High Bridge, Croton Aqueduct
It now looked as though there would be enough water to last no matter how large the city should become, for there were now 95,000,000 gallons a day available. But before another fifty years had passed there was a cry for more water, But this time the people knew just what to do, and another aqueduct was built from the Croton River. This one was carried under the Harlem River instead of over it, supplying so much water that it will doubtless be many a long year indeed before another will be needed.
CHAPTER XXXIX
PROFESSOR MORSE and the TELEGRAPH
There lived in New York at this time a man whose name was Samuel F.B. Morse. He was an artist and was interested in many branches of science. He had founded the National Academy of Design and was Professor of the Literature of the Arts of Design at the University of the City of New York. This man believed that an electric current could be transmitted through a wire and so make it possible to convey a message from one point to another. One night, after having worked on his idea for years, he invited a few friends to the University building, which overlooked Washington Square, and showed them the result of his labors. It was the first telegraph in the world. This was a crude affair, but Professor Morse proved that he could send a message over a wire. In the year 1845 he had advanced so far that a telegraph line was built between New York City and Philadelphia. Then all the world recognized the genius of Morse. The people of New York especially honored him, and even in his lifetime they erected a statue of him which you can see to-day in Central Park.
By this time the city had crept up to both Greenwich Village and Bowery Village, and had engulfed them. On every side were houses, some of them five and six stories high, where before they had been but two stories.
An open space nearby Bowery Village was called Astor Place. This was the scene in 1849 of a famous riot, which came about in this wise: Edwin Forrest, an American actor, and William Charles Macready, an English actor, had quarrelled about some fancied slight. So when Macready came to the city to play at the Astor Place Opera House, some friends of Forrest's gathered and sought to prevent his acting by shouting their disapproval. This was the excuse for an unruly mob to gather outside the theatre and storm the house with stones. Macready escaped by leaving the theatre by a rear door. Then a regiment of soldiers came and after using all peaceful measures to quell the disturbance, fired upon the mob and killed many of them before the space was cleared and quiet restored.