The New York Rapid-transit Subway

4 PARSONS ON NEW YORK RAPID-TRANSIT SUBWAY. [Minutes of is now the first two boroughs named, of which Manhattan Island formed the major portion, so far as inhabitants were concerned This borough (or island, for they are conterminous) is the most congested of all the divisions of the City, and is the great commercial territory At the southern extremity is the financial district, and next come, proceeding northwards, the wholesale district, the retail shopping district, the theatres and amusement-resorts, the chief park,and the fashionable residential districts; while on the outer edges of the island, but back from the water-front, are the tenement- house districts; and along the river-fronts on both sides are tl wharves and piers. Manhattan borough, therefore, includes what is found in London from Kensington and Mayfair to the City, with the congested East End and the great docks. Manhattan Island has a length of about 14 miles and an averag width of about 14 mile. Taking into account its population, its concentration of commercial districts and places of amusement, and its peculiar shape, it is but natural that there should result a largo volume of street-traffic along certain fixed lines within a narrow belt. Such conditions are the most favourable for the development of urban railways. . 1 1099 The local tramway-system had its beginning as early as 1832, when the population of the island was but a small fraction of what it now is. At that time, and for many years afterwards, by far the larger part of the population of the City and its suburbs resided on Manhattan Island. . 1265 CHV of On the successful termination of the civil war in 1865, the City of New York grew rapidly, so that in 1870, in order to furnish a required means of travel faster and of greater capacity than horse- tramways or omnibuses, the first overhead 01 "elevated ail way was begun. The initial line was not located along a route of traffic-congestion, the authorities having refused the use 0 such a street for an experiment; but nevertheless it was sufficiently successful to warrant extension of the structure.: Accordingly, in 1875 the State Legislature created the Rapid Transit Commission to lay out routes for additional elevated railways and to organize a company or companies to construct them. This commission caused to be built the nucleus of the present elevated- railway system, the prototype of other similar railways both in America and in Europe. The additional facilities thus afforded, though increased by xt sions and additions of third tracks and reinforced by the conversion of the horse-tramways into lines operated mechanicallly, ei her y cabl or by electricity, did not suffice for two decades of the city s growth,