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 opV 
 
 THE 
 
 RISE AND GROWTH 
 
 OP THE 
 
 MIETROPOLIS 
 
 SAMUEL B. RUaaLES 
 
 H 
 
 ^nv-l! ofH : 
 
 JOHN W. AMERMAN, PRINTER, 
 No. 47 Cedar Street. 
 
 1875. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1875, 
 
 By Sastoel B. Kuggles, 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, 
 
 / 
 
THE RISE AND GROWTH 
 
 METROPOLIS : 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL B. RUG-G-LES. 
 
 PREFATORY. 
 
 The publication in full, of the above entitled work, now nearly 
 ready for the press, is postponed to the month of April next, to 
 approach more nearly the close of the century, on the Fourth of 
 July, 1876. 
 
 A faithful and full review of the various facts and causes which 
 have united, during this eventful period of human history, in stimu- 
 lating the " Growth of the Metropolis" of the New World, could 
 hardly foil to recognize, as pre-eminently important, the great and 
 persevering endeavor, now covering more than sixty years of the 
 centu.y, to secure to New-York, by means of the Erie Canal, with 
 its kindred channels of navigation and auxiliary means of transpor- 
 tation, a proper share in the vast interior commerce of the Con- 
 tinent. 
 
 The publication of the present work has, therefore, been tempo- 
 rarily delayed, for the purpose of including in the narrative the 
 organic and final action, recently and unanimously invoked, with- 
 out distinction of party, by both of the great i:)olitical organizations 
 
so long dividing the State, from the Legislature at Albany, during 
 its approaching session commencing early in January next, in re- 
 spect to the future management of the Canals, and their due com- 
 pletion with an adequate depth of water ; a vital reform, which 
 must immediately and largely increase their commerce, and furnish 
 a very material element in estimating the futui-e growth of the 
 metropolis, embracing all the municipalities and communities ad- 
 jacent to the harbor of New-York. 
 
 Meanwhile, it is believed that the fiscal and other pecuniary re- 
 sults of the long sought municipal measure, which has prescribed 
 a comprehensive plan of steam railway routes throughout the greater 
 part of Manhattan Island, will become sufiiciently manifest to justify 
 the publication, at the present time, of the " Letters on Rapid 
 Transit," forming part of the work in question, and presenting facts 
 of primary importance, in showing the growth of the metropolis in 
 the century rapidly approaching its end. They are also of great 
 and immediate interest to all our tax-payers, in demonstrating the 
 immense increase in the taxable values of real estate, and the con- 
 sequent diminution in the general burthen of taxation, which must 
 inevitably and. speedily follow the completion of the steam railways 
 prescribed by the Rapid Transit Commissioners. 
 
 To avoid, all misapprehension, the author deems it proj^er and. 
 necessary to add, that the work is published, without the co-ojiera- 
 tion, in any way, of any of the municipal authorities, or of any 
 manager, director or stockholder of any railway company, existing 
 or proposed ; but solely to lighten the increasing load of taxation, 
 and to promote the general welfare of the metropolis, present and 
 future. 
 
 S. B. R. 
 
 New-York, October 20th, 1875. 
 
LETTERS ON" RAPID TRANSIT, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 Mayor of the City of New-York, and to the President of the Board of 
 Rapid Transit Commissioners, 
 
 SAMUEL B. KUQGLES 
 
 ATJG^XJST, isrs. 
 
 New- York, August '28th, 1875, 
 To Hex. William H. Wickham, 3Iayor of the City of New- York ; 
 
 My Deal* Sir: In compliance with your personal request on the 
 5th of August, inst., that I should prepare a statement of the value 
 of the real estate in the City of New-York north of Fourteenth - 
 street as assessed for taxes, and the probability of its increase bv a 
 proper system of cheap and rapid transit, and after three weeks 
 spent in collecting and arranging the necessary information, wholly 
 derived from official sources, and especially ironi Hon. Jonx 
 Wheeleu, one of the Tax Commissioners, I now have the honor of 
 presenting for your examination a copy of one of the official maps 
 of the city. This map I have divided into seven consecutive geo- 
 o-raphical portions, on each of which I hav^e inscribed the number 
 within its limits of building lots of the ordinary dimensions of 25 
 feet iront, after deducting spaces required and used for streets, 
 avenues and public parks, together with the aggregate amount as- 
 sessed on the lots with the buildings thei-eon,for taxes in the present 
 year 1875, with the average amount on each lot. The follov,-ii)g 
 is a summary of the whole: 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 r, w ., ^,1 r,', X. lAii, c, , Number Aqgregate Average 
 
 Portionsof the City above Ulh Street. of Lois. Valuation. of each. 
 
