The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-04-02
New York city as It Is NOW tandIas IL
Is 10 be I'm the Future.
Es,,,,, fbe ~ v d.


From the ". Y. Post.
Manhattan Island, from the Battery
to the spuyten Duyvil Creek, is thir-
teen anda half miles long, an average
os one and three-fifths miles wide, and
contains about fourteen thousand acres
of land, of which less than q thousand
are taken up by parks and public
places 1t has about thirty miles of
water front upon two of the finest estu-
aries in the world; on the opposite
shores of which lie two great tracts, ca
pable of accu1a odating each popula-
ton twice as large as thai New York
now has.
Byits situationiand other advantages,
New York Is destined to remain the
centre of commerce for the American
continent 1t has already nearly mill
lion of Inhabitants, miserably accomo-
dated for the most part. There are
probably three hundred thousand fam
lilies who derive their support directly
from daily labOrs performed by some
of their members in the city.
At present New York is the most in
conveniently arranged commercial city
in the world. Its wharfs are badly
built, unsafe, and without shelter; its
streets are badly paved, dirty, and
necessarily overcrowded:its warehouses
are at a distance from the ships, and
for the most part without proper labor
/ saving machinery for the quick and
inexpensive transfer of goods: its rail-
| road depots have no proper relations to
| the shipping or to the warehouses;
| transportation, needlessly and enor-
| mously increased by this ill-arrange-
ment, is made more costly yet by un-
even pavements, which waste the
strength OF horses. Its laborers are
badly lodged, and in every way disac-
IL. O.
one part of the city to the other are so
badly contrived that a considerable
part of the working population-which
includes nearly all the youth and men,
and thousands of women and girls
! spend a sixth part of their working
day on street cars or omnibuses, and
| the upper half of the island Is made
almost useless to persons engaged in
daily business of any kind in the city.
! This is our present state; let us try
to sketch what might be-what not inn
| probably will be thirty or forty years
| hence, when our enormous natural adj
vantages will be utilized; when order
and method have taken the place of the
| present disorder. We mean to try TO
describe New York as we hope it will
be in the year 1900.
The thirty miles of shore line will be
bordered by piers and basins of stone
ana iron, the greatest number covered
with six or eight story fire proof ware
houses, from whose wafer fronts will
project cranes for hosting out cargoes
by steam. These warehouses will be
classified for the convenience of ship
ping, SO that an East Indiaman will
haul to one set OF piers, West India
man to another. English packets will
have their berths, and ships from Rus
STA, from the Mediterranean, Brazil,
Africa, or the Pacific will each lie be-
fore the warehouses appropriated 10 its
| contents.
An elevated railroad, the cars worked
by steam, will run along the water
| front of the city on each side, or per-
haps through the street back of the
warehouses;, and will take on and bear
away freight to the great railroad de-
pots, the cars being laden ut the ware
houses, and run upon the main tracks
with the least possible waste of labor
and time.
Two great steam roads, branching
into four as they reach the latitude OF
| Union Square, will carry passengers at
a speed of thirty miles per hour to the
| upper end of the island, frequent way
trains stopping to set down and take up
passengers, and freight trains working
all night to distribute the supplies of
the city.
The Central Park will be really as
| well as nOminally central the upper
part of the island will be as populotIs as
vast business transacted between coast
ing and canal boats will be gathered in
the upper end of the island, by reason
of the ship canal which will there give
access to the Hudson to vessels coming
down the Sound. This business, in
creased to fifty-foId its present dimen-
sions, will occupy the upper wharfs
and piers on the North and East rivers
for several miles.
Bridges thrown across the East river
at several points, and across the Hud-
son at at least one point, will connect
the city conveniently with Long Island
and New Jersey, over these bridges
railroad trains will thunder, and de
liver their passengers, from Washing
ton and Boston, from New Brunswick
and Texas, from Canada, Missouri and
California, IN one great central passen-
ger depot, where they may at once take
cars IL they wish to go further. The
depot, being near the Central Park. in
the very heart of the city, will be near
the great hotels