426 



NEW YORK CITY. 



Board of Aldermen, and the Rppid-Transit Com- 

 mission, and finally, on Dec. 16, after recommen- 

 dation by the Railroad Committee of the Board of 

 Aldermen, the franchise was passed by the larger 

 body and approved by the Mayor. The two 

 points on which the railroad refused to yield were 

 concerning questions of regulating working hours 

 and maintaining a prevailing-rate-of-wages scale. 

 Labor delegates attended every hearing to oppose 

 the granting of the franchise without these stip- 

 ulations; but the company declared not only its 

 unwillingness, but its inability, to give up on the 

 two disputed points. 



Bridges. On March 18 the Board of Alder- 

 men decided to name the present New York and 

 Brooklyn Bridge the Brooklyn Bridge, the new 

 East River Bridge the Williamsburg Bridge, 

 Bridge No. 3 the Manhattan Bridge, and Bridge 

 No. 4 the Blackwell's Island Bridge. In March 

 the Board of Estimate and Apportionment ap- 

 proved plans for purchase of property 200 feet 

 wide from the terminus of the Williamsburg 

 Bridge on Delancey Street, through the city 

 and across the Bowery to Elm Street, near which 

 point is to be a station of the Rapid-Transit road. 

 Also resolutions appropriating $1,627,000 for 

 Blackwell's Island Bridge and $2,290,000 for Man- 

 hattan Bridge were adopted. On Nov. 9 a spec- 

 tacular and unusual fire destroyed the subsidiary 

 woodwork of the tower on the New York side 

 of the Williamsburg Bridge over East river. 



Street-Railways. According to the report is- 

 sued in December by the State Railroad Commis- 

 sioners, the surface and elevated railroads of the 

 city of New York carried 924,754,211 passengers 

 paying fares in the year ending June 30, 1902. 

 Counting the transfers, the total number of pas- 

 sengers was 1,160,030,344. The original passen- 

 gers riding on the cars in Manhattan were dis- 

 tributed as follow: On the street-surface roads, 

 410,287,089; on the elevated, 215,259,345. As 

 there are no transfers on the elevated, the total 

 transfers on the street-surface roads were 176,- 

 726,464. These figures, compared with those of 

 the preceding year, show that the passengers car- 

 ried decreased 7,895,446 on the street-surface, and 

 increased 25,213,604 on the elevated. The de- 

 crease on the street-surface roads of Manhattan 

 and the Bronx was not in original passengers, 

 but in transfers. There are 15 railroad com- 

 panies operating in the territory of Manhattan 

 and the Bronx, which is an increase of 2. The 

 length of tracks operated is 216,491 miles, 

 against 206,613 miles last year. The surface and 

 elevated roads of Brooklyn carried in the year 

 357,875,435 passengers, including transfers. The 

 original passengers numbered 299,206,777. The 

 increase was 10,719,524. Eight companies oper- 

 ate the railroads of Brooklyn, which is unchanged 

 from last year. The track mileage this year is 

 330,317; last year, 328,394. 



Municipal Beautifications. A conference 

 was held on Dec. 6 by representatives of the Mer- 

 chants' Association, the Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion of New York, the American Society of Civil 

 Engineers, the Architectural League, Columbia 

 University, the National Sculpture Society, and 

 the Municipal Art Society, to consider the ques- 

 tion of replanning and beautification of New 

 York city. Among the more important sugges- 

 tions discussed were: The freight terminal in 

 Communipaw; the tunnel connecting the Penn- 

 sylvania and Long Island Railroads; the rear- 

 rangement and depression of the tracks of the 

 New York Central and Hudson River Railroad 

 at 42d Street; the union station in the Bronx; 

 the belt-line around the city for freight and pas- 



senger traffic; the question of bridges and the 

 planning of suitable bridge approaches; the rear- 

 rangement of the elevated system at Battery Park; 

 the rearrangement of City Hall Park; the re- 

 arrangement of the northern end of Union Square 

 so as to secure a combined public station and 

 a forum; the possible rearrangement of 34th 

 Street; the rearrangement of the Circle at 59th 

 Street and Eighth Avenue; the treatment of the 

 southern end of Riverside Drive; the treatment 

 of the roalroad-tracks and water-front west of 

 Riverside Drive; the placing of suitable isles of 

 safety throughout the city; the proper treatment 

 and placing of monuments; the question of small 

 parks and the rearrangement of the park sys- 

 tem; and for the borough of Brooklyn the crea- 

 tion of two grand avenues, one the extension 

 of Flatbush Avenue, to the bridge terminal, the 

 other a new avenue from the Plaza, Prospect 

 Park, through to the north, connecting with 

 Broadway at Flushing Avenue. A recommenda- 

 tion was made for the housing of the various 

 city departments in monumental and important 

 municipal structures, to be situated where they 

 can be seen, at the interesection of the avenues 

 or facing small parks, and a recommendation for 

 the rational decoration and embellishment of 

 such buildings by sculpture, mural painting, etc., 

 the question of such decoration to be considered 

 at the inception of the building by experts, such 

 work to be considered as an integral part of the 

 building, the decoration to be national in char- 

 acter, and so far as possible to represent the art 

 and history of our country. 



Monuments. A heroic statue of Gen. Edward 

 B. Fowler, w r ho was colonel of the Fourteenth 

 New York Regiment during the civil war, was 

 unveiled in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn. His 

 old comrades and various military associations 

 were present at the ceremonies, which included 

 an oration by Gen. Theodore B. Gates, the ac- 

 ceptance of the statue for the borough of Brook- 

 lyn by President Swanstrom, and its acceptance 

 for the city by Mayor Low. 



On April 30 the Mary Washington Colonial 

 Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revo- 

 lution unveiled a memorial tablet to the memory 

 of Margaret Cobin, heroine of the battle of Fort 

 Washington, in Hollywood Church, 181st Street 

 and Broadway, which stands within the line of 

 the old fortifications. 



On May 11 the Huguenot Society dedicated a 

 tablet commemorative of the establishment of 

 the first Huguenot church in America. It \\as 

 placed on the west side of the Produce Exchange 

 court-yard, and is of bronze, with the inscription 

 " Emplacement de la Premifcre Eglise Frangaise 

 de New York. Original site of the Huguenot 

 Church of New York. Erected by the Huguenot 

 Society of America in 1902." It was presented 

 to the Produce Exchange by President De 

 Peyster, of the Huguenot Society, and accepted 

 by President Barnes of the Produce Exchange. 



On May 30, Memorial Day, the Soldiers' and 

 Sailors' Memorial Monument was dedicated. 

 This beautiful memorial, which cost $300.000. is 

 at Riverside Drive and 89th Street. The exercises 

 included the reviewing of a procession of veter- 

 ans and the National Guard, of which Robert 

 S. Heilferty was Grand Marshal, by Gen. Nelson 

 A. Miles, with Mayor Low, Gen. Horace Porter, 

 and Gen. O. O. Ho'ward. followed by an address 

 by Joseph A. Goulden, chairman of the Memorial 

 Committee of the Grand Army of the Republic, 

 who concluded by introducing Samuel F. Nixon, 

 Acting Governor of New York, who then spoke. 

 The keys of the monument were then handed to 