 1. Between 14th and 2(5th streets, 9,98(3 $97,358,450 $9,749 
 
 2. Between 2()th and 40th streets 11,180 108,158,050 9,704 
 
 8. Between 4(lth and 59th streets, (next south 
 
 of Central Park,) 14,943 120,597,938 8,071 
 
 4. Between 59th and 110th streets, (next east 
 
 of Central Park, IG.GOS 57,048,550 8,480 
 
 5. Bet-ween 59th and 110th streets, (next west 
 
 of Central Park.) 12,320 24,262,080 1,909 
 
 G. Between llOth and 155th streets, (next 
 
 north of Central Park 24,276 41,022,115 1,689 
 
 Total. 89,248 $448,821,763 $5,028 
 
 7. ISorth of ]55th-street to Spuyten Duyvel 
 
 Creek or Harlem River, 30,720 5,660,500 184 
 
 Total, 119.968 $454,483,463 $3,789 
 
 In round numbers 120,000 
 
 In addition to this map and statement* I will endeavor to prepare 
 and present to you, on Tuesday, the 31st inst., a brief historical sketch 
 of the past growth of the population, and the progressive increase of 
 the valuation for taxes of the real estate of the city north of Four- 
 teenth-street, from which it will be sufficiently evident, that when- 
 ever 80,000 of the 119,968 lots north of Fonrteenth-street shall be 
 occupied by substantial buildings, the valuation of the whole 119,968 
 lots may probably be increased to at least $300,000,000, and the 
 actual money value to their owners to at least $1,500,000,000 ; and 
 further, that this immense result may now be greatly facilitated and 
 expedited by a wise and comprehensive plan of cheap and rapid 
 transit, which shall at once establish two main lines to the Ilarlem 
 River, respectively extending southwesterly and on each side of 
 Central Park parallel thereto, and midway, or nearly so, from the 
 Park to the Hudson and to the East River, and thence directly down 
 to Fourteenth-street, and from that street by eligible lines to the City 
 Hall Park ; the lines to be managed and used either separately or 
 to be connected by cross lines, so as to form parts of one harmo- 
 nious system, to be directed and used under one common authority. 
 
 It is necessary to add, that in the 2)receding statement the recent 
 accessions of territory from Westchester County, stated in round 
 numbers at 12,000 acres, and containing 144,000 city building lots, 
 now forming the Twenty-third and Twenty-l'ourth Wards of the 
 
 * The map thus inscribed, and which exhibits all ihe routes of Kapid Transit prescribed by 
 tlie Commissioners, is now published on a reduced scale with these letters, which huve been 
 revised by the author. 
 
City of Kew-York, and valued for taxes for tlie present j^car .it 
 ?!-2, 900,365, are not inoliuled. Upwards of 2,000 acres, mainly on 
 tlie level plains of Morrisania, are already laid out in city blocks, 
 and it is quite evident that, with the two lines of rapid transit to 
 1 lie City Hall, this valuation of $22,90G,365 must soon be very largely 
 in.-reased. 
 
 The precise area, ascertained by recent surveys, is 2,729 acres in 
 the Twenty-third Ward, composed in part of Morrisania, and 9,588 
 acics in the Twenty-fourth Ward, north of Morrisania and Spuyten 
 iMiyvel Creek, being in all 12,317 acres. If 317 acres be deducted 
 as unavailable for building purposes, it will leave tlie area 12,000 
 ac-Jvs. 
 
 I I emain, Avith much regard, respectfully your friend and servant, 
 
 Samuel B. Ruggles. 
 
 New- York, Avgust 31, 1875. 
 
