GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES

HISTORICAL, DESCRIPTIVE, COMMERCIAL
INDUSTRIAL

BY

GERTRUDE VAN DUYN SOUTHWORTH
AUTHOR OF “BUILDERS OF OUR COUNTRY,” BOOKS I AND II,
“THE STORY OF THE EMPIRE STATE,” AND
“A FIRST BOOK IN AMERICAN HISTORY”

AND

STEPHEN ELLIOTT KRAMER
ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, WASHINGTON, D.C.

IROQUOIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc.
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK



COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY
GERTRUDE VAN DUYN SOUTHWORTH AND STEPHEN ELLIOTT KRAMER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
316.3

PREFACE

Just as the history of a country is largely the history of its great men, so the geography of a country is largely the story of its great cities.

How much more easily history is grasped and remembered when grouped around attractive biographies. With great cities as the centers of geography-study, what is generally considered a dry, matter-of-fact subject can be made to attract, to inspire, and to fix the things which should be remembered.

This book, “Great Cities of the United States,” includes the ten largest cities of this country, together with San Francisco, New Orleans, and Washington. In it the important facts of our country's geography have been grouped around these thirteen cities. The story of Chicago includes the story of farming in the Middle West, of the great ore industry on and around the Great Lakes, and of the varied means of transportation. Cotton, sugar, and location are shown to account largely for the greatness of New Orleans. In a similar way, the stories of the other cities sum up the important geography of our country.

Enough of the history of each city is given to show its growth and development. The distinctive points of interest are described so that one feels acquainted with the things which attract the sight-seer. The commercial and industrial features are made to stand out as the logical sequence of fortunate location for manufacturing, for securing raw materials, for markets, and for convenient means of transportation.

In order to make uniformly fair comparisons, local statistics have been ignored and all data have been taken from the latest government reports.

The authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to the historical societies, to the chambers of commerce, to those in the various cities who have furnished material and reviewed the manuscript, and to all others who have rendered assistance.

It is hoped that by the use of this book our country, in all its greatness, will mean more and will appeal more to the boys and girls of America than ever before.

To the publishers of Allen's “Geographical and Industrial Studies: United States” we are indebted for the use of the map appearing at the end of the text.

THE AUTHORS

CONTENTS

LIST OF MAPS

GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES

NEW YORK

“Drop anchor!” rang out the command as the little Dutch vessel furled her sails. On every side were the shining waters of a widespread bay, while just ahead stretched the forest-covered shores of an island.

All on board were filled with excitement, wondering what lay beyond. “Have we at last really found a waterway across this new land of America?” they asked. There was only one way to know—to go and see. So on once more, past the island, glided the Half Moon. From time to time, as she sailed along, the redskin savages visited her and traded many valuable furs for mere trifles.

But at last the Half Moon could go no further. This was not a waterway to India, only a river leading into the depths of a wild and rugged country. Sick with disappointment, her captain, Henry Hudson, turned about, journeyed the length of the river which was later to bear his name, once more passed the island at the mouth of the river, and sailed away. All this in 1609.

Manhattan was the Indian name for the island at the mouth of the Hudson River. Tempted by Henry Hudson's furs, the thrifty Dutchmen sent ship after ship to trade with the American Indians. And as the years went by, these Dutchmen built a trading post on Manhattan, and a little Dutch village grew up about the post. Soon the Dutch West India Company was formed to send out colonists to Manhattan and the land along the Hudson. A governor too was sent. His name was Peter Minuit.

Now Peter Minuit was honest, and when he found that the Dutch were living on Indian land to which they had helped themselves, he was not content. So he called together the tribes which lived on Manhattan and, while the painted warriors squatted on the ground, spoke to them in words like these: “My brothers, we have come to trade with you. And that we may be near to buy your furs when you have gathered them, we wish to live among you, on your land. It is your land, and as we do not mean to steal it from you, I have asked you to meet me here that I may buy from you this island which you call Manhattan.” Then, in payment for the island, Peter Minuit offered the Indians ribbons, knives, rings, and colored beads—things dearly loved by the savages. The bargain was soon closed, and for twenty-four dollars' worth of trinkets the Dutch became the owners of Manhattan Island.

The Dutch settlement on Manhattan was called New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam was a pretty town, with its quaint Dutch houses built gable end toward the street and its gardens bright with flowers. Dutch windmills with their long sweeping arms rose here and there, and near the water stood the fort.

