6 



minor recommendations has been already taken up by a body of citi- 

 zens and an organized effort to carry it out is understood to be in pro- 

 gress. Under your instructions a topographical survey has also been 

 made of a section of the ground to which the larger scheme applies, 

 being that lying immediately east of the Park and extending from it to 

 the city line, and a study has been prepared, also under your instruc 

 tions and which is herewith presented, for a revision of a part of the 

 present city map of this ground with a view to the introduction of the 

 suggested improvement. 



The period seems to have arrived, therefore, for a full and comprehen. 

 si\ e inquiry as to the manner in which the scheme would, if carried 

 out, affect the substantial and permanent interests of the citizens of 

 Brooklyn and of the metropolis at large. , 



The project in its full conception is a large one, and it is at once con- 

 ceded that it does not follow but anticipates the demand of the public ; 

 that it assumes an extension of the city of Brooklyn and a degree of 

 wealth, taste, and refinement, to be likely to exist among its citizens 

 which has not hitherto been definitely had in view, and that it is even 

 based upon the presumption that the present street system, not only of 

 Brooklyn but of other large towns, has serious defects for which, 

 sooner or later, if these towns should continue to advance in wealth, 

 remedies must be devised, the cost of which will be extravagantly in- 

 creased by a long delay in the determination of their outlines. 



ELEMENTS OP ORDINARY STREET ARRANGEMENTS. 



What is here referred to under the designation of our present street 

 system, is essentially comprised in the two series of thoroughfares ex- 

 tending in straight lines to as great a distance within a town as is found 

 practicable, one series crossing the other at right angles, or as nearly so 

 as can be conveniently arranged. Each of the thoroughfares of this 

 system consists of a Avay in the center, which is paved with reference 

 solely to sustaining the transportation upon wheels of the heaviest 

 merchandise, of a gutter on each side of this wheel-way, having occa- 

 sional communication with underground channels for carrying oil' water, 

 and a curb which restricts the passage of wheels from a raised way for 

 the travel of persons on foot, the surface of which, to avoid their 

 sinking in the mud, is commonly covered with flags or brick. 



This is the system which is almost universally kept in view, not only 

 in the enlargement of our older towns, but in the setting out of new • 

 such, for instance, as are just being projected along the line of the 

 Pacific Railroad. If modifications are admitted, it is because they are 