 7\> the Hon. William H. Wickiiam, Mayor of the City of New- 
 York : 
 
 My Dear Sir : In my communication addressed to you on the 28th 
 of August, inst., I sought to show that the whole area of that part 
 of the City of New-York north of Fourteenth (I4th) street, and 
 south of One Hundred and Fifty-fifth (155th) street, contained 
 only 89,248 city building lots of the ordinary front of twenty-five 
 (•-'5) feet, after deducting the portions of space needed for streets, 
 avenues and public places, squares and parks, which area is readily 
 ascertainable by exact computation, by reason of the rectangular 
 ))lan of that portion of the city. 
 
 Without entering upon all the details of this computation, it may 
 be enough for the present to state : 
 
 1. That the area oi'this portion of the city extends, from east to 
 west, irom Avenue A., on or near the East River, to Twelfth (12th) 
 Avenue, on or near the Hudson River, a distance of 10,57 feet, being 
 1 feet more than two miles. 
 
 2. That this area is laid out by avenues, (including Broadway 
 and the Western Boulevard,) running north and south, which inter- 
 sect 141 streets running east and west, and by those iniersectiona 
 diminishing the front of 10,570 feet for building lots, furnished by 
 each of those streets, to 9,920 feet on each side of the street, prac- 
 tically leaving 794 lots on each street. 
 
3. That these 141 streets consequently furnish 141 multiplied by 
 794, being a total of 111,950 lots. 
 
 4. That from this number must be deducted the lots taken for 
 public places, squares and parks, -which have been ascertained by 
 the present examination to be in all (including the 11,928 lots taken 
 for Central Park) 22,708, leaving the whole available supply of 
 building lots 89,248. 
 
 The plan of the city, as laid out under the act of 180V, is not rec- 
 tangular above 155th-street, at which point the island narrows to an 
 average Avidth of one mile, extending in length very nearly lour 
 miles, to the ancient Sjniyten Diiyvel Creek of our Dutch ancestors, 
 now better known as the Harlem River, which is at present under 
 official survey and examination, for the widening and deepening of 
 its channel for national purposes, by the Government ot the United 
 States. 
 
 The exterior lines of this narrow peninstila have many sinuosiiics, 
 rendering it necessary, for the present jjurpose, to compute its aiea 
 only by square miles, lour of which, at 640 acres each, contain -,560 
 acres. Adopting the usual computation of the " acre" as contain- 
 ing twelve city building lots of the ordinary dimensions, with 25 
 feet front, exclusive of the space required for streets and avenues, 
 the four square miles in question, the surface of which is generally 
 elevated much above the city levels below 155th-strfet, an<l on 
 which now stands the ancient site of Fort Washington celebiated 
 in revolutionary storj% contains, for more civic uses in our niodei-n 
 days, 30,720 city building lots. That number may be now sulely 
 assumed as a lair approximate, after allowing on the one hand lor 
 any probable increase, by docking out in the adjacent rivers, and 
 on the other, for some considerable diminution of land surface in 
 the widening and deepening the channel of the Harlem Kivtr, a 
 work which will secure the precious commercial boon ol ;i new nav- 
 icrable channel, of sufficient surface and depth to permit the din-ct 
 and unobstructed passage of canal boats and other vessels ii uni the 
 Hudson out to the East River, and thence through the enlarged and 
 improved strait of Hell Gate; not to advert to the great laciliiies 
 lor receiving and shipping cereals by capacious granaiii's to be 
 erected on the margins of this central channel of tnuisportation. 
 The national government certainly has the power and the means of 
 fully completing these woiks which it has undertaken, and it can 
 hardly be unwise or unnecessary for oi;r enlightened local municijjal 
 government, to whom the solution of the momentous problem of liapid 
 
Transit has been committed by the State Legislature, now to take 
 into view all the eventualities reasonably involved in the problem. 
 
