NEW YORK 



4203 



NEW YORK 



across the Atlantic enters the harbor; that 

 every fifty-two seconds a passenger train ar- 

 rives. Mammoth buildings, from twenty to 

 fifty-five stories high, tower on all sides in the 

 business section; the street called Broadway is 

 featured in thousands of newspapers; the won- 

 derful "tubes," or tunnels, captivate the fancy; 

 the stories of Wall Street manipulations are 

 sometimes almost unbelievable; the city re- 

 quires 22,000 school teachers, 10,000 policemen, 

 5,000 firemen and 3,000 street cleaners. To 

 some people all these and other statistical facts 

 cast the glamour of unreality over the city. 

 The many thousands of daily visitors take 

 away with them transient impressions which 

 find expression in such terms as "Bagdad-on- 

 the-Hudson" and "Modem Babylon." 



Of what is New York really composed? To 

 the student of municipalities it is found to be 

 full of serious people who never worry about 

 the Four Hundred who compose "society;" 

 who seldom appear on the great "White Way," 

 as half a mile of Broadway has been termed; 

 who have but a vague knowledge of the Stock 

 Exchange. They are not in the limelight, and 

 thus are not of that New York which is her- 

 alded "back home" by visitors. They go their 

 way as do people elsewhere up in the morn- 

 ing, down to work, home in the evening. They 

 are different in that many of them live in layers 

 of stone and mortar, from seven to ten and 

 twenty stories high, but that is because they 

 are obliged to do so; otherwise their hopes, 

 experiences and ambitions are not unlike those 

 of their country cousins. There are five million 

 people in Greater New York to whom a home 

 is a private institution; comparatively few of 

 population travel to the measure of 

 sprightly music, and these do so largely for the 

 amusement of the visitor. 



Geography of the City. When New York is 

 :red to there usually comes to mind only 

 th< congested area of Manhattan Island. Until 

 1898 the city did not extend beyond the island, 

 \vhirh ].- about thirteen miles long and a mile 

 and a half in a vernier width. To the east, across 

 East Hi vi r. was Brooklyn, with a million peo- 

 ple, and with a populous suburban district 

 north and east; north of Manhattan, and sepa- 

 rated from it by the Harlem River, was the 

 rapidly-growing Bronx; to the southwest, 

 barely separated from the New Jersey main- 

 land, was Staten Island, forming the New 

 k County of Richmond, and naturally tribu- 

 tary to the metropolitan district. On January 

 1, 1898, Greater New York, with five boroughs, 



or divisions Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, 

 the Bronx and Richmond came into existence, 

 by act of the legislature in the preceding year. 

 These boroughs now form one great city, and 

 surrounding them on three sides are very popu- 

 lous suburban residence and manufacturing dis- 

 tricts of three states New York, New Jersey 

 and Connecticut with interests very largely 

 dependent upon the great city. 



The southern end of the borough of Man- 

 hattan is the commercial and financial center, 

 the middle section contains the department 

 stores, hotels, theaters and railroad stations, 

 and the upper part the residences; Queens is 



THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT 



The five boroughs comprising Greater New York 

 are shown in black. Just outside, but cbntributing 

 to the city's life, are the following : 



(1) Jersey City (6) Yonkers 



(2) Hoboken (7) Mount Vernon 



(3) Newark (8) N.-w K...-h.-lU> 



(4) Elizabeth City (9) North llctnpstead 

 (6) Palisades (10) Honip>U\il 



essentially a select residence district, and the 

 Bronx, rapidly extending northward, is also a 

 district of homes. Brooklyn retains the old 

 characteristics it possessed before becoming a 

 part of Greater New York, and therefore is a 

 combination of a great business section near 

 th. water fronts and of fine residence districts 

 eastward. Richmond (St.itm Island) i* the 

 least developed of the boroughs, but i> the 

 home of thousands of people whose business 

 rests are in Manhattan; it has an area of 

 fifty-seven square miles and an ocean frontage 

 of thirteen miles. 



Besides the islands Ma nh.v 

 already mentioned, the city includes Black- 

 well's, Ward's and Randall's islands in th. 



