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that this design, to which a large expenditure has already been di- 

 rected, is impossible to be reconciled with the closing of the streets on 

 the East side of it by a public garden. 



CONSTRUCTION AND SUPERINTENDENCE. 



Statements in detail are appended, made up from their respective re- 

 cords by the engineer in charge and his principal assistants, which show 

 the constructive character and extent of the works which have been ear- 

 ned on during the year, together with statistics of the force employed, 

 organization, discipline, supplies and public resort. 



We shall briefly call your attention to the more significant facts in 

 these respects of the year's history of the Park. 



A winter of extraordinary, if not of unprecedented severity, was 

 followed by a season equally remarkable for the frequency with which 

 storms occurred, and the amount of rain which fell. During several 

 months, work was almost daily interrupted, or prosecuted under diffi- 

 culties, and a great deal of labor was expended in opening channels 

 and repairing damages upon ground under construction. These con- 

 ditions were also unfavorable to the public use of the Park. 



The Park has nevertheless served the ends for which it was designed 

 to an extent which could hardly have been expected in the existing 

 stage of its construction, and upon which the Commission is to be 

 congratulated, those resorting to it for health and pleasure often num- 

 bering, on fine days, twenty to thirty thousand, and sometimes forty 

 to fifty thousand. The influence of the Park is perceptible in the 

 rapidly increasing number of horses and carriages kept for pleasure 

 driving and riding in the city, and in the number of men who have 

 adopted the practice of taking a daily drive or ride with their families. 

 It is observed that these often bring guests with them, and it is evident 

 that the Park is already regarded with some degree of pride, though 

 this must be for the most part rather in what it promises than in 

 what it is. 



The real economy of the large expenditure which the city is making 

 on the Park will eventually be tested chiefly by the degree in which 

 it shall have come to be regarded as a convenient adjunct of the 

 household property of all the citizens, and in which its advantages for 

 the preservation and restoration of health shall be familiarly recognized 



