526 



NEW YORK CITY. 



ulation which carried property in the upper part 

 of the island to exorbitant prices in 1886. The 

 reaction then commenced, and the year 1843 

 gave the lowest point for real estate values. 

 The general business of the city then began to 

 recover, and the course was upwards with a 

 steady progress. The foreign famine of 1847- 

 '48 gave a great impulse to business, and was 

 followed by a large immigration and the succes- 

 sive opening of railroads, each adding to the 

 commerce, which new lines of steamboats still 

 further helped to concentrate in New York. 

 With the growth of business the population 

 overflowed into Brooklyn, Williamsburgh, New 

 Jersey, and the river counties. By this opera- 

 tion, the value of personal property in the city 

 was checked, since persons living out of its limits 

 were not easily reached. The gold discoveries 



gave a new impulse to business, and the Crystal 

 Palace of 1853 also lent its aid ; while, in the 

 same year, the introduction of railroads in the 

 streets at once, as it were, gave the means of 

 spreading up town, and the upper part of the 

 island was rapidly peopled. The Central Park 

 added to the attraction in that direction. The 

 dwellings of the wealthy portion of the popula- 

 tion have migrated as regularly as the means 

 of doing so have been extended. Thirty years 

 ago only 11,000 persons were to be found 

 above Fourteenth street, and the real estate 

 valuation above that line was but $3,664,980. 

 If we now divide the island into three districts, 

 viz. : below Canal street ; between Canal and 

 Fourteenth street , and above Fourteenth street, 

 and take the population and valuation of each dis- 

 trict, we have results as follows for many periods : 



With the year 1836, as above stated, the val- 

 ues of real estate culminated, and then declined 

 over the whole island to 1843. From that time 

 improvement again was manifest. The immi- 

 gration from abroad rapidly increased, filling 

 the up-town wards. In the five years ending 

 with 1855 a remarkable change took place in 

 the population. Below Fourteenth street, and 

 above Canal, there was a reduction of 31,458 

 in the population, which, facilitated by the 

 railroads, went up town. Below Canal street 



there was a reduction of 13,000, attracted to 

 Brooklyn, Staten Island, New Jersey, and other 

 neighboring localities. In the five years up to 

 1860, in which immigration continued large, 

 the numbers have again increased in all the 

 sections, but mostly above Fourteenth street. 

 The railroads have continued the facilities for 

 cheap and prompt transportation, as well 

 in the city as in Brooklyn. The number of 

 passengers carried on these roads was as 

 follows : 



Thus there were in round numbers 25,000, 000 

 people conveyed to and from their business in 

 New York by the railroads in 1861, in addition 

 to the transportation by the omnibuses. These 

 large numbers of the people have not yet cov- 

 ered half the area of the island. The official 

 reports give the following. (See table A.) 



The construction of the Central Park, mag- 

 nificent ornament as it is to the city, took from 

 the supply of house-lots a space equal to the 

 occupation of 72,000 persons, according to the 

 density of the population between Canal and 

 Fourteenth streets. The density of that section 

 in a belt crossing the island from North to East 

 rivers, has been largely increased, and tenement 

 houses there abound, some on improved plans, 

 by which all "the modern improvements" are 

 supplied to the occupants of rooms on reason- 



able terms. A late report of the Sanitary Asso- 

 ciation gives the following facts in relation to 

 the occupancy of houses : 



"Three years since, (1857,) the number of 

 buildings of all descriptions in this city was 

 some 53,000. The city is divided into twenty- 

 two wards. In 1856, nineteen of these wards 

 contained a population of 536,027 inhabitants, 

 divided into 112,833 families, averaging a little 

 less than five souls in each family. For the ac- 

 commodation of these 112,833 families, residing 

 in nineteen wards, there were 36,088 dwellings, 

 averaging about three and one-half families oc- 

 cupying an entire house. There are but 12,717 

 of these families occupying an entire house; 

 7,148 of these dwellings contain two families ; 

 4,600 contain each three families. Thus while 

 24,465 of these dwellings shelter but 36,213 



