The Evolution of the Street—III. 
has made a public art 
out of the anciently 
aristocratic civic art 
and has thrown open 
to the people its con¬ 
veniences, its beauties, 
and its glories. 
As to the water 
ways, though we must 
go back much further 
to find the beginning 
of the use of these as 
thoroughfares, the 
course is simpler and 
is direct. It is to be 
observed that when 
the street began to 
have other signifi¬ 
cance than that ot a 
passage connecting 
the houses of herds¬ 
men or farmers— 
when, that is, the 
street was to be the 
nucleus of a future 
industrial or trading town—the water-course 
might have a very powerful influence. Its 
condition would determine the beginning 
point of the settlement, and the latter’s first 
street would probably be at the shore line, 
at the edge of the water. 
From this point of view' it is significant 
that the Strand in London may be referred 
to as a typical example of the evolution of 
the first street of a waterfront city. Thus 
the first business street of New York is said 
to have been Pearl Street, originally on the 
shore line of the East River; of Chicago, 
Water Street, on the edge of the Chicago 
River; and of Boston, Washington Street, 
then partly on the shore line. The body of 
water, if adapted to navigation instead of 
merely to the provision of power, would be 
itself a highway; and the establishment of 
stores, houses, etc., opposite to the wharves 
starts an earlv axis of travel parallel to the 
waterfront. Reduced to terms of the street, 
the shore becomes like the sidewalk and the 
watercourse like the road for the heavier 
travel of a highway. 
Water Street in most cities, as Pearl Street 
in New York and the Strand in London, is 
back from the water to-day. This is because, 
little by little, the 
water-course has been 
intruded upon and the 
shore line pushed fur¬ 
ther out, until at last 
it is possible to erect 
a new row of houses 
parallel to the water, 
and bevond them to 
begin a new shore 
street. Then the 
original waterfront 
street has developed 
into the ordinary type 
of inland street. It 
has been transformed, 
and the story of the 
evolution of that 
street as a waterway 
has closed. 
But there is one 
condition that tends 
to prevent this course, 
and to assure the con¬ 
tinuance of a water¬ 
way thoroughfare. When a creek empty¬ 
ing into river or harbor, or an artificial 
canal, offers sheltered landing places, its 
traffic may invite construction on either side 
of it. A row of buildings will then face 
each other across the narrow waterway, and 
however precious the building area may be¬ 
come there can be no thrusting forward of 
the shore line while the water’s value as a 
highway lasts. Rather will the walks on one 
or both banks be abandoned, the new houses 
rising sheer from the water. So appear 
those tvpes of street of which the canal-ways 
of the towns of Holland are the familiar ex¬ 
ample. 
Naturally, if the water-course cease to be 
valuable for traffic, even these streets will be 
transformed into the common inland variety, 
by the filling up of the bed of the canal or 
stream, or by its bridging. Thus have Broad 
Street, in New York, and Dock Street, in 
Philadelphia, been changed. Then again 
the street ceases, as a waterway, to have any 
story of evolution. 
When, however, such change does not 
take place, there are likely to be one of two 
lines of development, or possibly both. If 
the topography be favorable, the street on 
THE SUNK AND TREE-PLANTED CANAL 
The Neue Gracht , Utrecht 
20 
