
Exchange Place, 57

Fairs on Bowling Green, 35, 36
Federal Hall, 190-194
Federalists, 187, 188
"Federal Ship Hamilton," 188
Ferry-boats, 211
Fire Department, first, 105
Fire of 1776, 167
Fire, "the Great," 224
First City Hall, 36, 47, 75, 87, 122
First Continental Congress, 141-143
First Fire Department, 105
First houses of white men, 12
First Jewish cemetery, 104
First mail route, 57
First minister, 26, 36, 42, 43
First newspaper, 79
First night-watch, 87
First pavements, 93
First printing press, 79
First public clock, 99
First roads, 35
First schoolmaster, 26
First sidewalks, 198
First soldiers in New Netherland, 26
First steamboat, 208-211
First street lamps, 87
First street numbers, 198
First telegraph, 230, 231
First vessel built, 12
Fitch, John, 209
Fitzroy, Lord Augustus, 109, 110
Fletcher, Benjamin, 77-81
Forrest, Edwin, 231
Fort Amsterdam, 19, 27, 53
Fort Clinton, 215, 232
Fort James, 54
Fort Manhattan, 13
Fort Washington, 168
"Fourteen Miles 'round," 195
Franklin House, 193
Franklin Square, 193
Franklin, Walter, 193
Fraunces's Tavern, 99, 100, 180
Frederick, Kryn, 19
Free School Society, 208
French Revolution, 199
"Fulton's Folly," 211
Fulton, Robert, 210, 211

Gage, General Thomas, 141
Gardiner's Island, 84
Gates, General, 172
Gazette, New York, 108
George II., 104, 116, 125
George III., 125, 134, 136, 142, 152
Golden Hill, Battle of, 136, 137, 138
Golden Hill Inn, 137
Government House, 196
Governor's Island, 30
Grant's Tomb, 164
"Great Fire," the, 224
Greenwich Village, 216, 231

Hale, Nathan, 157, 158
Half Moon, 2, 3, 4
Hall of Records, 176
Hamilton, Alexander, 187, 188, 201-203, 206, 207
Hamilton, Andrew, 109
Hardy, Sir Charles, 121
Harlem Heights, 161
Harlem Heights, Battle of, 164-166
Harlem River, 229
Heights, Columbia, 164
Heights, Harlem, 161
Heights, Vandewater, 164
High Bridge, 227
Holland, 2
Holland, States-General of, 15, 16
Houses, first, of white men, 12
Howe, Admiral, 153
Howe, General William, 153, 155, 158, 168, 171
Hudson's Bay, 7
Hudson, Henry, 3-8, 10
Hudson's River, 8
Hunter, Robert, 96, 97, 99, 100
Hyde, Edward (Lord Cornbury), 91.

India, 4
Indians, 1, 4, 8, 9, 10, 16, 33, 34, 37-41
Indian War, 38-43, 49
Ingoldsby, Richard, 71
Island, Gardiner's, 84
Island, Governor's, 30
Island, Long, 30, 31, 84
Island of Manhattan bought from Indians, 18
Island, Nut, 30
Island, Randall's, 31
Island, Staten, 10, 28, 39
Island, Ward's, 31

Jail, New, 175, 176
Jamaica, Long Island, 92
James, Duke of York, 50-54, 60, 61, 64, 65
James II., 64, 66, 67
Jans, Annetje, 28, 42
Jans's farm, 27, 28
Jersey, the, 176, 177
Jewish cemetery, the first, 104
John Street Theatre, 195
Journal, New York Weekly, 108

Kidd, Captain William, 83-85
Kieft, William, 33-43
King's College, 121, 184
Kip's Bay, 158, 161, 162
Koopman, the, 19, 34

Lafayette, Marquis de, 171, 217-219
Leisler, Jacob, 67-76, 86, 89
Leislerian Party, 68, 89
Lexington massacre, 143
Liberty Pole, 134, 136
Lind, Jenny, 232
Lispenard's Meadow, 204
Livingston, Robert, 209, 210
Lockyer, Captain, 138, 139
Long Island, 30, 31, 84
Long Island, Battle of, 154-155
Lords of the Manors, 21, 22
Loudoun, Lord, 123
Louisburg, 117
Lovelace, Francis, 55-58
Lovelace, Lord John, 95, 96

Macready, William Charles, 231, 232
Mail route, the first, 57
Manhattan Bank, 203
Manhattan Company, 203
Manhattan Island, 8, 10
Manhattans, 8
Manning, Captain John, 58, 59, 61, 62
Manors, 21, 22
May, Cornelius Jacobsen, 16
Milborne, Jacob, 68, 69, 72-74
Minister, first, 26, 36, 42, 43
Minuit, Peter, 17-24
Mohawks, 40
Monckton, Robert, 125, 126
Money used by Indians, 37
Montgomery, General Richard, 150
Montgomery, John, 103-105
Montreal, capture of, 123
Moore, Sir Henry, 133
Morris, Lewis, 96, 101, 107
Morris Mansion, 164
Morris, Richard, 96
Morris, Roger, 164
Morrisania, 96
Morse, Samuel F.B., 230, 231
Murray Family, 158-161
Murray Hill, 158
Mutiny Bill, 134, 135

