Morning journal and courier., 1893-05-04
Crowds at Brooklyn Bridge.

kJul14n tAAipn IN k1Arpcr &GNL1Da.T
just as q summer rain begins with bis
drops out of q half clear sky, SO the rush
to Brooklyn sets IN around the New Yorl
end Of the East river bridge on ever
work-dsy evening. The gaping nav o.
the bridge has been at work larIly durinc
the afternoon sucking in few straesler.
and throwing out little squads of foIk
from the trains that run behind 1t. Bu,
when ave O'Clock comes the drops Of the
approaching tempest of humanity that ID
TO storm the place like q revolutionary
mob around BAzssie begins to appear In
Printing House Square. They come taste,
and run together In little rivulets up Park
row, down Chatham street, along Center
street and across the city hall park-aIl
turned one way, all streaming toward the
bridge. Even than they give no warning
TO what is TO come, except to those who
-xel1Fs ana rs suFs 90 -bscurs trenendons
ss that tidal bore which dkaly swells the
Ss2uensy with Its overwhelming food.
The black drops come faster and thick
er. They splash in sudden numbers from
the nearby Office buildings and the horse.
cars. The little streams now lengthen out
and form far up and down the streets and
across the park in Broadway. 1t is ave
O'Clock, and the Offices In the buildings
that hold villsgefuls are closing. 1t is no
longer q sprinkle. 1t is q shower. Far
thsr and farther aEsy the human drops
minsle; bigger grow the converstns
streams. At half-past Eve the wholesale
stores and the warehouses are closing. II
is torrent now. At six the factories and
the workshops thrust a myriad toilers
upon the streets. The very clouds of the
city's humanity appear to have gathered
over one spot The streams have become
swollen rivers. The usual confines no
longer hold the two-iegged drops, which
now jostle one another off the sidewalks.
into the cutters, ont upon the roRdwsys'
all over the parks ssphsltun. The out
look from the upper stoTi"s of the neigh
borhood is upon ses Of people, in droyes
like Wild cattle, coming up as If out of the
earth from every dirsetfon, pushing, hur-
rying, covering every open place like 10.
Gusts. Now 1t Is peltipg rain. half an
hour passes, and the elevated trsins, which
come like bresthing, absorb half the crowd
so fast that the station stairs becoms az
the beds of Inverted cstsracts up which
the dark torrent climbs resiRtiessly. The
horee- cars from both directions stop and
discharge people as guns are wheeled up,
fred and dragged away on a battle field.
1t is cloud burst, and II has made mill
race-something far bigger than that-the
swollen drain of q human freshet.
Thirty thousand men, women and chill
dren are In the torrent, thirty thousand
pedestrians in a ninety-minute pourdown,
for though the rush is between five O'Clock
and seven, 1t Is thinned at both ends, and
the bulk of it is compressed in q period OF
between sixty and ninety minutes. This
is not counting the almost equal numbers
that seek the elevated cars. The surginG
black waves, white esppsd with human
faces, hurl themselves against the granite
steps that lead to the yswning iron throat
of the bridge and spread over them.
There is no more sign of individual mo.
ton than there Is in the herds of sheep
one looks down upon from the Colorado
mountains when the droves are moving
along the valleys like floating brown is-
lands, as clouds move against the sky
Overhead, on a trestle that crosses from
the city hall park, another black current
from the steam cars. keep pace with the
tide below. In that way the exodus tC
Brooklyn moves over everything ahead ct
1t, as if, were the bridge 10 fall. the peopl,
would still keep straight on, filling III,
river and pressing forward upon the un
dermoet bodies
'Stop showing sol" Look out whs
you're prshingl" Don't try to run oTel
me, say" These are notes from tn,
chorus of the solid macs of persons ths'
crowded MP the stairs TO the bridge cara.
On the upper platform the trains sweep
away regiments at a time. BGrly bridge
policemen are there urging every one fer
ward, and at timss-uniil the newspapers
cry out, psricdicslly-putting their hands
on their betters and wedging them into the
cars, through three doors at ones, as re.
volyers are charged. There are fourteen
other ways to Brooklyn, all by ferry boats.
and at the time Of which write all these
are crowded. They are not rI6bbed like
the bridge, to b3 sure, but they are packed
with people 30 that yOu csn only see the
rims of tbs decks as you see the edge of g
grCcer's measure that has been flled with
peas. AT frat the big bridge hurt the bus
insss of the ferry companies, but after q
while 1t built mp surplus and paid them
back, just as our elevated roads In time in
creased the traffic of the horse cara. In q
word, then. everything that is going to
Brooklyn at nightfaIl is crowded. That lie
even irae of the drsys which start empty
for the bridge that carries forty-one mil
lion passengers in a year, and for the fer
ries, one company OF which collects thirty
six million fares annually.