The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1889-01-06
GROWTH OF NEW YORK.
Manhattan Island has Gained $50
Acres.
A Street in sixty Feet Of saser-The
Metropolis Did what Seattle
ia Doing.
Sen YarkPa.

TX i to-day ahJIt 3AsFt Ices @fNc va
this line, and when the legal exterior
line i reached viii be about 5i29 feet
vide. The increase Is at present -
per cent. and will be 81 per cent At
Maiden lane. on 3 similar line, where
the island naturally was about 80
feet vide. and al the legel'llTnlt VIII be
about 800 feet, an actual increase OF
81 per cent and q prospective one OF IS
per cent. To 90 uptown, Fourteenth
Fifteenth and Twenty third streets are
each half a mile or 80 longer than they
would have been had the Indian laid
them oat from shore 10 shore of his
hunfing-ground- increase of about
80 per cent. The island which Peter
Minuit bought on behalf of the West
India Company for E24 contained at
the date OF the transaction-May6 s,
lS1G-abOut u DO acres. A deed Of the
island to-day .0gid pass about so
acres more-bur the price OF real estate
has gone up.
The line OF Forty-fourth street NAV
be taken Is the northeriy line OF that
portion OF the city in which the full
ness OF urban development has been
reached. South Of this line two-thirds
OF the buildings Of the island are To-
Gated On examining this district we
find that. while the original island
south Of this line had an area OF about
3, 200 acres. the present district has an
area OF about $50 acres. The causes
OF this expansion are. Of course, not
very abstrase. In its earliest mani
festations. and ct the lower end of the
island Il sprang from the desire OF the
merchant 10 meet the ship halfway
to provide facilities for landing and
lading his goods. To do this he must
get beyond the natural shelving shore
into the stream. Northerly of the ship
ping district and later, the desire was
simply for more room ashore. At first
IL was the need of water, and later the
greed of land. In 1854 one Daniel
Litchcoe, a tayern-keepeF, was author
lied to build a dock in the strand, and
in 1856 we find that the town,
indeed. had one little pier,
which may very well have been the
creation OF this entsrprising Boniface.
This little pier was near the present
Moore street, and modeStly projected
only so far as 10 low-water mark.
Along the inner side of Greenwich
street on the Hudson river, and the
outer side OF Pearl street ON the east,
stretched the virgin strand. Vt this
time the town had about thousand
inhabitants, and on Pearl street there
were 43 houses, opposite one OF which
one pictures the young wave sportiveiy
tapping the shore, while in the stream
there goes forward the unurged pro-
cess OF discharging vessels. The tide
in It's good time rising permits the
scows laden with freight to draw up at
the end of the Little Moore-street
pier How many fathoms beneath the
present surface of Manhattan have
they buried this little pier OF 1852
In 1861 quays began to be built along
the line OF Water street, between
Whitehall and Old Slip, and in the
Immediately subsequent years were
continued northerly. This date
marks the beginning OF the expansive
effort, which thereafter contributed
its yearly increment, working on lines
from time 10 time established by leg
islative acts, and within limits laid
down by successive grants and char
tiers. At the beginning the local gov
eminent was at pains to encourage
this expansion. Having by the DON
gan Charter in 1856 obtained title to
the land between high and low water,
the corporation proceeded 20 grant the
submerged estate to private indiyid-
uals for small considerations on the
condition that they should fill up the
premises and build quay at the
water front for the public use, The
city, having contracted the
habit OF disposing in this man
neT of its real estate beneath the
water, continued the practice down
to a recent date. The method had i'm
mediate advantages; its inherent dis
advantages did not appear till later
Public considerations created Water
street; the quays along it met q crying
need. They were, however. dry at
/ low tide, and it was inevitable that
with increasing commerce they should
/ be pushed out into deeper water.
/ Public considerations also, therefore,
T created Front and, later, Sout. street
whiCh-the city having obtained by
I the Montgomery Charter of I75U, a
strip OF submerged land 800 feet wide,
and Opposed of it for the most part as
/ IN the case OF its former acquisition
were built within its area. The same
( is to be said OF Greenwich. Washing
Z ton and West streets on the Hudson
/ river. In course of time the holiers
+ Of water lots discovered that the benc-
fit accruing from this sort
/ OF property exceeded the
burdens assumed and a
desire .or real estate of this
description became common and keen.
StTaightway as an arrangement of the
exterior lines made it possible for a
waterloo owner 10 occupy another lot
Immediately in front. Extraordinarily
rushed in, The street laid out through
the water under these Influences pro-
ceeded with fine disregard of ali or
( binary considerations One of them.
the Thirteenth avenue. established bv
the legislature in lS37-might very
well have been decreed by kuhla
. Khan Its outer line ran recklesslv
through water at some points 80 feet
deep. The grants contained the usual
condition that the grantees should hn
out and build the exterior street. Had
this provision been enforced. the
happy posSesSorS would nave found
themselves, IN the simple As vel as in
the cant ssnce, in q hole
Thus the need Of water and the
greed of land have been the direct
causes Of the expansion OF the island.
but behin4 these there remain the va
" iAtNN fRNRttlh4s@ bt Organized NE
which tend permanently that way.
At present the island has 10000
buildings and adds nearly 41po every
year, The cellar excavation from
those 20 A're~ent existing world. at a
moderate calculation. cover 2I.o acres
10 feet deep. Nine hundred thousand
tons 81 ashes have To be cot rid of
every year BE ilcs these Cou.uicuaus
items, there Is the Inevitable residue
1i waste produced hr every variety Of
human activity and the coantle.s
o-tS ana EMS tossed of in { q routine
ot living. Their yearly mass Is cnor-
WuG, and tends 70 keep tse belt of
the island tight II We consider what
their accumulation wozsld amount 10
fnr period Of time equivalent. let Us
say. go the age 81 Rome. we lose our
ability to conjecture whct will have
become OF the island WIN II indeed
he here q all when that overworked
NeW Iealander shall turn his faded
ewes upon is present site. or VIII il
have been absorbed long since into the
mainland