But though New Amsterdam grew and prospered in the years after Peter Minuit bought Manhattan, life there did not run as smoothly as it might. In time Peter Stuyvesant came to be governor, and a stern, tyrannical ruler he was. He always saw things from the Dutch West India Company's point of view, not from the colonists'. Disagreement followed disagreement till the people were nearly at the end of their patience.

Then, one day in 1664, an English fleet sailed into the bay. A letter was brought ashore for Governor Stuyvesant. England too, so it seemed, laid claim to this land along the Hudson River, and now asked the Dutch governor to give up his colony to the Duke of York, a brother of England's king. This done, the Dutch colonists could keep their property, and all their rights and privileges. In fact, even greater privileges would then be given them.

In a towering rage Governor Stuyvesant tore the letter into bits and stamped upon them and called upon his colonists to rise and help him repulse the English. But the colonists would not rise. They felt that there was nothing to gain by so doing. The English promised much, far more than they had had under the rule of tyrannical Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch West India Company.

What could the governor do? Surely he alone could not defeat the English fleet. So at last, sorrowfully and reluctantly, he signed a surrender, and the Dutch Colony was given over to the English.

Once in possession, the English renamed New Amsterdam, calling it New York. Now followed a hundred years of ever-increasing river, coast, and foreign trade, of growing industries, of prosperity. And then—the Revolution.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, George Washington and his army were in New York, guarding the city from the English. But before the close of the year he was forced to retreat, and the English took possession. By the close of the Revolution, in 1783, the English had robbed the city of much of its wealth and had ruined its business.

After the war the thirteen states who had won their freedom from England joined together, drew up a constitution for their common government, and chose their first president. Then came the thirtieth of April, 1789. The streets were crowded, and a great throng packed the space before New York's Federal Hall. This was Inauguration Day, and on the balcony stood General Washington taking the oath of office. It was a solemn moment. The ceremony over, a mighty shout arose—“Long live George Washington, president of the United States.” Cheers filled the air, bells pealed, and cannons roared. The new government had begun, and, for a time, New York was the capital city.

Already New York was recovering from the effects of the war. Her trade with European ports had begun again, and it was no uncommon sight to see over one hundred vessels loading or unloading in her harbor at one time.

New York harbor is one of the largest and best in the world. Add to this the city's central location on the Atlantic seaboard, and it is no wonder that a vast coasting trade grew up with Eastern and Southern ports.

Without doubt, however, the greatest business event in the history of New York City was the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. The canal joined the Great Lakes with the Hudson River, making a water route from the rich Northwest to the Atlantic, with New York as the natural terminus. So with nearly all of the trade of the lake region at her command, New York soon became a great commercial center, outstripping both Boston and Philadelphia, which up to this time had ranked ahead of New York.

A few years later the building of railroads began. The first railway from New York was begun in 1831, and it was not long before the city was the terminus of several lines and the chief railroad center of the Atlantic coast. As the railroads did more and more of the carrying, and the Erie Canal lost its former importance, New York did not suffer from the change, but still controlled much of the trade between the Northwest and European nations. Besides, as time went on, she built up an immense traffic with all parts of the continent, being easily reached by rail from the north, east, south, and west.

As more and more people came to the city the business area on Manhattan proved too small, and with water to the east, to the west, and to the south, there was no possibility of spreading out in these directions. Yet business kept increasing, and the cry for added room became more and more urgent. Finally, the building of the ten-story Tower Building in 1889 solved the difficulty. It showed that, though hemmed in on all sides, there was still one direction in which the business section could grow—upwards. And upwards it has grown. To-day lower Manhattan fairly bristles with huge steel-framed skyscrapers which furnish miles and miles of office space, twenty, thirty, forty, in one case even fifty-five, stories above the street level. The supplying of office and factory space is not the only use that has been made of these steel buildings. Great apartment houses from twelve to fifteen stories high provide homes for thousands. Mammoth hotels covering entire city blocks furnish temporary homes for the multitudes which visit the city each year. Fifteen of the largest of these can house more than 15,000 guests at one time—a good-sized city in itself. Thus has Manhattan become one of the most densely populated areas on the globe. In the boroughs of Queens and Richmond, on the other hand, large tracts of land are given over to farms and market gardens.

Manhattan is at once the smallest and the most important borough in the city. Here are the homes of more than 2,000,000 people, the business section of Greater New York, and the chief shipping districts.

When building the narrow irregular streets of their little town on lower Manhattan, the inhabitants of New Amsterdam little dreamed that they would one day be the scene of the enormous traffic of modern New York. Those old, narrow, winding streets to-day swarm with hurrying throngs from morning till night and are among the busiest and noisiest in the world.