 In respect to the 89,248 lots lying south of 155th-street, and nearer 
 the compactly built portions of the city, and the importance of ascer- 
 taining beyond any doubt whether that number truly represents the 
 full supply, it may be safely claimed and admitted, that no survey 
 liowever minute or careful, can show any result varying, at the 
 utmost, more than 500 lots from the number now stated. It would 
 show, among other matters, that due allowance has been made lor 
 the projections of the eastern shore, and of any exterior line of bulk- 
 head east of Avenue A., into the East River, and notably between 
 14th-street and 23d-street ; between 54th-street and 94th-street ; and 
 between lllth-street and 123d-street. 
 
 It must be evident that the time has now arrived when the avail- 
 able amount of the area of the city for building lots, above 14th- 
 street, should be definitely ascertained and adopted as a basis of 
 legislation by the governments of the City and the State of New- 
 York, and pre-eminently, at present, for the purpose of ascertaining 
 the precise extent of land, the dormant value of Avhich, when fully 
 developed by the wonder-working powers of cheap and rapid steam 
 transit, may be made to contribute, as they may so largely, in bear- 
 ing the serious burthens of City and State taxation, and that, too, 
 for all time to come. 
 
 This most interesting topic would admit of further and very copi- 
 ous illustration, which, if deemed necessary, may be attempted to 
 some extent in further communications. For the present, it may 
 sufiice to state in addition only a few leading facts in respect to the 
 past growth of the population of the city, and to the simultaneous 
 and progressive increase in the valuation for taxes of the real estate 
 north of 14th-street. They certainly may be accepted as a useful, if 
 not a sufficient guide, in estimating the j^robable increase in tiie 
 rapidly coming future. 
 
 They Avill be found condensed in the following tables : 
 
 Past Increase in Population Below and Above Fourteenth Street. 
 
 The population of the whole city in 
 1830 was 
 
 202,589 
 
 629,874 
 814,254 
 
 942,292 
 988,618 
 
 Below 
 Uf/i Street. 
 
 191,781 
 417,474 
 409,502 
 
 496,644 
 477,597 
 
 Above 
 Ut/i street. 
 
 11,808 
 
 1855 " 
 
 212,333 
 
 1800 " 
 
 245,412 
 
 [The population having been tliinned 
 by the war, the resuhs of tlie State 
 Census of 1865 are omitted.] 
 1870 was 
 
 445,598 
 
 1875 " 
 
 511.021 
 
10 
 
 This table is of singular interest, in showing the dominant fact 
 that it was in the present yeai*, 1875, that the scale first turned in 
 favor of the portion of the city above 14th-street. Its residents now 
 constitute a majority of the people of the city. 
 
 It will be also seen, that the table does not include the recent 
 accessions from what was Westchester County. The census shows 
 the population of that portion of the metropolis, as yet comparative- 
 ly unpeopled, but now legally and municipally included in " New. 
 York," as being in 1875, 
 
 In the 23d Ward .- 24,407 
 
 In the 24tli Ward 12,059 
 
 36,466 
 
 The details, by separate wards, of the population of the portion 
 of the old city north of 14th-street, are as follows : 
 
 1855. 1875, 
 
 IStliWard, 39,415 62,963 
 
 ICth " 39,823 49,684 
 
 20th " 47,055 80,808 
 
 2l8t " 27,914 59.605 
 
 19th " 17,866 114,739 
 
 22d " 22,605 85,381 
 
 12th " 17,655 58,711 
 
 212,333 511,021 
 
 From the preceding table may readily be deduced the average 
 'yearly increase of the population north of 14th-street, which was as 
 follows : 
 
 Yearly Average. 
 
 In the 25 years, 1830 to 1855, inclusive, 200,778 8,075 
 
 5 " 1855 to 1860, " 33,771 6,755 
 
 « 10 " 1860 to 1870, " 199,686 19,968 
 
 5 " 1870 to 1875, " 64,923 12,982 
 
 The rate of yearly increase in the future will depend very largely on 
 the forecast, wisdom, energy and promptness with which our munici- 
 pal authorities and our citizens shall exercise the power which they 
 now abundantly possess, to secure for the city an eftective and 
 sufficient system of cheap and rapid steam transit, which shall justly 
 and fairly unite all important portions of the city in one common 
 interest. 
 
