The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-04-29
As TO Greater new YORK
SOME OF ITS BIG ADVANTAGES
Its Three Millions Of Population. Billions
of Wealth. and Accommodation for
the Commerce OF the World
EusiuserisS Wonders.

In Its Joy over the successful consun.
nation of the Greater New York
scheme, the Sun recently gave some de-
tails as to the consolidated city's size
which will interest most readers. and
especially Scrantonians who feel In
some degree related to Gotham. The
new municipality. according to Brother
Dana's pa-sr. will be Of the worlds
urban centers the second city In area.
the second city In population. the city
with the greatest length OF railroads,
the city with the greatest number or
ferries, the city with the greatest ex-
tent of wharfage for commerce, the
city. with the greatest warehouse ca
pacity, the greatest manufacturing
city, the city with the greatest number
Of Office buildings and offices, the city
with the greatest area Of public parks
the city with the greatest area OF primi-
tive forests, the city with the best sum.
mer resorts, the city with the greatest
length, Of cobble-stone pavements, the
city with the greatest length OF dirt
roads, the city with the finest hshing
grounds, the city with the greatest va
riety of Wild animals and birds living
in their natural state, and the city with
the finest and greatest extent OF oyster
beds-not to mention many other fea-
lures of Dre-eminence.
In elaboration OF these points our
luminous contemporary says that II all
of the surface and elevated roads with
in the limits of the Greater New York
were stretched out in q single line they
would reach a long way beyond Chi
cago. the actual length OF track. as
taken from Poor's Manual. being no
less than 1,100.58 miles. OF elevated
roads alone the mileage is sufficient to
run line beyond Albany and almost to
the foothills OF the Adirondacks, for
the distance to Albany is but 14S mile,
while the length Of the elevated tracks
Is 155.09 miles. Nor Is the length of the
East River bridge tracks included In
this estimate. No exact calculation has
been made of the length OF time need
ed to travel over all of these lines of
railroad, but since they dnclude cross
town horse cars as well as electric and
steam roads a speed Of six miles an hour
Is all that could be hoped for on the
average. the legal limit on most of the
lines even In suburban regions being
eight miles an hour; so, II the traveller
put In ten hours q day on the rail he
would require a few hours over eighteen
AS TO TRANSPORTATION.
The expense of such journey would
be comparatively small and here we
come to the almost unique features Of
the city. The Greater New York has
extraordinarily cheap rates Of trans
portatiOn. There are routes In Brook
lyn fifteen miles long which may be
covered for 6 cents. There are routes
in New York from ten to thirteen miles
long at the same price. On the other
hand, the Coney Island passengers
have to pay by some routes a price that
to- t,.,v al htsv1, vii hn r.
vice rendered, but after all this Is
considered q cent a mile on the rail-
roads will pay the bill. The next in
teresting feature of this journey Of ex-
ploration Is to be found in the variety
Of methods of transportation. Rail-
roads are so common that the traveller
Is not likely to consider the variety
found in them-that horses, steam
motors, cables and electricity are all
used. and that the varieties in the
steam and electric motors would alone
furnish an interesting course Of study
lasting several months.
The moment one leaves the railroads
the expense OF the journey increases.
A public carriage costs 81 an hour, per-
haps IS TO day Of ten hours would
serve. The ferries are cheap enough at
cent to cents a trip, but 1t costs 10
cents to go to Staten Island and 25
cents for the outside passage to Coney
Island, and more yet to Rockaway
Beach, while any ordinary traveller
would h We to put up at least $25 for a
tug which would enable him to explore
the mysteries of the Erie basin and the
Gowanus canal.
AS TO POPLATION. !
In geographical extent the. .Gteater
New York from Mount st. Vincent to
Tottenville is not far from thirty-fiye
miles long as the crow flies. It's width
from the North river at West Four
teepth street to the inlet between Far
Rockaway beach and Shelter island is
d trifle over nineteen miles. Its area
is about $50 square miles. When COM
pared with other great cities 1t Is
found to be the second in size. London
has 6SS, Paris 297. Berlin 242, Chicago
1S9 and Philadelphia 129 square miles.
The resident population Of the city by
census reports is 2,9S5.422 souls, but that
Is by no means a fair statement Of the
population from commercial point of
view, for the reason that thousands of
people who have their business inter-
ests in New York city live in New
Jersey or beyond the city limits, while
they come to New York every week
day to attend to the affairs Of life No
accurate estimate Of the number of
these people can be made, but here are
some figures which will give one a
general idea of the number; figures
that show how many passengers are
brought to the city by the railroads on
an average business day:
Pennsylvania railroad ......,.......... sO,oOt
n. Y, 8. & w. r. R..................... 2,00(
Jersey Central railroad ................ IS, ,O0
d.. L. & w. II. r R......-----2 % M
Erie railroad .......................... $3.50
West Shore railroad .................. 2,00(
N. Y, N. II. 4 H. r. r. ....,..,.. BOO
New York Central railroad ........ 40,OOt
New York and Northern railroad -. 10.00(
Long Island railroad ................ 13,C0(