Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/risegrowthofmetrOOrugg_0 T II E RISE AND GROWTH METROPOLIS SAMUEL B. RUG-G-LES. JOHN W. A MERMAN, PRINTER, No. 47 Cedar Street. 1875. Elite, THE RISE AND GROWTH OF THE 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 Xew World, could hardly fail to recognise, as pre-eminently important, the great and persevering endeavor, now covering more than sixty years of the century, to secure to Xew-Tork, 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 political organizations 4 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 future 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 sufficiently manifest to justify the publication, at the present time, of the " Letters on Rapid Transit," forming part of the Avork 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 proper and necessary to add, that the work is published without the co-opera- 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 OJST RAPID TRANSIT, ADDRESSED TO THE 1. Mayor of the City of New-York, and to the President of the Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners, BY SAMUEL B. RUGGLES. AUGUST, 1875. New- York, Av.gust V8th, 1875. To Hon. "William H. Wickham, Mayor of the City of New- York ; My Dear 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 by 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 from Hon. John Wheeler, 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- graphical portions, on each of which I have inscribed the number within its limits of building lots of the ordinary dimensions of 25 feet front, 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 thereon, for taxes in the present year 1875, with the average amount on each lot. The following is a summary of the whole : 6 SUMMARY. Portions of the City above Ulh Street. 1. Between 14th and 20th streets 2. Between 26th and 40th streets 3. Between 40th and 59th streets, (next south of Central Park,) 4. Between 59th and 110th streets, (next east of Central Park,) 5. Between 59th and 1 10th streets, (next west of Central Park,) 6. Between 110th and 155th streets, (next north of Central Park,) Total 7. North of 155th-street to Spuyten Duyvel Creek or Harlem River, Total, In round numbers, 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 Fourteenth-street shall be occupied by substantial buildings, the valuation of the whole 119,968 lots may probably be increased to at least $S00,000,000, 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 Harlem 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 preceding 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-fourth Wards of the Xumber of Lots. Aggreoatt Valuation. A eerage of each. 9,980 11,186 $97,353,450 108.158,050 $9,749 9,704 14,942 120,597,938 8,071 16,608 57,048,550 3,480 12,320 24,262,080 1,969 24,276 41 0°2 1 1 5 1 ,689 89,248 $448,821,763 $5,028 30,720 5,660,500 184 119,968 120,000 $454,483,463 $3,789 * The map thus inscribed, and which exhibits all the routes of Rapid Transit prescribed by the Commissioners, is now published on a reduced scale with these letters, which have been revised by the author. 7 City of New-York, and valued for taxes for the present year at $22,906,305, are not included. Upwards of 2,000 acres, mainly on the 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 the City Hall, this valuation of $22,906,365 must soon be very largely increased. The precise area, ascertained by recent surveys, is 2,729 acres in the Twenty-third Ward, composed in part of Morrisania, and 9,588 acres in the Twenty-fourth Ward, north of Morrisania and Spuyten Duyvel Creek, being in all 12,317 acres. If 317 acres be deducted as unavailable for building purposes, it will leave the area 12,000 acres. I remain, with much regard, respectfully your friend and servant, Samuel B. Ruggles. New- York, August 31, 1875. To the Hon. William H. Wickham, Mayor of the City of JVeio- 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 (14th) 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 (25) feet, after deducting the portions of 6pace needed for streets, avenues and public places, squares and parks, which area is readily ascertainable by exact computation, by reason of the rectangular plan 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 of this portion of the city extends, from east to west, from Avenue A., on or near the East River, to Twelfth (12th) Avenue, on or near the Hudson River, a distance of 10,570 feet, being 10 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 intersections 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. 8 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 1 807, is not rec- tangular above ] 55th-street, at which point the island narrows to an average width of one mile, extending in length very nearly four miles, to the ancient Spuyten Duyvel 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 of the United States. The exterior lines of this narrow peninsula have many sinuosities, rendering it necessary, lor the present purpose, to compute its area only by square miles, four of which, at 640 acres each, contain 2,500 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-street, and on which now stands the ancient site of Fort Washington celebrated in revolutionary story, contains, for more civic uses in our modern days, 30,720 city building lots. That number may be now safely assumed as a fair approximate, after allowing on the one hand for 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 River, a work which will secure the precious commercial boon of a new nav- igable channel, of sufficient surface and depth to permit the direct and unobstructed passage of canal boats and other vessels from the Hudson out to the East River, and thence through the enlarged and improved strait of Hell Gate ; not to advert to the great facilities for receiving and shipping cereals by capacious granaries to be erected on the margins of this central channel of transportation. The national government certainly has the power and the means of fully completing these works which it has undertaken, and it can hardly be unwise or unnecessary lor our enlightened local municipal government, to whom the solution of the momentous problem of Rapid 9 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, however 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 for 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 which, 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 suffice 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 probable increase in the rapidly coming future. They will be found condensed in the following tables : Past Increase in Population Below and Above Fourteenth Street. Below Uth Street. Above 14W Street. The population of the whole city in 1830 was 1855 " 1800 " 202,589 629,874 814,254 191,781 417,474 409,502 11,808 212,333 245,412 [The population haviDg been thinned by the war, the results of the State Census of 1865 are omitted.] 