 The tables disclose an important fact of peculiar significance in its 
 connection with the supply of 89,248 lots south of 155th-slreet, 
 
11 
 
 which is, ihat the popuhxtion nortli of 14lli-strt'ol reaclied 511,021 in 
 1875, wliich, at tlie rate often persons lor each buihling h)t, would 
 absorb 51,102 of the supply, nearly all of which were <lrawn iVoni 
 the sn, -248 lots between 1-tth an<l 155th streets. That abstraction 
 of 51,102 lots has practically reduced the supply of 89,248 to 38,146 
 lots, whicdi must be all that now remain unoccui)ied between tliose 
 streets. That number, if all filled to the utmost degree of deusity 
 for the whole city yet shown by exi)erieiicc, would not accommo- 
 date more than 381,460 additional inhabitants. What portion of 
 that additional population of 381,460 will be added to our city, and 
 how soou, are questions dependent somewhat on the future govern- 
 ment of the city, the State and the nation, and which the writer of 
 this paper is not called upon to examine at present. 
 
 PUOGRESS OF IxCllEASE IN VALUATION FOR TAXATION OF IIeaI- 
 
 Estate above Fouhteentii-stuket. 
 
 The facts embraced under, this branch of the present inquiry are 
 presented in the two following tables ; the first of wliich shows the 
 total increase in the whole city, and also the increase respectively 
 in the portions north and south of Fourteenth-street. 
 
 The second exhibits the distribution of this increase among the 
 geographical portions north of Fourteenth-street. 
 
 I. Inckease in the whole City, and in tue portions North and South 
 
 OP Fouhteenth-street. 
 
 Real E'ifitte in the South of North of 
 
 Year. whole City. Fourt-ienth-strect. Fourtetnth-street. 
 
 1830, $125,238,508 .. $120,974,383 .. $4,264,135 
 
 1855 336,975,860 .. 316,993.601 .. 119,982.265 
 
 1865 427,360,884 .. 254.020.144 .. 172,34i),710 
 
 1870, 742,134,350 .. 388.002,485 .. 354,131,805 
 
 1875 861,012,832 .. 406,529,369 .. 454,483,463 
 
 II. Distribution among the Geographical portions indicated by the 
 
 Map, of the Increase in the Valuations from $119,982,205 in 1855, 
 TO $454,483,463 ia 1875. 
 
 Geographical portions. 1855. 1865. 1870. 1875. 
 
 Between 14tli and 26th 
 
 streets, $56,793,250 $57,804,700 $89,020,200 $97,353,450 
 
 Between 26th and 40th 
 
 streets 34,750,275 53,509,180 91.828,990 108,538,050 
 
 Above 40th street, 28,438,080 01,035,860 173,212,615 248,591,963 
 
 North of 14th-8treet,... $119,982,205 $172,340,740 $354,131,805 $454,483,463 
 South of 14th-street,. . . 216,993,661 254,020,144 388,002,485 406,529,369 
 
 Total of whole city,... $336,975,866 $427,300,884 $742,134,350 $861,012,832 
 
12 
 
 The very rapid increase in the twenty years from 128,438,680 to 
 8248,291,963, in the geographical portions above 40th-street, (which 
 street is a little less than a mile south of the southern line of Cen- 
 tral Park,) is mainly attributable to the establisliment and the im- 
 provement of the Park within that period. 
 
 Historically stated, the act for its establishment was passed in 
 1853; the legal j^roceedings were comj^leted in December, 1855, 
 and finally confirmed in February, 1856. The improvement of the 
 Park was actively commenced in 1858, in which year |507,48'7 was 
 expended for "construction," increased by 18*75 to inore than 
 $9,000,000. The area of the Park was extended in 1862 by legal 
 proceedings, which took the 12 blocks embracing the picturesque 
 portion lying between 106tli and 1 10th streets, and also by the act of 
 1874, which added on its western side the lour blocks known as 
 " Manhattan Square," which were thereby annexed to and made a 
 part of the Park. 
 
