The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-01-02
BROADWAY is GREATEST STREET.

| OtIauQ ana FlccaQllly, Har1S IT'S bolS
de Boulogne and Champs Elysees and
Berlin its Unter den Linden, but view
ed from any aspect expect that of
mere age, Broadway-New York's
Broadway-is ahead of any two of
them put together"
The words were spoken by an Amer
ican who has just returned from
trip of several months through Europe
but they may be taken as typical of
the sentiments of those who have had
the opportunity of comparing The
most celebrated thoroughfare in the
United States with others more or
less known to fame in foreign coun-
tries.
Broadway is long street. 1t ex-
lends from the southernmost tip of
Manhatten to its extreme northern
point where the Harlem and the Hud
son join to shut it off from the main
land. This is distance of some four
teen or fifteen miles. AS matter of
fact the street retains its name and
identity all the way along the eastern
bank of the Hudson to Albany, 40
miles away.
Along its course within the bounda-
ries of the island ii exemplifies every
activity of the city and nation of which
it forms part. More than 1,5oo,-
900 people live along it and 10000
900 trips day are made on foot and
il vehicles along and below its surface.
Thirty million business transactions
involving amounts from penny to
millions of dollars take place alorg it
during every twenty-four hours. -
1t is business, shopping, theater,
hotel and residence street, and, as
many a confirmed Broadwayite has
discovered, it is possible to find almost
every conceivable means of making
ano spending money within its limits.
Beginning its course at the Bowling
Green, where the Dutch burglars of
New Amsterdam smoked their even
ing pipes and shifted the salt breezes
coming up the bay, for the first half
mile of its length Broadway is the
street of big business, the home of the
trusts. Almost at its lower end, No.
26, is the Standard Oil building, its
twenty floors devoted entirely to the
activities of the great oil combination
and its subsidiaries.
Along this part of the street are the
Offices of the big steamship compa-
MES, the steel corporation, the rubber
trusts and scores of other aggregations
of capital representing hundreds of
millions of invested capital. Inter
spersed with these are banks, insur-
ance companies, lawyers, and brokers'
offices and all the varied machinery
required in the operation of great f.
nancial undertakings.
Farther up, between City Hall
Park ard Union Square, Broadway
runs through the heart of the whole
sale district. For some two miles it
is lined with great merchandising es-
adjustments in which are gathered
the manufactured products of every
part of the world.
Above this, in turn, IS the retail dis
trict. The crowds which, farther
down, consisted chiefly of men, show
as great majority of women as soon
as Fourteenth street is passed and the
big department stores which have
succeeded the wholesale establish
ments are thronged with smartly
dressed shoppers.
The shopping section of Broadway
has been moving rapidly uptown dur
ing the last fewyear and has crowded
out number of hotels and theaters.
Its northern limit now is Herald
Square-at least this is the location
of the farthest uptown big department
store. Here at Thirty-fourth street,
too, is the most crowded spot in the
city or in the world. By careful COM
putatiou more than 1900, 900 per-
sons pass there every day, and this
number will be still greater when the
new Pennsylvania terminal is COM
pleted and the tunnels under the North
and East rivers meet near by.
Above Thirty. fourth street extends
"The Rialto," "The Great White
Way" Champagne Alley" to quote
few of the pet names New Workers
have given to their favorite stretch of
Broadway. This is the region of ho-
tells, restaurants and theaters.
Longacre Square is the core of the
evening life ofthe metropolis where the
crowds of pleasure seekers are thick
est and where all that is typical ofthe
gay, careless, fashionable life is most
in evidence.
Following Broadway's uptown
course onward one passes block after
block in the region about the lower
end of Central Park given over almost
entirely to the automobile industry.
"Gasoline Alley" it is called in the
local vernacular. Still farther north
is the region of great apartment ho-
tells, the homes of those residentsofthe
city who are among neither the rich
est nor the poorest, extending block
after block in structures of towering
height for several miles.
Where the street begins to mount
the heights that form the northern
part of Manhattan it enters upon, an
other phase, passing great institu-
tions, the lofty arches of the Cathe-
dral of St. John, the halls of Columbia
University and, farther up, the college
of the City of New York.
Broadway has two advantages which
many other famous streets lack-a
worthy beginning and ending. At its
lower end is Battery Park, spot of
greenery looking out on the busy wa
ters of the harbor and at its upper
terminus is to be placed the beauti-
full Hudson memorial bridge, which
will form a fitting gateway to the
city from the landward side. Broad
way always will be the street ofspec-
tacles and professions, the national pa
rade ground and the national play
ground.
To FORGET is the great secret of
| St~o,,c ot,d craofiuo t1ofi1rec-f0 n FORGET