1870 was 1875 " 942,292 988,618 496.G44 477,597 445,598 511,021 10 This table is of singular interest, in showing tlie dominant fact that it was in the present year, 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 docs 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 24th Ward 12,059 30,466 The details, by separate wards, of the population of the portion of the old city north of 14th-street, are as follows : 1855. 1875. G2.963 18th " 39,823 49,084 20th " 47,055 80,808 59,605 19th " 17,806 114,739 22,605 85,381 58,711 212,333 511,021 From the preceding table may readily be deduced the average yearly increase of the population north of 14th-stre'et, 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 effective 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-street, n which is, that the population north of 14th-street reached 511,021 in 1875, which, at the rate of ten persons for each building lot, M ould absorb 51,102 of the supply, nearly all of which were drawn from the 89,248 lots between 14th and 155th streets. That abstraction of 51,102 lots has practically reduced the supply of 80,248 to 38,146 lots, which must be all that now remain unoccupied between those streets. That number, if all filled to the utmost degree of density for the whole city yet shown by experience, would not accommo- date more than 381,400 additional inhabitants. What portion of that additional population of 381,400 will be added to our city, and how soon, are questions dependent somewhat on the future govern- ment of the city, tlie State and the nation, and which the writer of this paper is not called upon to examine at present. Progress of Increase in Valuation for Taxation of Real Estate above Fourteenth-street. The facts embraced under this branch of the present inquiry are presented in the two following tables ; the first of which 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. Increase in the whole City, and in the portions Xorth and South OF FoURTEENTH-STREET. Heal Estate in the South of Xortii of Year, whole City. Fourt-.enth-street. Fourtetnth-street. 1830 $125,238,508 .. $120,974,383 .. $4,204,135 1855 330,975,866 .. 216,993.661 .. 119,982,205 1S65 427,360.884 .. 254.020.144 .. 172,340,710 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 bt the Map, of the Increase in the Valuations from $119,982,205 in 1855, to §454,483,463 in 1875. Geographical portions. 1855. 1865. 1870. 1875. Between 14tli and 26th streets, $50,793,250 $57,804,700 $89,020,200 $97,353,450 Between 20th and 40th streets 34,750,275 53,500,180 91.828.990 108,538.050 Above 40th street 28,438,680 61,035,800 173,212,615 248,591,963 North of 14th-street,. . . $119,982,205 $172,340,740 $354,131,805 $454,483,463 South of 14th-street,... 216,993,061 254,020,144 388,002,485 400,529,369 Total of whole city,... $336,975,866 $427,360,884 $742,134,350 $801,012,832 12 The very rapid increase in the twenty years from $28,438,080 to $24S,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 establishment and the im- provement of the Park within that period. Historically stated, the act for its establishment was passed in 1853 ; the legal proceedings were completed in December, 1S55, and finally confirmed in February, 1S50. The improvement of the Park was actively commenced in 1858, in which year $507,487 was expended for "construction," increased by 1875 to more than $0,000,000. The area of the Park was extended in 1802 by legal proceedings, which took the 12 blocks embracing the picturesque portion lying between lOGtli and 1 10th streets, and also by the act of 1874, which added on its western side the four 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 the 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, that 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 sum already expended in acquiring the land forming this immense " public place," and in its liberal improvement, exceeds twenty millions, every dollar of which lias been raised either by the wise and provident use of our common 13 municipal credit, or by yearly taxes directly levied upon all the taxable real estate from the southernmost 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, iu 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 " right 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, will be in any way disregarded or neglected, but on the contrary, every grouud for hope that the supreme import- ance of connecting all portions of the city not only with its great centres of business, but also with the Central Park and its neighbor- hood, will be fully recognised, with well 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 the 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 which may be realized within 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 ami sub- stantial buildings, the assessed value of the -whole 120,000 lots will be increased to at least. (S>SOO,00(),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 full maturity, and perma- nently to maintain its proper rank among the greatest of the marts of commerce in the Christian world. Requesting 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. Lettek to the President of the Rapid Transit Commission. New- York, Awj. 31, IS 75. Joseph Seligman, Esq., President of the Board of Rapid 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 whole 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 Mayor, 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 Cth of August, inst., and which you then requested me to reduce to writing. It possibly may be found necessary to construct the great system of Rapid Transit in successive portions ; but with all possible respect, 1 must say that any system is hugely incomplete and defective which does not, at the threshold, distinctly prescribe, and at least prospectively provide for, two trunk lines adequately accommodat- 15 ing both of the great eastern and western divisions of tbe city, caused by its permanent bisection by tbe Central Park into two widely separated and disconnected portions. Our suffering tax-payers will indulge tbe hope, that tbe 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 branches, twenty miles in length, fully and fairly provides for both of tbe upper sections of the city south of 155th-street. Xo 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 181st-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 tbe 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 1G Board of Park Commissioners, and laid down on the map as cross- ing the Harlem River at lSlst-street, at an elevation of 1.37 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. Nbw-YokKj October 20, 1875. Ex IGibrtfl SEYMOUR DURST When you leave, please leave this book Because it has been said "Ever'thinij comes t' him who waits Except a loaned book." Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library