Nanfan, John, 89
National Academy of Design, 230
Negro Plot, 111-115
Negro slaves, 27, 98, 99, 111-115
Netherlands, 2
Netherlands, Dutch, 2
New England, 48, 64-67
New Jail, 175, 176
New Jersey, 40
New Netherland, 12-14, 16-18, 24, 50, 60
New Orange, 59
Newspaper, first, 79
Newspapers, 223, 224
New York Gazette, 108
New York Weekly Journal, 108
Nicholson, Francis, 66, 68-70
Nicolls, Colonel Richard, 55
Night watch, first, 87
Non-Importation Agreement, 130, 136
Non-Importation Association, 130
North Pole, 7
Northwest Passage, 7
Nut Island, 30

Orange, Prince of, 60
Osborne, Sir Danvers, 116-120

Park, City Hall, 50, 175, 176, 214
Patriots, 143
Patroons, 21, 22, 34
Pavements, first, 93
Pearl Street, 16, 36, 193
Permanent revenue, the, 95, 97, 119
Pirates, 80-84
Pitt, William, 134
Plot, Negro, 111-115
Prince of Orange, 60
Printing press, the first, 79
Prisons, 173-177
Prison ships, 176, 177
Prison, Tombs, 205
Privateers, 80, 83
Provisional Assembly, the, 144, 147, 149
Provost, the, 176
Putnam, General, 157, 161

Quebec, 149, 150
Queen Street, 122

Railroad, elevated, 234
Randall's Island, 31
Rebels, 143
Restless, the, 12
Revolution, French, 199
Revolutionary War, 143, 144, 146, 152, 177, 178
Riot, Astor Place, 231, 232
Riot, Doctors', 185
Riot, Draft, 234
River of the Mountains, 4, 8
Roads, the first, 35
Rolandsen, Adam, 26
Royalists, 143

St. Mark's Church, 54
St. Paul's Chapel, 150, 167, 195, 198
Schepens, the, 46
Schoolmaster, the first, 26
Schools, 208
School Society, Free, 208
Schout, the, 46
Schout-fiscal, the, 19
Schuyler, General Philip, 172
Schuyler, Peter, 99
Seal of New York, 63
Second Continental Congress, 144, 147
Ship Adventure Galley, 82, 83
Ship Clermont, 210, 211
Ship, the first built, 12
Ship Half Moon, 2-4
Ship Restless, 12
Ship Tiger, 10, 12
Ships, prison, 176, 177
Ships, tea, 138, 139, 140
Sidewalks, the first, 198
Slave Market, 98
Slaves, 26, 27, 98, 99, 111-115
Sloughter, Henry, 70-73, 75, 76
Small-pox, 200
Smugglers, 34, 39
Soldiers, first, 25, 26
Sons of Liberty, 128, 136, 137, 145-147
Spain, 13
Stadt Huys, 36, 47, 75, 87, 122
Stamp Act, 127-136
Staten Island, 10, 28, 39
States-General of Holland, 15, 16
Steamboat, first, 208-211
Steam ferry-boats, 211
Street lamps, first, 87
Street numbers, first, 198
Street railways, elevated, 234
Streets, how laid out, 212
Stuyvesant, Peter, 44-49, 53, 54, 76
Sugar-house, 174, 175

Tammany Hall, 197
Tammany Society, 197
Taxed tea, 135, 139-141
Tea ships, 138, 139, 140
Tea taxed, 135, 139-141
Telegraph, first, 230, 231
Theatre, John Street, 195
Third City Hall, 152, 205
Tiger, 10, 12
Tombs Prison, 152, 205
Tories, 143
Trading Stations, 103
Trinity Church, 28, 79, 129, 198
Trinity Churchyard, 207
Tryon's Gate, 198
Tryon's Row, 198
Tryon, William, 149, 158
Turtle Bay, 145, 146
"Tyrant of New England," 64

United New Netherland Company, 12
University of the City of New York, 230

Valley Forge, 172
Van Arsdale, John, 180
Van Dam, Rip, 105-108, 110, 111
Vandewater Heights, 164
Van Dincklagen, the schout-fiscal, 31
Van Rensselaer, Kiliaen, 25
Van Twiller buys Governor's Island, 30
Van Twiller's tobacco plantation, 27
Van Twiller, Walter, 25-32
Vauxhall, 132
Verhulst, William, 17

Wall Street, 41, 87, 190
Wall Street, City Hall in, 87-89, 94, 99, 128, 133, 152, 190
Wall, the city's, 48, 87
Walton House, 122
Walton, William, 122
Ward's Island, 31
War, Indian, 38-43, 49
War of the Revolution, 143, 144, 146, 152, 177, 178
War of 1812, 213-215
Warren, Admiral Peter, 116, 117
Washington, City of, 199
Washington, George, 123, 145, 148, 149, 151-158, 162, 164, 168, 170, 172, 173,178-183, 186, 189, 190, 193-195, 199, 200
Weehawken, 207
Westchester, 168
West India Company, 13-16, 18, 21-23, 25, 32, 42, 46, 53, 67
West Indies, 14
West Point, 177
Whigs, 143
Willett, Marinus, 147, 148
Willett, Thomas, 55
William III., 60, 67, 68, 70, 82
"William the Testy," 33
Windmills, 27, 34
World's Fair, 233

Yellow fever, 216
York, James, Duke of, 50-54. 55, 60, 61, 64, 65

Zenger, Peter, 108-110