42 



that the military of the city had been accustomed to goto ground in 

 that vicinity for drills and parades, and the attention of the military 

 gentlemen in the Commission had thus been for some time directed 

 toward it, and partly in the fact that it then appeared, comparatively, "to 

 better advantage as respects accessibility, than at present. Neither 

 the railroad to Flatbush, nor any of the other railroads by which our 

 Park is now to be reached, had then been constructed, while there 

 were three railroads already to Ridgewood, and the same Commission 

 recommended that Atlantic Avenue, which led toward it from the cen- 

 tral parts of the city, should be at once widened and improved. 



A desire to interpose an obstacle to the extension of the cemeteries 

 toward the Reservoir, also doubtless had some influence upon the judg- 

 ment of the Commission. 



When, however, the proposition came to be discussed at Albany, it 

 was found that some of the representatives of the Western District 

 were strongly indisposed to commit the city to so large an undertak- 

 ing ; they urged that a park, however large and however fine it might 

 be, situated at a point so far in the extreme east, could not fairly be 

 regarded as the central Park of the city : that a considerable part of it 

 was in fact out of the city, and not only out of the city but out of the 

 county, and that the regulation of streets and other matters on one 

 side of it could not be within the control of the county authorities. 



The close association of the cemeteries with a pleasure ground was 



felt to be objectionable, and finally it was said : " You propose to give 

 the Eastern District a park five times as large as that you propose to 

 give us, but you expect us to pay three-fourths of the cost of both 

 undertakings." 



The last objection was unanswerable, and after much discussion it 

 was agreed upon, as a compromise arrangement, that the great Ridge- 

 wood Park should be made a local enterprise exclusively of the Eastern 

 District, and that the proposed park at Prospect Hill should be consid- 

 ered as an affair exclusively of the Western District. 



Prom this followed the arrangement under which the Eastern Dis- 

 trict is now exempt from taxation for the present Prospect Park. 



The members of the Legislature from the Eastern District, after con- 

 sulting their constituents, concluded to defer the passage of the bill 

 which had been drawn up with a view to form the great park at 



