22 



With reference to general commerce, Brooklyn must be considered as 

 a division merely of the port of New York. The city of New York is, 

 in regard to building space, in the condition of a walled town. Brook- 

 lyn is New York outside the walls. 



The length of suitable shore for shipping purposes which the city of 

 New York possesses is limited. Many operations of commerce cannot 

 be carried on in the northern parts of the island. It may be reckoned 

 upon as certain that the centre of the commercial arrangements of the 

 port will be in the lower part of New York island. 



It may be also reckoned upon as certain that everywhere, within a 

 limited distance back from its shores, all the ground will be required for 

 commercial purposes. The amount of land enclosed by this commercial 

 border remaining to be devoted to purposes of habitation will then be 

 comparatively small and will be at a considerable distance north of the 

 commercial centre, probably not nearer on an average than the upper 

 part of the Central Park which is more than seven miles from the 

 present Custom House. On each side of it, north, south, east, and west 

 will be warehouses and manufacturing and trading establishments, and, 

 at a little greater distance, wharves and shipping. 



- The habitable part of New York island will then necessarily be built 

 up with great compactness and will in every part be intersected with 

 streets offering direct communication for the transportation of merchan- 

 dise between one part of its commercial quarter and another. 



If now, again, we look on the Long Island side of the port Ave find a 

 line of shore ten miles in length which is also adapted to the require- 

 ments of shipping. It may be assumed that the land along this shore 

 will be wanted, as well as that along the shore of New York island 

 and for an equal distance back from the water, for mercantile and 

 manufacturing purposes. Supposing that the district thus occupied 

 shall, after a time, reach as far back as the corresponding district on New 

 York island ; in the rear of it, (and still at a distance from the commer- 

 cial centre of the port, not half as great on an average as the Central 

 Park), we find a stretch of ground generally elevated, the higher parts 

 being at an average distance of more than a mile from any point to 

 which merchandise can be brought by water. East of this elevation the 

 ground slopes to the shore, not of a harbor or navigable river, but of the 

 ocean itself. A shore in the highest degree attractive to those seeking 

 recreation or health but offering no advantages for shipping, manufactu- 

 ring or mercantile purposes. At present this slope is occupied chiefly 

 by country seats, and the habitations of gardeners and farmers, and only 

 through the most perverse neglect of the landowners of their own in- 

 terests is it likely to be built upon for other purposes. 