 It would be a narrow and imperfect view of the large extent of 
 land thus appropriated to the Central Park, to regard it as devoted 
 or intended only for amusement, recreation or physical health.- On 
 the contrary, two large portions, containing, taken together, more 
 than two thousand city lots, lying on tlie necessary level, now are, 
 and permanently must be, used for purposes of the highest utility, 
 in purifying and storing the immense quantities of the Croton 
 water needed for the daily life of the city, and its preservation from 
 fire, while other considerable portions, with equal wisdom and fore- 
 cast, are devoted to the elevating and refining purposes of science 
 and art, and the gratuitous and instructive exhibition of their 
 treasures, for the common education of all our people. No liberal 
 or generous mind can fail to see and to feel, tliat the great Museums 
 of Natural History and of Art, established within its area, during 
 the last five years and now in steady progress, and in part com- 
 pleted, will largely enhance the moral and intellectual value of the 
 Park, which will stand for ages before the civilized world, as a 
 noble organ of education, advancing the general culture and refine- 
 ment of the inhabitants of a city acknowledged at home and abroad 
 as the common metropolitan capital of the Western Continent. 
 
 Our citizens at large, in every portion of the city, have a sacred 
 right to the enjoyment of the Park, on which they should firmly 
 insist, now and always. The sura already expended in acquiring 
 the land forming this immense " public place," and in its liberal 
 improvement, exceeds twenty millions, every dollar of wliich has 
 been raised either by the wise and provident use of our common 
 
13 
 
 municipal credit, ov by yearly taxes directly levied upon all the 
 taxable real estate from the southern most front of the Battery to the 
 northernmost winding of the Spuyten Duyvel Creek. 
 
 It is this cardinal and undeniable fact which clearly entitles each 
 and all of the taxpayers in the city to claim, that every considera- 
 tion of equality and equity requires that each and all should fairly 
 participate, and share as equally as possible, and that, too, without 
 undue and unjust delay, in all the benefits, pecuniary or physical, 
 moral or intellectual, to be derived from a common acquisition so 
 costly and so precious. 
 
 Coupled with this supreme " riglit of the people," is another all 
 controlling fact, that steam, the monarch of modern times, has now 
 fully come into the world, to equalize the condition of men and of 
 localities, and among its many and mighty functions, expressly for 
 the purpose of enabling the local government of our city, with its 
 geographical portions so widely separated, now to remedy the evil 
 by so far abolishing distance, as to bring the full and free enjoy- 
 ment of this really " central" Park, with all its attractions, present 
 and future, in less than twenty minutes, and at a cost probably not 
 exceeding one-half that number of cents, within the reach of all 
 the people of the city, even with its new and metropolitan dimen- 
 sions. 
 
 In this providential march of events, the just and wise regulation 
 of this invaluable and most beneficent power of locomotion, has 
 been committed, at least for a time, to the sole discretion of the 
 local authorities elected, by the whole people of the city. 
 
 There surely can be no good reason to apprehend that such a 
 duty, in such hands, v>m11 be in any way disregarded or neglected, 
 but on the contrary, every ground for hope that the supreme import- 
 ance of connecting all portions of the city not only with its gi'cat 
 centres of business, but also with the Central Park and its neighbor- 
 hood, will be fully recognised, with -svell considered and efficient 
 measures for securing all those benefits and blessings at an early day. 
 In respect to the probable rate of increase in the assessed values 
 of the real estate, not only in tlie upper wards, but in every portion 
 of the city, it may be reasonably expected, that the commencement, 
 and still more, the completion of adequate lines of Rapid Transit, 
 will lead to a rapid absorption of all the lots yet remaining unoccu- 
 pied. Without attempting precisely to fix any aggregate amount 
 of valuation Avhich may be realized wdthin the next five or seven 
 years, it may be reasonably assumed from past experience, that 
 whenever thirty thousand (30,000,) of the supply of building lots 
 
14 
 
 yet remaining unexhausted shall be occupied by suitable and sub- 
 stantial buildings, the assessed value of tlie Avhole 120,000 lots will 
 be increased to at least ($800,000,000) eight hundred millions of 
 dollars. In weighing the importance of this mathematical fact, so 
 directly and largely affecting the city treasury, we should also con- 
 sider, that it has a deeper and more solemn significance, in exhibit- 
 ing a very important and necessary portion of the great, formative 
 process by which our metropolis, now so rapidly increasing in terri- 
 tory, is plainly destined, amid all its varying vicissitudes, ultimately 
 to reach, under the Providence of God, its iidl maturity, and perma- 
 nently to maintain its proper rank among the greatest of the marts 
 of commerce in the Christian world. 
 