The newer part of the city from Fourteenth Street north to the Harlem River has been laid out in wide parallel avenues running north and south. These are crossed by numbered streets running east and west from river to river. Fifth Avenue runs lengthwise through the middle of the borough, dividing it into the East and West sides. On the East Side you will find the crowded homes of the poorer classes, where many of the working people of Manhattan live. On the West Side are many manufacturing plants, lumber yards, and warehouses. On the upper stretch of Fifth Avenue, and on the streets leading off, are the homes of many of New York's wealthiest residents. Opposite Central Park are some of the most costly and beautiful mansions in the city.

In this regular arrangement of streets, Broadway alone is the exception to the rule. Beginning at the southern end of the island, it runs straight north for more than two miles, then turns west and winds its way throughout the whole length of the city. About its lower end, and on some of the neighboring streets, center the banking and financial interests. Here are many of the city's richest banks and trust companies.

Wall Street, running east from Broadway about one third of a mile from the southern end of Manhattan, was named from the wall which the Dutch, in 1683, built across the island at this point, because they heard that the English were planning to attack them from the north. Though only half a mile in length, Wall Street probably surpasses all others in the extent of its business.

North of the banking center is the great wholesale region, where merchants from all parts of the country buy their stock in large quantities, to sell again to the retail merchants. Beyond the wholesale region are the large retail stores—New York's great shopping district. In these retail stores the merchants who have bought from the wholesalers sell direct to the people who are to use the goods. In this middle section of the island are also most of the better-class hotels, restaurants, clubs, and theaters, which have been gradually making their way further and further uptown, crowding the best resident section still further north.

The customhouse, where the government collects duties on goods brought into the port of New York from other lands, was built at the extreme southern end of the island, where Fort Amsterdam used to stand. The United States Sub-Treasury, in Wall Street, stands on the site of Federal Hall, where Washington was inaugurated. Here are stored large quantities of gold, silver, and paper money belonging to the government. In and about City Hall Park are the post office, the courthouse, and the Hall of Records. The new public library, on Fifth Avenue between Fortieth and Forty-second streets, is the largest library building in the world.

The city's parks are many. Central Park, in the center of Manhattan, ranks among the world's finest pleasure grounds. It is two miles and a half long and one-half mile wide, and has large stretches of woodland, beautiful lawns, gleaming lakes, and sparkling fountains. Here, too, are the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Cleopatra's Needle—an obelisk thousands of years old, presented to the city by a ruler of Egypt. And here are reservoirs which hold the water brought by aqueducts from the Croton River, about forty miles north of the city. This river was for many years the sole source of Manhattan's water supply. In 1905, however, the city began work on an immense aqueduct which is to bring all the drinking-water for all five boroughs from reservoirs in the Catskill Mountain region.

About five million people live in this wonderful city, and to supply them all with food is a tremendous business in itself. During the night special trains bring milk, butter, and eggs; refrigerator cars come laden with beef; and from the market gardens of Long Island fruits and vegetables are gathered and taken to the city during the cool of the night that they may be sold, fresh and inviting, in the morning.

Great numbers of New York's inhabitants are from foreign lands. Several thousand Chinese manage to exist in the few blocks which make up New York's Chinatown. A large Italian population lives huddled together in Little Italy, as well as in other sections of the city. Thousands upon thousands of Jews are crowded into the Hebrew section on the lower east side of Manhattan. There is also a German and a French colony, as well as distinct Negro, Greek, Russian, Armenian, and Arab quarters. Most of these are in lower Manhattan, and in consequence lower Manhattan is by no means deserted when the vast army of shoppers, workers, and business men have gone home for the night.

The necessity of carrying these shoppers, workers, and business men to and from their homes in the residence sections of the city and in the suburbs gradually led to the development of New York's wonderful rapid-transit system. Within the borders of Manhattan itself, horse cars soon proved unequal to handling the crowds that each day traveled north and south. So the first elevated railway was built. Then six years later, a second line was constructed. Others soon followed, not only in Manhattan but also in Brooklyn and The Bronx. Raised high above the busy streets by means of iron trestles, and making but few stops, these elevated trains could carry passengers much faster than the surface cars, and for a time the problem seemed to be solved.

The traveling public was rapidly increasing, however, and before the close of the nineteenth century both the surface cars, now run by electricity, and the elevated trains were sorely overcrowded during the morning and evening rush hours. More cars were absolutely necessary, and as there was little room to run them on or above the surface, New York decided to make use of the space under the ground, just as it had already turned to account that overhead.

The work was begun in 1901. A small army of men was set to blasting and digging tunnels underneath the city streets,—a tremendous task,—and in 1904 the first subway was opened. Electric cars running on these underground tracks carry passengers from one end of the island to the other with the speed of a railroad train.

