NEW YORK CITY. 



525 



the marvellous increase of the whole nation. 

 The population of the city proper has quad- 

 rupled in thirty years, and in so doing has 

 spread northerly upon Manhattan Island. The 



POPULATION OF NEW YOKE CITY. 



numbers in each ward, by the National census 

 for each decade, and by the State census for 

 each five intermediate years, have been as 

 follows r 



The following table gives the population of 

 the city embracing Brooklyn, as compared with 

 the numbers of the whole white population of 

 the Union during the present century, from 

 official returns : 



The influence of railroads has been to cause 

 the extension of dwellings very rapidly into the 



surrounding counties during the past ten years; 

 hence great numbers who are daily engaged in 

 business in New York, and form part of its 

 commercial activity, are carried to their homes 

 within a circle of thirty miles' radius, and are, 

 consequently, not numbered in the city popu- 

 lation. Nevertheless, the proportion that does 

 reside in the city has been carried up from one- 

 seventieth of all the white population in the 

 Union to one-twenty-fifth in 1860. This in- 

 crease of population is an index to the great in- 

 crease of wealth in the city, which, according 

 to the official returns for 1860, holds the fol- 

 lowing proportion to the whole wealth of the 

 country and State : 



The proportion of wealth in the city is thus 

 larger than the proportion of population, which 

 has undergone so great an increase in the last 

 ten years. 



The progress of the wealth and population of 

 the city up to 1830 was such as to make it evi- 

 dent, with the large command of business 

 which the city possessed, and the abundant 

 supplies of water, fuel, and food which were 

 cheaply brought to it, that it must soon occupy 

 the whole of the island. 



The dwellings of the population spread 



towards the upper wards, while the lower 

 were more devoted to business purposes. TThat 

 were formerly the aristocratic resting places 

 of the Knickerbockers, have become occupied 

 by substantial warehouses, and the farms and 

 country seats of these old residents have be- 

 come sites for blocks of palaces, the centres of 

 fashion and display. By this process, the owners 

 of moderate farms became the landed million- 

 aires of the city. This evident tendency pro- 

 moted attention to "up-town" lots, and in 1830 

 there commenced that season of real estate spec- 