 Kequesting that the present communication, with the additional 
 facts now presented, may be considered in connection with, and 
 taken as part of the previous communication of the 28th of August 
 instant, I remain, respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient friend and servant, 
 
 Samuel B. Ruggles. 
 
 Lettee to the Pkesident of the Rapid Transit Commission. 
 
 Neav-York, Auff. 31, ISVS. 
 
 Joseph Seligman, Esq., President of the Hoard of Jiajnd Transit 
 Commissioners : 
 
 My Dear Sir : — The letter of the 28th August, inst., transmitted 
 by the Mayor on the 30th, to the Commission, contains only a por- 
 tion of the important statistics needed for a full view of the Avhole 
 subject of the past and of the future growth of our great metropolis, 
 and the consequent value of its immense real estate. The remaining 
 portion I have endeavored to embrace in the supplemental commu- 
 nication to the jMayor, presented to him to-day. Taken together, 
 I believe that they substantially cover the ground which I presented 
 to yourself verbally and briefly on the Gth of August, inst., and 
 which you then requested me to reduce to writing. 
 
 It possibly may be found necessaiy to construct the great system 
 of Rapid Transit in successive portions, but with all possible respect, 
 I must say that any system is largely incomplete and defective 
 which does not, at the threshold, distinctly jyrescrlhe^ and at least 
 prospectively provide for, two trunk lines adequately accommodat- 
 
15 
 
 ing both of the great eastern and western divisions of the city, 
 caused by its permanent bisection by the Central Park into two 
 widely separated and disconnected portions. 
 
 Our suflfering tax-payers will indulge the hope, that the forth- 
 coming report of the Commission will, at least, distinctly recognise, 
 and as far as now practicable, provide for this vital necessity. 
 
 I certainly feel well assured, that a just, liberal and comprehen- 
 sive policy will commend itself to your individual judgment. 
 With cordial regard. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 Samuel B. Ruggles. 
 
 PLAN OF ROUTES PRESCRIBED. 
 
 By examining the map, it will be seen that the plan of routes 
 prescribed by the Rapid Transit Commissioners, embracing two dis- 
 tinct circuits, exceeding, with their bi'anches, twenty miles in length, 
 fully and fairly provides for both of the upper sections of the city 
 south of 155th-street. No adequate provision appears to be made 
 for the elevated district north of that street and south of Harlem 
 River. The levels, derived from official sources, and now added to 
 the map, show that the 10th Avenue at 155th-street lies 148 feet, 
 and at ISlst-street 163 feet, above tide level, rendering it difficult, 
 if not impossible, to connect that district by steam railway with 
 the lines prescribed by the Commissioners along or in the Harlem 
 River. 
 
 The Commissioners, however, very properly suggest, that by sub- 
 sequent proceedings, and if necessary by a separate Commission, 
 provision may be hereafter made for Rapid Transit over the territory 
 recently acquired from Westchester County, much of which is un- 
 dulating in surface, but for that very reason, temporarily desirable for 
 suburban residences. The same legal proceeding might well include 
 the elevated portion of Manhattan Island north of looth-street. 
 Meanwhile, both districts are to be partially accommodated by the 
 Suspension Bridge for ordinary carriages, recently adopted by the 
 
16 014 221 670 fl 
 
 Board of Park Commissioners, and laid down on the map as cross- 
 ing the Harlem River at 181st-street, at an elevation of 137 feet 
 above tide water. Such a structure may be readily supplemented 
 in future years, whenever necessary, by a solid railway viaduct 
 on arches, at the level necessary for furnishing Steam Transit to 
 both of these large and interesting divisions of the metropolis, des- 
 tined eventually to add so largely .to its varied attractions. 
 
 S. B. R. 
 New-York, October 20, 1875. 
 
 .><\. . ih 
 
IliiWillliiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 014 221 670 A • 
 
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 pH8.5 
 
 Mill Run Fa.l719