236 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
and delayed in the passage from home to business. There was 
some talk of a subway, but several decades were to pass before 
this materialized. 
A new method was tried shortly after the Civil War. A 
short elevated railway from the Battery to Cortlandt street 
was opened as early as 1868 and was later extended through 
Greenwich Village. By 1876 the line had been completed 
along Ninth Avenue uptown to Sixty-First street, and trains 
ran once or twice an hour in each direction. The early cars 
were pulled by cables wound from drums, and the stub ends 
of the rails at the terminals were turned up in a curve to pre- 
vent any running-over. This infrequent service aroused 
little enthusiasm, although the promoters had talked of ex- 
tending the line to Yonkers. The company finally went 
bankrupt, and the service ceased. 
Cyrus Field, in the intervals between European jaunts, had 
witnessed the city’s astonishing growth from the great fire of 
1835 to the post-war expansion. From his home on East 
Twenty-First street, he had seen the rows of buildings extend 
farther and farther uptown until, from living in the suburbs 
near a cow pasture, he was hemmed in by sedate, brownstone 
developments that reflected the smug taste of the Victorian 
era. Gramercy Park, long an aristocratic center, became an 
island surrounded by neighborhoods of mixed and changing 
character. 
Some of the curious old horse-cars that aided New Yorkers 
to get about ran near Field’s home. ‘The New York & Harlem 
railroad changed from horse power to steam power, as did 
the other pioneer railroads, but antiquated horse-cars re- 
mained on New York’s streets until long past the coming of 
electric traction. Rich people did not have to patronize such 
crowded common-carriers, since they possessed carriages. But 
many public-spirited citizens, like Field, were concerned at 
the lack of dependable transportation for workmen who must 
maintain families on the low wages then prevalent. 