But what of the means of travel for those living outside of Manhattan? Years back, business men living on Long Island had to cross the East River on ferry boats. This was particularly inconvenient in winter, when fogs or floating ice were liable to cause serious delays. Besides, as New York grew, such numbers crossed on the ferries that they were overcrowded. Relief came for a time when, in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was built over the East River from Brooklyn to New York. This bridge is over a mile long. Across it run a roadway, a walk for foot passengers, and tracks for elevated trains as well as for surface cars. Two even longer bridges, the Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge, have since been built between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Then, too, there is the Queensboro Bridge, between Manhattan and the Borough of Queens.

Though thousands and thousands daily crossed the East River over these bridges, men soon foresaw that the time was not far distant when ferries and bridges together would be unable to take care of the ever-growing traffic. Further means of travel had to be provided, and the success of the city's underground railway suggested a practical idea. As early as 1908, the subway was continued and carried under the East River to Brooklyn. Several tubes have since been built under the Hudson, connecting Manhattan with the New Jersey shore. To-day New York is building many miles of new subway under various parts of the city as well as under the Harlem and East rivers. Carrying passengers under water has proved as great a success as carrying them underground.

Over and above all these means of rapid transit, Greater New York has at its service ten of America's great railroads. The Pennsylvania Railroad has an immense station in New York, one of the finest of its kind. Tunnels under the Hudson and East rivers carry its trains to New Jersey and Long Island.

The new Grand Central Station is the greatest railroad terminal in the world. The station is a beautiful building of stone and marble, large enough to accommodate thirty thousand people at one time. Between railroads and tunnels, bridges and ferries, surface cars, elevated trains, and subways, New York's rapid transit system is one of the best in the world.

With such advantages as a receiving and distributing center, it is small wonder that the city has become the nation's chief market place. It is without a rival as the center of the wholesale dry-goods and wholesale grocery businesses. More than half of the imports of the United States enter by way of New York's port, and its total foreign commerce is five times that of any other city in the country.

Rubber, silk goods, furs, jewelry, coffee, tea, sugar, and tin are among the leading imports. Cotton, meats, and breadstuffs are the most important exports.

Besides being the principal market place of the United States, New York is also its greatest workshop, as it makes over one tenth of the manufactures of the country. In the manufacture of clothing alone, more than a hundred thousand people are employed. There are comparatively few large factories for carrying on this work, as much of it is done in tenement houses and in small workshops. The growth of this industry has been largely due to the abundance of cheap unskilled labor furnished by the immigrant population of the city.

Second in importance is the refining of sugar and molasses, carried on chiefly in Brooklyn along the East River, where boats laden with raw sugar from the Southern states and the West Indies unload their cargoes. New York City leads in the refining of sugar as well as in its importation.

Added to these, printing and publishing, the refining of petroleum, slaughtering and meat packing, the roasting and grinding of coffee and spices, the making of foundry and machine-shop products, cigars, tobacco, millinery, furniture, and jewelry are the leading industries of the many thousands which have grown up in the city. All this is largely due to the ease with which raw materials can be obtained and finished articles marketed. Thanks to its commercial advantages, New York leads all American cities in the value of its manufactures and surpasses them in the variety of its products.

At the southern end of Manhattan Island is the Battery. In the old days the Battery was a fort. Now it is used as an aquarium. From the Battery New York's docks extend for miles along both sides of lower Manhattan and line the Long Island and New Jersey shores as well. The wharves are piled high with bales and bags, boxes and barrels. Ships from the South come with cargoes of cotton, others bound for England take this cotton away. Tank steamers from Cuba bring molasses; similar ones are filled with petroleum destined for the ends of the earth. Cattle boats take on live stock brought from the West, grain ships load at the many elevators built at the water's edge, and vessels from all the larger ports of the world put ashore goods of every description. Along both shores of the Hudson River are the piers of the great trans-Atlantic steamship companies, the landing places of the largest and fastest passenger vessels in the world. Here also are the docks of the many river and coastwise lines which carry passengers to and from the cities and towns on the Hudson and the Atlantic coast. Half the foreign trade and travel of the United States passes over the wharves of lower Manhattan.

The entire harbor includes the Hudson and East rivers and the upper and lower New York Bay with the connecting strait known as The Narrows. The upper bay, New York's real harbor, can be entered from the ocean in three ways—a narrow winding channel around Staten Island, a northeast entrance through Long Island Sound and the East River, and an entrance through The Narrows from the lower bay.