NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. 



45 



to carry out its purporc, a law of 188" reconstructed 

 the commission with larger powers. The new board 

 perfected plans which were designed to supply accom- 

 modations, on fair and impartial terms, to all com- 

 panies and others duly authorized to make use of the 

 same, affording the greatest possible convenience for 

 placing, removing, repairing, altering, and connecting 

 said conductors, combined with the least possilile 

 interference with the other uses to which the public 

 streets are subject. Up to Jan. 1, 1888, '20.000 feet 

 of trench had been excavated for telegraph and tel- 

 ephone service, and 900,000 feet of single ducts had 

 been constructed, each duct averaging 80 wires. This 

 represented about 14.000 miles of wire. Additional 

 wires have been laid for electric light and power ser- 

 vice. More than 1000 unsightly poles have been 

 removed from the streets. 



A(/nei/iicf. The inadequacy of the water supply of 

 New York brought from Croton River over the High 

 Bridge led to a law of ]>>.; creating an aqueduct 

 commission to be appointed by the mayor. The com- 

 mission was cnlai-L'ed by a law of 1S86. In 1887 a 

 committee of the Senate examined into certain allega- 

 tions of fraud and defective construction, and a third 

 law was parsed making the commission consist of the 

 mayor, the comptroller, and the superintendent of 

 imbUc works, together with 4 citizens of the city to 

 be appointed by the mayor. In 1884 it was decided 

 that the aqueduct should have a conduit 14 feet in 

 diameter. The work was begun in 1884, and it has 

 since been decided to extend the terminus to Quaker 

 l>am. The aqueduct runs under the Harlem River 

 for safety in case of war or social disturbance. The 

 length of the aqueduct will be 33J miles, nearly all of 

 which is compl.-t.-d. The ci..-t thus far is $10,000,000, 

 and the total cost will approach fciO.OW.OOO. 



.\,n< lltii/ilinyx. The Produce Exchange, at the 

 foot of Broadway, is built upon 15,0<iO piles and cost 

 over $3,000,000. The biTJing is 307 by 150 feet in 

 area and 116 feet high. The main hall is 220 feet by 

 144 feet and 60 feet high. The Mercantile Kxehange 

 has a new brick and granite building at Hudson and 

 I larri.son streets. The Cotton Exchange has a build- 

 ing of yellow brick at Hanover Square, south of Wall 

 street Tbe Coljege of Physicians and Surgeons has 

 new and extensive buildings at Tenth avenue and 

 Sixtieth streets, the gift of William II. Vanderbilt 

 and his family. The reconstructed building of the 

 Equitable Life Insurance Company in Broadway is 

 considered the finest structure in the world for business 

 purposes. Other buildings recently constructed are 

 the Potter, the Mills, the Dresel, the Morse, the 

 Stewart, and Temple Court. 



Churchrt. The Episcopalians now have 76 churches 

 iti the city; the Catholics about 60 : the Methodists, 

 76 ; the Presbyterians, 55 ; the Baptists, 43 ; the Re- 

 formed (I)utcli), 24 ; the Congregationalists, 8 ; the 

 I'niviT-ali-t-. 4; the Unitarians, 2. St. Patrick's 

 cathedral, probably the most magnificent church in 

 the United States, was projected in 1850 by Arch- 

 bishop Hughes and the plans drawn by .lames Ren- 

 wick, 'flu- cornerstone was laid in 1858; and on 

 May 2."). IsT'J, the cathedral was dedicated by Cardinal 

 McCloskey. It has cost over $2.000.000. It is in 

 thirteenth-century decorated (iothic, the material be- 

 ing fine white marble. It is a l^itin cross 306 feet 

 lonij and 120 feet wide (I4o at transepts) and 108 feet 

 high, with a noble clerestory upheld on long, lines 

 of clustered marble columns and carrying a loity and 

 richly ornamented ceiling. On each side of the front 

 gable, which is 156 feet high, the carved and pinna- 

 cled spires arc to be carried to a height of 328 feet. 



T/iiiitrft. Among the places of amusement lately 

 built is the Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway 

 and Thirty-eighth street. It is capable of seating 

 6OOO persons, the dimensions being 200 by 2dO feet. 

 Tlie Casino, at Broadway and Thirty-ninth street^ is 

 a Moorish structure set apart for comic operas. The 



now Broadway Theatre is also among the most attract- 

 ive buildings of the city 



CJn/t Manxes. The new Union League Club Howe, 

 at Fifth avenue and Thirty-ninth street, cost $400.000. 

 The Athletic Club building, at Sixth avenue and 

 Fifty-fifth street, is the most splendidly appointed 

 buiMine of its kind. (F o M ) 



NEVV YORK CITY, UNIVERSITY OF. This 

 institution of learning owes its origin to a desire that 

 arose in the beginning of the second quarter of thia 



century in certain merchants, bankers, and professional 

 men of New York to secure the language of a con- 

 ference of nine gentlemen held December 16, 1829, is 

 here quoted ''the establishment of a university in 

 the city of New York on a liberal and extensive scale." 

 In answer to the call of this conference a public 

 meeting was held Jan. 6, 1830, in the rooms of the 

 Historical Society, by which a standing committee on 

 subscriptions was organized. On the following Oct. 

 15th the subscribers of money for the new founda- 

 tion sought incorporation and chose a council to rep- 

 resent them. The incorporation of "the subscribers 

 and shareholders" was granted by the Legislature 

 April 18, 1831, under the title of "The University 

 of the City of New York." The charter then 

 granted provided that, besides thirty-two shareholders, 

 the council should include the mayor and four mem- 

 bers of the common council of the city of New York ; 

 that every year one-fourth of the council should go 

 out of office, their successors to be elected by the 

 whole body of shareholders, and that no one religious 

 sect should ever have a majority of the board or coun- 

 cil. The history of this country was then not far 

 enough written to show these three things: 1. That 

 to expect any care of higher education by public 

 officials is to be deluded, unless the foundation is to be 

 wholly controlled by the State, a control undesirable 

 in the American republic ; 2. That to plan a univer- 

 sity as a joint-stock company to yield material divi- 

 dends is to disfigure charity ; 3. That to ask citizens in 

 general to endow a foundation and yet to forbid to 

 those citizens who open their purses the controlling 

 voice is to dam up benefactions. 



These three.truths became manifest to all the friends 

 of the university, and in 1883 three amendments to 

 the charter were secured : (1) Abolishing the connec- 

 tion of the city government with the council ; 

 (2) Constituting the council the sole shareholders and 

 corporation, giving to this body the election of a new 

 class of eight members every year to succeed the class 

 whose terms expire ; and (3) expunging the denomina- 

 tional test by allowing members of council to be 

 chosen without regard to their church affiliations. 



The university thus assumes a position in harmony 

 with the American idea, that higher education is to be 

 offered by voluntary corporations as a loan to the youth 

 of the country, to be repaid by them as educated citi- 



